The wars in Ukraine and in the Middle-East have raged on for years and there has been plenty of reporting on it. Not so much on their economies and how the countries are coping. At least I haven’t read or heard anything on the news about their economies, except at the start of the second… Continue reading While the Wars Rage On, Their Economies
If many of us thought that Trump’s first term was chaotic and polarizing, we are already beginning to see what Trump 2.0 is going to be like. With his campaign rhetoric of Making America Great Again and America First at his swearing in ceremony at the start of his first term, he had painted this… Continue reading How Should Countries Respond to Trump’s Tariffs?
It’s been a long time since I last wrote on the UK and the EU economies, which was just around the time of their elections in 2024 and not since then have I considered how they’re faring. Of course, France had its own very consequential election soon after the EU elections, and the big one… Continue reading Weak Economic Growth, Big Plans on the Anvil
Four of India’s states have just concluded their assembly elections in two instalments when they should have been held together in one shot. Besides the schedule reeking of unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses’ meddling and colluding with the central government, the media reporting too suffers from the same interference. Coming soon after the general elections… Continue reading Caste, Revdis and Sloganeering Once Again
Just three years ago, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many including The Economist were writing about governments getting bigger. Governments did indeed get bigger, as it was their responsibility to control the pandemic and provide relief to vulnerable families across the world. While the kinds of relief and stimulus packages differed from country… Continue reading What Ails Private Sector Investment?
The last time I wrote about the Indian budget, which was exactly a year ago, I had said that our budget-making is as per Murphy’s Law. I meant that in not realizing the previous year’s mistake, we once again created a union budget that ignored the needs of the common man and woman. This, while… Continue reading India Budget 2023: Capex vs Capacity Building
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
The recently concluded state assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh yielded results along expected lines. It’s just that no one could tell the extent of the BJP’s landslide victory in Gujarat, nor how close it would be in Himachal. And it was India’s two leading national parties slugging it out in both states. These… Continue reading Another Landslide Victory and What it Says About the State of the Indian Economy
We should have seen it coming. The economic slowdown, after a couple of terribly volatile years, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the first year of the Covid pandemic prompted strict lockdowns in many countries adversely impacting the services part of the economy, manufacturing chugged along, even if a little slowly. Thanks to that, international… Continue reading How Advertising Agencies and Brands Should Negotiate 2023
There isn’t a single news programme or article on the global economy these days that doesn’t mention recession. This has been so for the past many months, but as central banks – especially the US Federal Reserve – keep raising interest rates to combat inflation, the prospect of a recession draws ever nearer. In their… Continue reading The Indian Economy: Bright Spot or Dangers Lurking?
Peripatetic Perch 