Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

High-frequency data showed that private sector in India continued to rebound from the lows in July and August.

Datametricx

iStock.com/SushilPrajapati

IRDAI’s Consultation Paper Has the Right Intent but Half the Cure

The regulator’s goals on coverage and affordability are sound, but capping commissions treats only a symptom. Inverting how commission is paid can target the cause.

Alpana Killawala

AI FOMO Is Creating A Cyber Blindspot

AI is accelerating corporate ambition and cyber risk. Financial institutions are digitising faster than their governance can understand the vulnerabilities emerging around them.

Srinath Sridharan

Rising Yields Signal Dislocation, Not the Market Doing the RBI’s Work

Surging bond yields signal dislocation amid policy uncertainty. Investors may find value, but traders face rallies vulnerable to renewed selling

Yield Scribe

MPC Minutes

The RBI’s Diagnosis is Stronger Than Its Policy Signal

The RBI sees inflation spreading, yet its leaders sound tentative about the tightening needed to reach 4%, even as growth gives them room to act.

Basis View

Opinion

AI Eats Strategy and RBI Reserves for Breakfast

AI is weakening the forex economics of India’s services engine, while RBI reserves and FCNR liabilities buy time for a difficult external-sector transition.

Srinath Sridharan

Anand Venkatanarayanan

Infrastructure

The Mumbai Airport Shuffle: MIAL vs the Airlines, or a Question of Authority?

Mumbai’s T1 redevelopment has exposed a bigger governance question: can an airport operator redistribute scarce slots, or must a regulated process decide who bears the loss?

Sharmila Chavaly

Columnists

Vivek Kaul

Vivek Kaul is a writer and an economic commentator.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Michael Patra is an economist and former RBI Deputy Governor.

Duvvuri Subbarao

Dr Subbarao is a former governor of RBI

Arvind Mayaram

Arvind Mayaram, former Finance Secretary, is Chairman of the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.

Ashima Goyal

Dr Ashima Goyal is an Economist, Ex MPC Member.

Ajay Srivastava

Ajay Srivastava is the founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative.

Abheek Barua

Abheek Barua is the former Chief Economist of HDFC Bank. He teaches at Ashoka University.

Vijay Chauhan

Vijay Singh Chauhan, a former IRS official, is a Senior Visiting Fellow at ICPP, Ashoka University

R. Gurumurthy

Gurumurthy is an ex-central banker who handled markets, and later, financial stability for RBI.

Gaura Sen Gupta

Gaura is Chief Economist at IDFC First Bank.

Sharmila Kantha

Sharmila Kantha is an industrial policy specialist and author.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Lt Gen Hasnain is Governor, Bihar, and Former Commander of Chinar Corps.

Dhananjay Sinha

Dhananjay, a D-School alum, is CEO and Co-Head of Equities at Systematix Group.

Sharmila Chavaly

Ex-civil servant Chavaly held key Railways, Finance roles; specialises in infra & PPPs

Srinath Sridharan

Srinath is an author, corporate advisor, and independent director on corporate boards.

Amitabh Tiwari

Amitabh Tiwari tracks politics with a strategic eye

Vivek Kaul

Vivek Kaul is a writer and an economic commentator.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Michael Patra is an economist and former RBI Deputy Governor.

Basis Shorts

October 23

Rupee’s Nervous 95s: RBI’s Tight Bowling, but a Few Missed Catches

India’s Yield Advantage Grows, but FPIs Stay Away

Jobless Growth?

October 22

RBI Minutes Sound Less Hawkish Than Policy, but Market Holds On To Rate Hike Bets

ICICI Readjusts Welcome Mat

From ₹11 Trillion to ₹5 Billion in 45 Days

The Cost of Caution at the RBI

The Bureau

Indian Shares Fall for Fourth Day as Oil Surge Lifts Bond Yields

RBI Report: 40-currency trade-weighted REER rises to 92.24 in September

Rubio’s Venezuelan Oil Proposal: Issues India Must Resolve Before Committing

India Core Industries Growth Accelerates to 7.9% in September

Navratri auto sales fall 6.52% on year to 1.12 mln units; EV sales rise 26.78%, says FADA

India Can Grow at 7% — But Reforms Must Go Deeper

The Missing Patient Benefit in India’s Hospital Boom

India’s hospital boom is lifting revenue and attracting private capital, but transparent bills, clinical outcomes and affordability will reveal whether patients benefit.

Krishnadevan V

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: We Are All Vain, We Just Call It Something Else

Vanity has always shaped how we see ourselves and others. Today, technology, advertising and changing cultural codes have made our obsession with appearance harder to recognise.

Srinath Sridharan

Basis Life

Can We Disagree Without Becoming Enemies?

We spend so much time preparing our own arguments that we forget to prepare for a conversation in which the other person can actually hear us.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Basis Life

The Ovarian Lottery: Aiming and Managing

How much of parenting is about preparing children for the world, and how much is about learning to let go when they begin choosing a life of their own?

Kalyani Srinath

Does Monetary Policy Need a New Paradigm?

Kalyan Ram

Abheek Barua

Is the RBI Behind the Curve?

Gaura Sen Gupta

Dhiraj Nim

IRDAI for Cap on Commissions, Single Distribution Entity, More Disclosure: Who Gains, Who Loses?

Rajesh Mahapatra

Srinath Sridharan

RBI Hikes Rates, but Why Did the Rupee Fall?

Rajesh Mahapatra

Kalyan Ram

The RBI Has an Information Advantage; it is not in any Panic

The RBI’s information advantage helps explain its pre-emptive rupee measures and their role in preserving orderly market functioning.

Michael Debabrata Patra

The End of Abundance

The decades ahead will be shaped by a contest for natural resources, making the world more prone to stagflation and handing the levers of policy back to governments.

V. Anantha Nageswaran

The Chinese Underwater Threat

Is the Indian Navy equipped to have an undersea edge against China?

Prakash Nanda

Snabbit’s Cash Burn Is No Surprise in India’s Startup Wars

From e-commerce and ride-hailing to instant domestic help, India’s consumer startups have long bought growth with investor money. Snabbit is following a familiar playbook.

Pradip K. Saha

Nirmala Sitharaman, Retail Investors and the Great Indian Wealth Transfer

Are India’s retail investors powering a great wealth transfer, giving FIIs and promoters an easy exit at rich valuations while also adding pressure on the rupee?

Vivek Kaul

Geopolitics

Pakistan's Strategic Paradox: Global Ambition, Domestic Fragility

Pakistan’s diplomatic profile is rising even as economic strain, provincial tensions and conflict with Afghanistan expose the limits of its domestic resilience.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Corporate India Needs Buyers, Not Just Tax Breaks

Tax breaks and stronger balance sheets have not delivered a broad private capex revival. Weak demand still limits the case for adding capacity.

Dhananjay Sinha

Restoring Monetary Balance: The Case for Calibrated Tightening

October policy action reflects a forward-looking response to widening inflation, unfinished cost pass-through and a narrowing real-rate cushion.

Sparsh Chhabra

Banking's AI Revolution Still Needs Human Judgement

AI is transforming lending, fraud detection and central-bank supervision, but its efficiency gains must be matched by accountability, transparency and resilience.

Michael Debabrata Patra

The Kitchen and the Dealing Room: Two Inflation Realities in India

Households see inflation through food and fuel; bond dealers watch data and policy. The RBI must understand both readings without mistaking either for the whole picture

B Sharathbabu

M S Ramaratnam

Flexible Jobs Could Help More Indian Women Join India’s Workforce

Research from Kolkata shows how home-based work and childcare flexibility can boost women’s employment, challenge traditional gender norms and reshape workplace policy.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

The Bargaining Power Rural India Is Losing

Rural India may be less exposed to weak monsoons, but stagnant wages and a narrower job guarantee are eroding the bargaining power that once protected workers.

Arvind Mayaram

IDBI Bank Sale: Public Ownership Must Serve a Purpose

The IDBI Bank sale revives a larger question: when does public ownership serve a clear purpose, and when can regulation protect the public interest more effectively?

Nilanjan Banik

India’s Record Remittances: A Warning, Not Just a Financial Windfall

Remittances surged during the West Asia conflict, cushioning India’s current account. But the inflow may mask Gulf job losses and a dangerous data gap

Sagari Gupta

RBI’s Liquidity Lever Could Deliver More Tightening Without a Sharp Repo Hike

As surplus liquidity drains, SBI Research sees scope for an interim MSF rate hike to tighten funding conditions before a December repo-rate increase.

Richard Fargose

Yes Bank’s Rescue Did Not Give Its Administrator a Free Hand

A-1 bonds can absorb losses. But a rescue does not give an administrator the authority to impose them.

Chandrika Soyantar

Opinion

How the SIR Row Could Work in the BJP’s Favour

The BJP could turn anger over voter exclusions into a contest over identity, leaving the Opposition battling to keep the focus on accountability.

Rajesh Ramachandran

Delimitation Is Back in Focus: Can the BJP Get It Through This Time?

The BJP wants to revive delimitation after its April defeat. But balancing equal representation with southern states’ concerns will require more than parliamentary arithmetic.

Amitabh Tiwari

Make the Chips, Own the Recipe

India and Taiwan entered semiconductors within three years of each other, but only one built a road from the laboratory to the stock exchange.

Chandrika Soyantar

The RBI’s Familiar Dilemma Returns as Its Liquidity Cushion Wears Thin

The RBI’s dollar inflow measures bought some relief, but rising oil prices and a shrinking cash surplus along with rising bond yields are reviving difficult policy trade-offs

Yashveer Singh

India’s Drug Pricing Dilemma: Can It Protect Patients and Innovate?

India must make medicines affordable without undermining pharmaceutical innovation. A fragmented pricing regime leaves patients exposed and the industry uncertain about its future

Rakesh Khar

SC Blames RBI, Govt for Slip-up, But Who Pays for YES Bank AT-1 Verdict

The court ruling revives bondholders’ claims, but any resulting cost will fall on a bank whose ownership has changed since its 2020 rescue.

Anil Katia

The Rupee Hired Bodyguards, and Someone Else Is Paying Overtime

As the RBI defends the rupee and India pursues its growth ambitions, a common question runs through markets, bank rescues and quick commerce: who ultimately pays for the fixes?

Phynix

Five Global Shocks to Watch in 2027

With a little over two months to go before the year ends, the question on most minds is: what will 2027 bring? My reading of the tea leaves points to five financial and geopolitical shocks that could shape the new year.

R. Sridharan

Basis Life

Sarci Sense: When Did We Stop Being Easily Delighted?

We have more information, more choices and more access than any generation before us. Yet somewhere between knowing everything and getting everything, we seem to have misplaced the innocence that once made ordinary life feel extraordinary.

Srinath Sridharan

Basis Life

Why is Silence so (in)convenient?

Some moments linger long after they pass, leaving us to wonder about what might have been. In a world of instant connection, why does reaching out remain so difficult?

Kalyani Srinath

Basis Life

What Swades Still Asks of Us

Swades was never only about coming home. Two decades later, its harder question endures: what does patriotism demand once pride gives way to responsibility?

Nashit Sekhani

Does RBI Need to Mount an Interest Rate Defence of Rupee, Again?

Forward foreign exchange market implied interest rates are already at punitive levels, curbing the need for an MSF hike to tackle rupee speculation; MPC could consider a 50 bps hike in December meeting to ensure real policy rates do not turn negative as inflation picks up to close to 6%

Abhishek Upadhyay

RBI’s FX Moves

Beyond Rupee Defence: Building India’s External Economic Resilience

India cannot build lasting rupee resilience through intervention alone. Stronger export earnings and lower foreign exchange dependence are essential.

Anupam Sonal

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

Wholesale and retail inflation continued to accelerate as the war in West Asia pushed up prices, raising concerns about the inflation outlook.

Datametricx

YES Bank AT-1 Bondholders’ Victory Leaves the Recovery Question Open

The Supreme Court has revived Yes Bank AT1 bondholders’ claims, but the ruling stops short of guaranteeing repayment, leaving coupons, valuation and enforcement unresolved.

Rahul Ghosh

Bonds Were Never an All-Weather Hedge

Stocks and bonds do not always offset each other. Inflation, growth and monetary policy determine whether diversification delivers its promise.

V Thiagarajan

Gold Buyers Aren’t Panicking. Sellers May Be

Gold prices fell as yields rose, yet ETFs attracted record inflows. Fiscal and geopolitical risks are changing how investors value the metal beyond interest rates

Atul Prakash

Part 2

India's Growth Rebalancing: A Patchwork of Crisis Responses, Not a Strategy

India’s growth push has relied on tax cuts, subsidies, capex and trade deals, but the measures look more like crisis responses than a sequenced strategy.

Arvind Mayaram

India’s Chemical Ambitions Need Cheaper Feedstocks, Not Just Tariff Walls

India’s chemical industry needs more than import protection. Competitively priced feedstocks, sensible tariffs and reliable supplies are essential to move up the value chain

Ritesh Kumar Singh

RBI’s FX Moves

The RBI’s Explanation Should Not Follow the Confusion

A useful interview cannot substitute for timely explanations. The RBI needs written clarity on its decisions, not after markets start guessing.

Kalyan Ram

Masterclass with Michael Patra

International Dimensions of Monetary Policy

Michael Patra explains how exchange rate regimes shape monetary policy independence and why global forces constrain domestic policy choices

Michael Debabrata Patra

The Rupee Needs Resolve, Not Reprimands

The RBI can make betting against the rupee harder. Restoring confidence requires firmer monetary policy, not a verdict on markets’ rationality.

Kalyan Ram

RBI’s FX Moves

What Else Is the Rupee Defending?

India’s GDP ambitions carry a political timetable. Rupee depreciation adds to the risk of pushing that timetable back.

Basis View

Briefing

Why the RBI Followed a Rate Hike with a Crackdown

The chronology suggests the rupee’s post-policy fall turned an old concern about dollar positioning into a crackdown on importers and banks.

BasisPoint Insight

SEBI’s Auction Rethink Shows Why One Price Cannot Serve Every Purpose

SEBI’s closing auction may improve price discovery, but that does not automatically make the same price the best benchmark for derivatives settlement.

Basis View

Is Quick Commerce Making FMCG Brands Pay for Their Own Customers

Quick commerce is boosting FMCG sales, but brands risk paying platforms to reach existing customers without adding meaningful growth or profit.

Krishnadevan V

A Divided US Congress Won’t Shield India From Trump’s Tariffs

A Democratic House may constrain Trump procedurally, but tariffs and dollar strength will persist. India’s gains will depend on its ability to compete for investment

Nilanjan Banik

Absorbing a Fertiliser Shock Is Not the Same as Budgeting for It

India has absorbed a fertiliser shock while keeping its deficit goal in reach. Now its subsidy budget must recognise risk before the next crisis.

B Sharathbabu

M S Ramaratnam

Fickle FPIs are punching above their weight for now; MFs below

Mutual fund buying has outgunned FPI selling by a factor of over 5x even as markets continue to tank. The relationship isn't entirely cut and dry, though

Ujval Nanavati

As Long as Retail Investors Stay in La-La Land, It’s Always Summer for OPM Wallahs

Why are retail investors pouring money into select funds at stretched valuations, and why are fund managers so silent about the risks investors are taking in pursuit of returns?

Vivek Kaul

India Eases TV Ad Rules But Broadcasters Still Have To Sell Attention

India has eased TV ad rules, giving broadcasters more inventory to sell. The question is whether more advertising will create revenue or cheaper inventory.

Krishnadevan V

The RBI Buys Time, but Can It Turn the Rupee Around?

Costlier hedging may ease pressure on the rupee, but a lasting turnaround needs stronger capital inflows, not just restrictions on dollar demand.

Yield Scribe

Geopolitics

The Houthis Are No Longer Just Iran's Proxies

How precision warfare, Saudi vulnerability and new regional alignments are changing the balance of power in the Red Sea

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

MPC Review

The Dangers and Benefits of Forward Guidance

Rigid rate guidance risks constraining monetary policy, while clearer communication on exchange rates can steady markets.

Ashima Goyal

UPI MDR

Cost of Sustainability Must Not Become the Cost of Digital Exclusion

India’s new UPI merchant fee framework seeks to make digital payments sustainable, but policymakers must ensure higher costs do not push small merchants back towards cash.

Rabi N. Mishra

Komal Gupta

India’s 2047 Dream Will Depend on a Productivity Revolution

India cannot become a high-income economy on growth alone. Productive jobs, technological innovation and competitive industries must turn its advantages into lasting prosperity.

Rajeev Verma

Punjab 2027: Does a SAD-BJP Reunion Make Sense?

SAD-BJP reunion could revive both parties, but vote transfer will decide if it can challenge AAP and Congress in Punjab.

Amitabh Tiwari

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

Services activity improved in September, but weaker readings in July and August dragged average growth during the quarter to its lowest since the quarter ended March 2022.

Datametricx

Ten Arms, One Leap: Why Humans Keep Betting on a Better Tomorrow

Durga pooled her powers, Delhi’s youth took to the streets, and the RBI hiked. Why every act of progress is a leap of faith, even a 25 bps one.

Phynix

Satire

THE TRAGEDY OF TATA

Tata’s founders return in a fictional Greek satire where independence needs permission, and every governance crisis generates recurring revenue for lawyers.

Ashutosh Tyagi

RBI’s FX Barricades Expose the Limits of Borrowed Stability

The RBI’s $143 billion swap mobilisation has failed to ease rupee pressure. Fresh currency controls reveal the limits of debt-funded reserves

Dhananjay Sinha

If This is a Bear Market, I Am Amitabh Bachchan

When memories of easy gains meet months of stagnation, can investors distinguish a market in crisis from one that is simply testing their patience?

Vivek Kaul

India’s Services Exporters Face a Declaration Raj

The RBI’s new export declaration adds to small firms’ paperwork. Its value should be measured against the recurring compliance burden it creates.

Anand Venkatanarayanan

Arjun Raghavendra M.

India's Hidden Connectivity Shock

Fuel prices have grown exponentially, but that is not the only crisis for airlines. Troubled airspace given the West Asia situation, and increasing security risks are costing carriers passengers, increasing cost

Sagari Gupta

RBI’s FX Moves

RBI Borrows a Page from China’s Currency Playbook

The RBI’s China-style reserve rule seeks to slow dollar buying, but lower forward premiums may come at the cost of leaving importers less hedged.

Kalyan Ram

Does Monetary Policy Need a New Paradigm?

With the world now in a permacrisis, monetary policy needs a new operating paradigm, as the RBI may not be dealing with textbook supply shocks.

Abheek Barua

RBI’s FX Moves

RBI Takes Currency Defence into the Derivatives Book with a Reserve Rule

How the RBI’s forex risk reserve changes hedge pricing, why bank charges matter and what could happen if importers leave currency risks unhedged

Anil Katia

RBI’s FX Moves

Prudence Penalised, Leverage Encouraged

The RBI’s curbs could punish genuine hedgers without addressing the outflows weakening the rupee or restoring confidence in the policy framework.

V Thiagarajan

Pidilite Tips Its Hat to Fevicol’s Adman but the Walls Must Hold

Pidilite honours the man who made Fevicol famous. Its next test is making waterproofing work on site, where a familiar brand cannot prevent a poorly done job.

Krishnadevan V

Eroding Investor Protection in the Era of Ease of Doing Business

SEBI’s push for easier compliance raises questions about investor protection, access to grievance redress and the credibility of its enforcement.

Indra Chourasia

Court Unquote

Protests Against CEC, Jane Street Case, Pharma, Big Food Cases, and More

Your weekly rundown of significant judicial rulings and legal battles influencing policy, companies, regulation, and governance

BasisPoint Insight

MPC Review

The RBI Still Understates Inflation

The RBI’s rate hike acknowledges rising inflation, but its diagnosis understates cost pressures, uneven demand and risks from abundant liquidity.

Dhananjay Sinha

MPC Review

A Terminal Repo Rate of 6% Should Be Enough, for Now

A 6% terminal rate may suffice if core inflation is contained, but surplus liquidity and the risk of cost pass-through complicate the RBI’s task.

Sameer Narang

Part 1

India's Foreign Capital Exodus: A Wage Story, Not Just a Confidence One

Why are record corporate profits failing to translate into new factories, and can consumption sustain growth when workers receive a shrinking share of the value they help to create?

Arvind Mayaram

MPC Review

The RBI Is Making Haste Slowly

The RBI has settled the direction of rates, not the pace. A cautious inflation diagnosis faces a harder test from the dollar and financial risks.

Kalyan Ram

Can Telangana Crack the $3 Trillion Growth Code by 2047?

Telangana’s $3 trillion ambition requires a sharp growth acceleration, stronger public finances and coordinated policy across its urban, industrial and rural regions.

Deba Prasad Rath

Rewanth Raichooti

US Green-Card Freeze: Limited Immediate Impact, Larger Risks for Indian IT

The US green-card sponsorship freeze for major Indian IT firms has limited immediate impact, but signals tougher immigration curbs ahead, potentially accelerating India-based delivery and GCC growth.

Ajay Srivastava

MPC Review

A Pragmatic Hike With a Hawkish Tail

With price pressures broadening and growth holding up, attention turns to liquidity and expectations. How will oil, the rupee and global yields shape the decisions still to come?

Radhika Piplani

MPC Review

RBI Rate Hike Cycle Starts; How Far Can It Go?

Inflation pressures are rising and resilient growth provides the RBI with the space to respond. However, the path ahead remains conditional.

Sakshi Gupta

IRDAI’s Insurance Reset Needs Stronger Consumer Safeguards

IRDAI’s distribution reforms address deep incentive problems. Their success will depend on consumer protection, viable last-mile economics, product suitability and credible regulatory enforcement.

Srinath Sridharan

Satire

Everyone Has a Theory, I Have Losses

From planetary cycles to calibrated policy, the explanations keep coming. Knowing what to do with my money is another matter. Revised headline and teaser

R. Gurumurthy

The India-Pakistan Cold War

The current stalemate between India and Pakistan should be viewed not as a pause between rounds of negotiation, but rather as part of a deliberate Indian strategy of disengagement. India will return to the negotiating table only after Pakistan dismantles, comprehensively and verifiably, its state-supported terrorist networks.

Shashi Tharoor

UPI’s Next Challenge: Can India Keep Digital Payments Sustainable?

UPI has made digital payments nearly frictionless. The challenge now is funding that infrastructure without discouraging merchants from going cashless

D. Tripati Rao

Adv. Shivam Rai

Pooja Teotia

MPC Preview

Case for a Hawkish 25-bps Hike

A timely rate hike will allow the RBI to avoid bigger hikes that are disorderly and hurt growth, with 3–4 hikes needed to achieve neutral monetary policy settings.

Abhishek Upadhyay

The UPI Checkout Test: Who Will Bear the Merchant Fee?

The rules say merchants will pay UPI’s new fee. But at the checkout, prices, payment choices and ingenuity could tell a different story. Who will ultimately pick up the tab?

K. S Sujit

One Policy Rate, Two Benchmarks: Why Borrowers Feel Different Cycles

The Monetary Policy Committee meets on 7 October to decide a rate. It cannot decide, and rarely discusses, who that rate reaches.

Sanya Agarwal

MPC Review

Rupee at 100 for One-Year Delivery Tests RBI’s Reassurance

The rupee may be undervalued, but dollar demand, costly oil and weak capital flows leave the RBI managing a decline it cannot simply talk away.

Richard Fargose

MPC Review

The Business Risks Are Bigger Than 25 bps

Rising input costs, tighter finance and global uncertainty are testing corporate plans. Can businesses protect margins and sustain investment as these pressures reinforce each other?

Anuj Agarwal

MPC Special

When Everyone Protests, Even Bonds are Voting with Their Feet

We are stepping outside our weekly schedule ahead of the policy decision because agreement on a likely rate hike is concealing some consequential disagreements about what should accompany it.

Phynix

MPC Preview

What Is the RBI Hiking For?

RBI looks set to hike. The real question is whether it is catching up with markets or committing to a sustained fight to restore inflation to 4%.

Basis View

MPC Review

RBI Unambiguously Signals Rate Tightening Cycle

While the 25bps rate hike was widely expected, the change in stance to ‘calibrated tightening’ has taken everyone by surprise

Sachchidanand Shukla

What Tata Sons and RBI Each Owe the Other

The RBI refused Tata Sons' bid to exit CIC regulation. The case tests whether a holding company can know what it must show to change its status.

Chandrika Soyantar

How a Prolonged Iran War Could Strengthen the US Energy Position

A prolonged Iran war could deepen energy supply disruptions, redirect Asian demand towards the US and strengthen America’s role in global energy trade

Yashveer Singh

MPC Preview

Time for RBI to Bite the Bullet

Broader inflation pressures and a falling rupee call for an October rate hike, but surplus liquidity could blunt its impact.

Indranil Pan

How China’s New Investment and Export Controls Jeopardise India’s Economic Choices

India is opening doors to Chinese investment. Beijing is tightening its grip on what can leave. What happens when India’s industrial ambitions meet China’s new rules?

Sharmila Kantha

Investors Cannot Do Everyone’s Homework

Investors must judge prices and risks, but financial literacy cannot make up for opaque disclosures, unclear official data or flawed market rules

Krishnadevan V

The Banker HDFC Bank Found Across the Rivalry

Anup Bagchi’s move to HDFC Bank puts an ICICI veteran in charge of its fiercest rival and brings a wider leadership network across Indian finance into view.

Rishikesh Patel

Krishnadevan V

Masterclass with Michael Patra

Operational Realities in Monetary Policy Transmission

Monetary policy transmission begins instantly in money markets, but frictions across rates, bonds and bank credit weaken its speed and strength.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Why Climate Finance Is Becoming a Sovereign Debt Problem

The convergence of fiscal and monetary risks is shaping the climate finance debate. As debt grows and capital costs climb, can countries fund resilience without deepening the trap?

Arvind Mayaram

Interview

MPC Preview

RBI Needs More Than a Rate Hike to Tighten Policy

A 25-basis-point hike needs calibrated liquidity absorption to work, with flexible tools taking priority and CRR only as a temporary last resort.

Kanika Pasricha*

Ready to Sign an Interim Deal or Stuck at a Plateau?

The India–US Trade Deal Puzzle: Is an interim pact within reach, or have talks hit their limits? Unclear tariff gains raise questions about the price India should pay.

Ajay Srivastava