The Indian rupee has depreciated cumulatively by over 13 % against the US dollar in the 18 months ended September this year. Yet India is pushing to internationalise the rupee. Why? The answer to this paradox may lie in understanding the difference between a strong rupee and a widely used rupee. https://youtu.be/yAyBRwMmXCs?si=VZn9ofZGVnz3M0DH In this episode of Capital Calculus hosted on StratNews Global.Tech, Anil Padmanabhan speaks with Ajay Sagar, international development finance expert and former senior staffer at the Asian Development Bank, about India’s strategy to internationalise the rupee. They discuss the roadmap laid down by the Reserve Bank of India,…
Author: Anil Padmanabhan
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In February, in India entered the latest crisis in the Middle East from a position of strength—with 7.4% GDP growth and a moderate retail inflation at 2.1%. But the global macro environment has since become more difficult. Oil crossed $110 a barrel, the dollar is strengthening, global bond yields are rising and geopolitical risks are multiplying. In India, inflation is edging higher and is just shy of 5%, while input-price inflation is already much higher. https://youtu.be/szvH5PJABv8?si=tcUTUKzwTKablIkm Can India’s newly acquired resilience absorb another global shock? And what does this mean for growth, the rupee, inflation and the RBI’s next policy…
Since 2020, like rest of India Inc, India’s small businesses too have been struck by one shock after another: Covid-19, supply-chain disruptions, inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war, rising energy prices, deteriorating geopolitics, Trump-tariffs and a more uncertain global trading environment. By conventional wisdom, India’s MSMEs—small, financially constrained and often dependent on working capital—should have been among the most vulnerable cohort in the economy. But they bucked the script. https://youtu.be/RbhqrC3c4TQ?si=9INo81Xw6v8IXMm0 The latest Sumpoorn Index, compiled by Jocata in partnership with the Small and Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), shows small-business activity continuing to hold up. So what explains this remarkable…
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the world is still living with its consequences. The attacks not only triggered the war on terror, but they also unleashed a new phase of geopolitics, exposing the limits of American power, accelerating China’s rise and gradually transforming globalisation into an era of economic security, supply-chain resilience and weaponised interdependence. https://youtu.be/pwnEgmzlrvA In this episode of Capital Calculus hosted on StratNewsGlobal.Tech, Nitin Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief of BharatShakti, explains how 9/11 changed the global order, why terrorism survived, how geo-economics is reshaping geopolitics, and what this increasingly fragmented world means for India’s ambition to become a developed economy by…
India’s economy grew by a very impressive 7.8% in Q1 FY27. But, the bigger story goes beyond the headline: it is the surge in investment levels. Investment growth spurted to 11.9%, while manufacturing grew 9.2%, capital-goods production by 15.2% and exports by 12%. https://youtu.be/HrSCqHQBAxY Is this then the beginning of a genuine investment cycle, and can India turn that investment into manufacturing, exports and jobs? To unpack this and what policy makers should do to turn this into a sustainable virtuous circle, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Rajiv Kumar, former vice-chairman Niti Aayog on Capital Calculus.
Accelerating climate change, manifesting in growing frequency of extreme weather, is forcing India to confront two realities simultaneously. On the one hand it must adapt to a climate that is becoming disruptive on a war footing, and at the same time, mitigate climate change by reducing carbon emissions in the economy. So far, this transition has always been viewed as a trade-off between environment and economic growth. https://youtu.be/5ut9MjYbNLY But a report released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last week, turns this proposition on its head. It argues that climate transition be treated like an investment India must undertake…
The NEET paper-leak controversy raised a disturbing question. Not for the first time though. Why do people cheat and game public systems? Take the example of the botched NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) test. For millions of students, NEET was supposed to offer a level playing field—one exam, one common standard, equal opportunity. But when access to a question paper can potentially be worth huge financial gain, the incentives to exploit weaknesses in the system become enormous. https://youtu.be/a583ELP4DsI This alternate view, puts the spotlight on the skewed set of incentives which encourage people to indulge in malicious activities. What…
UPI processed a staggering 23.66 billion transactions in July—worth nearly Rs 30 lakh crore. Think about this for a moment. In a single month, India’s digital payments system processed transactions worth almost one-third of the annual allocation for MGNREGA. And yet, one of the reasons UPI became so successful was remarkably simple: it was free. But free doesn’t mean costless. The infrastructure behind UPI costs money—and the government currently subsidises a significant part of that cost. Now, with Parliament creating the legal provision for MDR, or Merchant Discount Rate, India is confronting a fundamental question: Can UPI remain free when…
Since COVID-19, the world has lurched from one shock to another—wars, inflation, supply-chain disruptions, tariff battles, AI disruption and now geopolitics reshaping everything from energy prices to capital flows. But perhaps the real challenge isn’t about predicting the next crisis. It is building the capacity to adapt when it arrives. For India, the stakes are particularly high. The country has set itself an audacious goal of becoming a developed economy within the next two decades. That means accelerating reforms in an environment where uncertainty is becoming the norm. https://youtu.be/Z9iIfNtMgv8 Does India have the institutional capacity to do this? Can crises…
Did you know that India has nearly 40 million educated unemployed men—graduates who struggle to find meaningful work. This fact shines a different light on the recent NEET protests triggered by an entrance examination: they exposed the growing gap between aspirations and opportunity. https://youtu.be/fhkkEH4FEZ8 Are India’s educated unemployed then becoming the country’s next defining political constituency? To answer this and more, StratNews Global.Tech spoke with Sunaina Kumar, Director and Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation on Capital Calculus.