It was long overdue. In fact, GST should have been launched in 2017 with no more than a couple of slabs. Ideally, it should have been just one at 18%. But in a country like ours where most of the population can barely afford even the daily essentials, perhaps a rate of 5% on some… Continue reading How Car Companies Should Make the Most of GST Rationalisation
The Indian economy is growing at a reasonably rapid pace, though nowhere near the 8%-9% growth recorded in the early and mid-2000s. Still, considering the two huge shocks the world economy has faced in the past two decades – the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic – we have to say that India has… Continue reading It is Time to Build Brand India
In an earlier blog post on media brands, I had written that BBC’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza was found wanting, and that I was particularly disappointed because I happen to be a regular BBC World News viewer and because I had done some advertising work for BBC when they were launching India-specific programmes… Continue reading How the BBC Can Become More Competitive
I was reading a book by VS Naipaul after a really long time, when my aged father presented me with The Enigma of Arrival for my birthday last month. I was looking forward to reading it, since I hadn’t read this particular book before. Of course, I had the nagging doubt that unprofessional PR agency… Continue reading The Enigma of Arrival, a Departure from My Reading of Naipaul
More than half of 2025 is over and we’re almost about to enter the last quarter of the calendar year. It’s time to assess which way the global economy is headed because the last time I wrote about it, it was just after the IMF and World Bank Group Spring Meetings in the US in… Continue reading Which Way Go-eth The Global Economy?
As if the world doesn’t have enough geopolitical tensions and trade wars to contend with, we have peacemaking efforts in the two wars raging that are threatening to only escalate tensions between the warring parties. And India finds itself in the crosshairs of the conflict in Ukraine, because we’re buying Russian oil and defence equipment.… Continue reading Of Wars and Bombed Peacemaking Efforts
A few days after Trump’s 50% reciprocal tariffs on India – including penalty for buying Russian oil and defence equipment - went into effect, the country announced its GDP numbers for Q1 of FY26, and did they surprise us all. It was almost like a rejoinder to Trump calling India “a dead economy”. But trade… Continue reading Why The Indian Economy Needn’t Be Tarrified
The festive season is already upon us in India. From Janmashtami - that celebrates Lord Krishna’s birth – which just went by, to Diwali and Dussehra and to Christmas and New Year, accompanied by the wedding season, India is meant to be in a festive mood for more than half the year. It is a… Continue reading Does India, the Land of Festivals, Lack Imagination?
As an advertising professional who has been writing on brands as well as the economy, politics and business as well as culture on my blog, I thought I’d write about the state of the media around the world, as I see it today. I will not focus so much on the advertising aspect of media,… Continue reading The State of Media Brands in the World Today
In line with the theme of innovation that my blog is celebrating this year, I had thought of how companies and brands can address global issues and build their brands at the same time, in an earlier post where I had shared my thoughts and ideas on Absolut Vodka. I had said that very few… Continue reading Brands Addressing Global Issues – Part 2
Peripatetic Perch 