Traditionally, the Reserve Bank of India has been very conservative when it comes to regulatory controls. It has often erred on the side of caution. In fact, some believe that this has stifled innovation and agility of banks. Not any longer. The just presented RBI credit policy has flipped a switch, as it were. It has freed banks from stringent controls, provided more play for markets, and initiated a very specific focus on the ease of doing business. https://youtu.be/TW_dpfHC6hQ The obvious questions are, what will it do to India’s ecosystem for credit? More importantly, will this freedom bring with it…
Author: Anil Padmanabhan
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Last week frenemy fire from the United States plumbed new lows. The gloves came off as it were, when in a media interview, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the US needed to “fix India”. It put India’s foreign policy under fresh scrutiny as it tries to undo the damage of President Donald Trump’s presidency. This is because India’s audacious economic ambitions depend on foreign policy resolving these kinds of geopolitical hurdles. https://youtu.be/CXfvpdx_uuM Can Indian foreign policy achieve the impossible? If not, will India get stuck in the middle-income trap? To answer all this and more StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke Ambassador Arun…
On 22 September, India set in motion GST 2.0. Among other things, it entailed a slashing of rates on most daily consumption items and a range of aspirational goods like entry level cars. Interestingly, the first week’s sales witnessed a surge. The question is whether this is a GST sugar high? Or is this the tipping point of a new trend in India consumer economy? An unleashing of the Indian consumer. https://youtu.be/Z4n7nvXxyGA Remember India’s consumer story has been undergoing a makeover for the last decade and more. We are seeing women step forward as independent spenders, the emergence of the…
President Donald Trump calls India the ‘Tariff King,’ pointing to the steep duties we impose on farm imports. The United States wants greater access for its apples, chicken, dairy, even genetically modified crops. India, on the other hand, argues it cannot compromise the livelihoods of millions of small farmers. Have both sides created an impasse in their ongoing trade negotiations? https://youtu.be/D6E_O5YK44A Is India missing the woods for the trees? Focusing on protection, instead of making Indian farming competitive. To answer all these vexing questions and more StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Ashok Gulati on Capital Calculus. He is an agricultural economist, former…
Did you know that till 2018 there were zero social welfare cash transfers targeting women? Since then, there has been a sea change with respect to social welfare spending on women. Today there are an estimated 13 crore women beneficiaries of cash transfers. Understandable, given the positive lessons from this fundamental pivot. Money in the hands of women are transforming families, empowering mothers, and even reshaping child development. https://youtu.be/T8P8Pth_GHE So far this information was anecdotal. A just published research paper based on a pilot project in Jharkhand now provides us empirical evidence about this causal connection between cash transfers and…
Fluid geopolitics, fracturing globalisation, rising protectionism, weaponisation of finance and trade are generating unprecedented headwinds to global economic growth. The obvious question is whether India can survive and more importantly, thrive in such a world? What will it take? https://youtu.be/RYw4uZ2eYN8 Especially since India has set itself an audacious ambition to become a developed economy by 2047. To grow its per capita income nearly seven-fold to $18,000 in the next 22 years. To answer all this and more, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Capital Calculus. He is an economist and someone who has served in various capacities in government,…
This weekend, India and China took baby steps to bridge their historical trust deficit on the sidelines of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China. To at least try and synergise the two economies, who otherwise see each other as strategic rivals. Undoubtedly, President Donald Trump’s bizarre actions on tariffs, spurred the Elephant and the Dragon to attempt a tango. https://youtu.be/ll0ulwl7720 The big question is: Can India redraw its economic engagement with China in a way that works to its advantage? Our guest on StratNewsGlobal.Tech, Nisha Taneja, believes India can do so. Nisha is a professor at Icrier,…
Eight years ago, India rolled out its biggest ever tax reform: the Goods and Services Tax. This marquee tax reform collapsed 36 tax jurisdictions and subsumed 17 to productionise the idea of ‘One Nation, One Tax’. As a result, tor the first time, the country was economically unified. But the journey since, has been anything but smooth. Creeping acquisition of control by ‘baburaj’ and the consequent introduction of complexity and compliance headaches, have undermined the initial idea. Political brinksmanship only made a bad idea worse. https://youtu.be/0_RHFM7U6zY Belatedly, India is gearing up for GST 2.0. This reboot promises to rationalise rates,…
On Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to rollout hard-nosed and long overdue economic reforms to enable India realise its audacious ambition to become a developed economy by 2047. Two days after his speech, the PM convened a meeting of experts to work out a plan, suggesting that his government is willing to walk the talk—something that eluded previous regimes, all of whom had made similar claims on implementing second generation economic reforms. https://youtu.be/DtLjtJ_GsB0 The sad reality is that today overregulation and tax overreach force employers to redirect resources away from potential growth and job opportunities to meet compliance…
India is building big. It is rolling out highways, metros, ports, tunnels, bridges, like never before. A concrete expression of its economic ambitions. While we celebrate marvels like the arch bridge over the Chenab, cracks are appearing. Literally so. From collapsing bridges to newly built roads giving way in the monsoon. There is a pattern And it points to a deeper problem other than corruption, bad contractors, or tight deadlines. It begins in the classroom schooling civil engineers. https://youtu.be/ODHBKW6JWko India is not generating sufficient quality civil engineers. This begs the question: Is India’s civil engineering education system not keeping pace…
