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.
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?
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?
In a high-inflation environment, it’s perhaps time to look at how consumers are being affected and how they are managing to cope. In Europe, of course, the impact of the war in Ukraine is being most directly felt, I would imagine. What with temperatures dropping, and prices and interest rates rising. Elsewhere too, it is… Continue reading Wintertime, and the Living Ain’t Easy
With so many summits and conferences going on this month in the Global South, and many of them in Asia, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on India’s place in Asia. Also, how Asia and the rest of the world think of India and our position in Asia. We like to… Continue reading India @ the Heart of Asia
As if we don’t have enough going on already in our lives and across the world, we have new conflicts to deal with almost every other day. It has reached such high-pitched ridiculousness, that almost anything one says, or writes, or does, can be cause for another conflagration. If it isn’t our own ruling party… Continue reading Hot-Under-the-Collar Culture Wars
After reading news of India’s first quarter GDP for FY 23, which showed little sign of a base effect despite the fact that in FY 22, we had grown 20.1% in the same quarter, we are likely to think that base effects don’t matter anymore. It would be unwise to think so, however, because this… Continue reading Pay Attention to the Cyclical Economy
On the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, I cannot but help repeat what sounds like a cliché. That our country’s source of strength is our diversity and we should do everything to preserve it. Last month, my Owleye column was on how our democracy is fraying and that we are letting petty communal issues… Continue reading India’s Diversity a Source of Strength
Just last year, I had written on the occasion of the start of India’s 75th year of independence, about the long, Sisyphean journey our country had taken to reach where we are today. And about the challenges that remain. I had written it also from the point of view of our own personal experiences as… Continue reading A Democracy Fraying @ 75
President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) plan for reviving ties with the Asia-Pacific region is a PR ploy to paper over large cracks in the region in the recent past. Right from the pivot to Asia announced by President Obama’s administration in 2009, which led to the creation of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP)… Continue reading IFAFF Is What It All Amounts To
Peripatetic Perch 