Through all the confusion and chaos wreaked on the global economy with US tariffs and the wars still raging, one subject that missed global attention in 2025 is climate change. The fact that the COP30 Summit was held in November 2025 should have helped matters and concentrated minds, but apparently it was a disappointing conference.… Continue reading Why COP30 Copped Out on Fossil Fuels
Considering 2025 was supposed to be the year for ending the two wars that have raged on, taking countless lives with them, we are sadly saying goodbye to the year without being able to bring about peaceful settlements to both conflicts. Instead, we seem to be ending the year with even more uncertainty about the… Continue reading Ending 2025 Without Ending the Wars
I just finished reading the second of VS Naipaul’s books that my aged father presented me for my birthday this year along with Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands. I have already written about The Enigma of Arrival and Shattered Lands on my blog, and if I thought that Letters Between a Father and Son would be… Continue reading When Writing Runs in The Naipaul Family
I have been writing on the travails of the advertising industry on my blog for the past couple of years at least. These are based on my observations from the outside, since my career in advertising in India was wrecked over two decades ago by unprofessional organisations. These problems have now reached an existential crisis… Continue reading How the Advertising Industry Can Reinvent Itself
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The year is ending with Trump doing a whistle-stop tour of several Asian countries – Southeast Asian and East Asian this time – signing several trade agreements along the way. Of course, the highlight at the ASEAN conference in Malaysia was the peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailand, one of Trump’s many showpiece peace treaties… Continue reading Asia Becoming Theatre of US-China Competition
What a huge fuss has been kicked up over Bihar’s 2025 assembly elections! This, when there was no new candidate, no major new party contesting the elections and so any big surprise or wild card was ruled out. Some might argue that Prashant Kishore’s Jan Suraj party was the big surprise element in this election,… Continue reading When Economic Policies Are Made on The Campaign Trail
While reading Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and The Making of Modern Asia which my aged father gave me for my birthday this year, I was thinking that this is a book for international readers since the history of India’s partitions has been told many times. But through the first chapter itself, I was surprised to… Continue reading Shattered Lands Surprises, Though Not Pleasantly
It’s almost 20 years since I left New Delhi for my aged parents’ home in Chicalim, Vasco, Goa in October 2008. When I watch scenes of the smog-filled air in Delhi-NCR play out on English news channels at this time of the year, year after year, I count myself lucky to not be living or… Continue reading Time Indian Cities Promoted Metro Rail Travel
Sounds like a crazy statement to make about the world’s largest trading bloc, comprising 400 million people, you may think. But not if you consider the EU’s own aspirations and ambitions, captured in Mario Draghi’s voluminous report. The EU’s own predicament faced with the raging Ukranian conflict with Russia on the one hand, and with… Continue reading The EU Needs to Look Beyond Trade for Growth
Peripatetic Perch 