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…
Author: Anil Padmanabhan
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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.
Did you know that in the first of this year, sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf region invested 1.7 billion dollars into India? Did you know that this accounts for 50% of the total investments by all sovereign wealth funds into India in the same period? Separately, a recent survey of sovereign wealth fund managers undertaken by Bain, reveals that 80% of these funds are targeting investments in Asia, excluding China. And this is despite the ongoing turmoil in West Asia. To unpack this paradox, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Soumya Bhowmick, Fellow, Observer Research Foundation. https://youtu.be/t9O4R997yU4 The conversation explored why Gulf…
For years, India was seen as a reluctant participant in global trade agreements. This changed dramatically since 2021. In the five years since, India has negotiated nine new-age Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) spanning nearly 40 countries—from the UAE and Australia to EFTA, the UK, New Zealand and the European Union, with the United States also moving closer. Is this merely a collection of trade deals? Or does it represent something much bigger? https://youtu.be/2yOGdA10fEc In this episode of Capital Calculus, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to trade policy expert Pritam Banerjee, Head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign…
India is already known as the Pharmacy of the World, supplying affordable medicines to over 200 countries and producing one in every five generic drugs consumed globally. But the future of healthcare is moving rapidly toward biologics, AI-driven drug discovery, precision medicine, and next-generation therapeutics. https://youtu.be/W3OF9IRIg2I?si=ObSIpZOQ9sXQhxa1 In this episode hosted by StratNewsGlobal.Tech, Anil Padmanabhan speaks with Dr. Pravarkar Sahoo, Programme Director at NITI Aayog and lead author of the latest Trade Watch Quarterly, which put the spotlight on how India could transition from a global pharma manufacturing powerhouse to a global pharmaceutical innovation hub. Key topics covered: Why India has…
India has quietly unveiled one of its most consequential financial reforms in years. By exempting Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)—often called the banker to the world’s central banks—from taxes on investments in Indian government securities, Delhi is signalling a new strategy. It is not simply about supporting the rupee. Instead, it is about India deliberately attracting long-term, patient capital to finance its 2047 ambitions while strengthening its strategic autonomy. https://youtu.be/Sj7ZiEpgTFE In this episode of Capital Calculus, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke with development finance expert and former Asian Development Bank official Ajay Sagar about India’s evolving capital…
India’s electric vehicle (EV) market has grown 14-fold since 2020. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the EV story is often reduced to batteries. That is only half the picture. The real industrial battle lies deeper—in motors, semiconductors, power electronics, chargers, and rare earth magnets. https://youtu.be/1Ky24gbcvYg This is where the value sits. This is where technological sovereignty is decided. And this is where India still depends heavily on imports, especially from China. So the big question is: can India move from assembling EVs to owning the industrial operating system behind them? To answer this and more StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Rahul Maity,…
India has spent the last decade building one of the world’s most ambitious public health and welfare delivery systems. But has access translated into better outcomes? In this episode of Capital Calculus, StratNewsGlobal.Tech speaks with public health expert Nikita Hira to unpack the findings of NFHS-6 (National Family Health Survey) and what they reveal about India’s health paradox. https://youtu.be/w7fVE-vDRMc From stubborn child malnutrition to rising obesity, diabetes, and lifestyle diseases, the conversation explores why India’s next big public policy challenge is no longer just welfare—but human capital. Can India achieve its Viksit Bharat 2047 dream without fixing its health foundations?…