A trilateral meeting in San Francisco made international news quietly, if that is possible, a few weeks ago. Australia, UK and the US, part of the trilateral group AUKUS, announced a nuclear-powered submarine that the US will help Australia deploy in the Pacific. The news died as quietly as it broke. Not too many seemed… Continue reading Aukus-Pocus and All That Quad
Since the world’s major economies reopened after Covid-related lockdowns, they have been heating up, what with pent-up demand, consumers on a spending spree, travelling, dining out and catching up on a host of social activities that were not possible during lockdowns. All that heated spending and pent-up demand, with supply chains not catching up, led… Continue reading Inflation: Up, up and away!
As the Ukraine-Russia conflict drags into the second year, any chance of a quick end to the war recedes further away from us into the distance. If anything, 2023 began with a ratcheting up of the call for more arms from Ukraine and the west scrambling to make more military equipment available. Zelensky has been… Continue reading Stalemate in Ukraine Crisis, with America the Only Winner.
Now that I have finally finished reading Michael E Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations, I thought I’d write about its relevance in today’s globalized world. Like many business and economics books that I have been writing about recently, it wouldn’t be fair for me to review this book either, for the same reasons. I… Continue reading Porter’s Competitive Advantage of Nations in Today’s Globalised World
If we thought that the 2008 Financial Crisis is the worst crisis the business world has seen this century, we had better think again. Close on the heels of that, we had the Covid-19 global pandemic, and we are still in the grip of a regional war with global repercussions, plenty of geopolitical tensions, as… Continue reading Davos Man Ready to Face the Challenges of the 21st Century?
India was late to the EV party, as it began its journey of electric mobility only in the past decade. It seems like it wasn’t a policy priority either for the Indian government, with our Roads and Transportation Minister, Nitin Gadkari once even quipping on a television news discussion, “What’s the hurry?” This, when the… Continue reading India’s EV Foray Running Out of Steam
Four decades after globalization of business began, I think we can all agree that it is widespread and well-entrenched. And while there is a lot of talk of deglobalisation, about which I wrote recently on my blog, I not only think that globalisation is here to stay, I think it has become much more complex… Continue reading Which Shoring Makes Best Sense for Globalised Business
Inflation has been a global problem since last year. Ever since Covid-related lockdowns were lifted and people started buying goods and services just like in the days before Covid-19. Except that thanks to the lockdown, manufacturing facilities couldn’t ramp up production levels to meet the surging demand. Neither could shipping companies handle the surge in… Continue reading How Stubborn Can Inflation Get This Year?
China has begun the New Year, 2023, by reopening its economy and freeing its people from the harsh Covid-19 lockdown conditions they had been under for the past couple of years. It had to happen sooner rather than later, I thought. Either the world’s second largest economy would cave in, forcing the government to abandon… Continue reading The Locked-Down Giant Awaketh
Even as last year ended, there were rumblings of the possibility of the free foodgrain distribution scheme being extended beyond 2022. This is the additional 5kg of foodgrain that was offered free to households eligible under India’s PDS (public distribution system of heavily subsidized foodgrain) during the Covid pandemic. It must have brought tremendous relief… Continue reading Indian Economy Once More in Election Mode
Peripatetic Perch 