Curating Playlists for Dopamine, Growth, and Disorder

Dear Insighter,

There’s something deeply instinctive about how we curate our playlists. Your body often knows what it needs before your brain catches up. Need serotonin? You might reach for something bright and frivolous. Craving catharsis? The sad songs come out, not to wallow, but to regulate. Music, it turns out, isn’t background noise at all. It’s self-medication without the prescription pad.

Science backs this up. We don’t listen to music merely for pleasure. Dopamine for reward. Serotonin for emotional balance. Oxytocin for connection. Over time, I’ve realised my own evolution from teenage angst anthems to everything from pop or alt rock was just learning to DJ for my nervous system.

I spent my teenage years marinating in Linkin’ Park, Nirvana, Metallica, Meshuggah, Papa Roach, convinced the world didn’t understand me. Every other teenager, of course, felt exactly the same way, while every adult was trying to explain life through whatever chaos they’d survived. That irony arrived late. Over the years, I drifted from metal and prog to alt rock, then K-pop, then eventually to… everything. Porcupine Tree and New Jeans coexist peacefully now. “Lazarus” and “Ditto” serve different physiological purposes. Who are we to judge how people regulate themselves?

Spotify Wrapped—what began as a marketing gimmick—has become a genuine annual audit of my hormonal economy. And it got me thinking: if individuals need dynamic playlists to function, why do we expect economies to run on a single, blaring track?

India’s economy right now feels like one long album where the genres keep shifting mid-track.

For years, Mint Street’s policy soundtrack was simple: the repo rate. A steady bass drum, loud enough to drown out nuance. But under Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the composition has changed. As Kalyan Ram notes, Malhotra’s first year at the RBI has been one of quiet recalibration rather than headline-grabbing crescendos. Cleaner rules. Sharper edges. Less flourish. The institution feels different even when nothing dramatic happens.

The recent 25-basis-point cut to 5.25% made headlines, but the deeper signal lay elsewhere. As Kalyan Ram argues in a different piece, India has entered a post-cycle policy regime. Monetary policy is now layered: a neutral stance paired with accommodation through bond purchases, liquidity swaps, and variable repos. Durable operations coexist with short-term tools that sometimes pull in opposite directions.

The macro numbers, meanwhile, sound triumphant. GDP growth at 8.2% thumps like a festival anthem. Yet listen closely, and the mix feels off. Karan Mehrishi points out that the supply side is growing far faster than demand. The gap of over ₹1.6 trillion has widened to 3.3% of GDP, the largest in five quarters. Capacity is expanding, but expenditure isn’t keeping pace.

Mridul Saggar asks whether this is a Goldilocks moment: strong growth, near-zero inflation, everything just right. But inflation at 0.25%—and wholesale prices in deflation—suggests something stranger. If growth is sustainably above 8%, inflation shouldn’t be this anaemic. Domestic engines have been fired up to offset external risks. Regulatory and monetary levers have been loosened. Yet markets assuming rates can only rise from here should remember: the RBI has taken rates to 9% before, and to 4% when circumstances demanded. Central banks never say never. They change tracks when the data does.

Money itself is being reimagined. R. Gurumurthy highlights the RBI’s categorical dismissal of stablecoins—“they do not serve a purpose that cannot be served by fiat money”—while simultaneously embracing a central bank digital currency. If stablecoins serve no purpose, what exactly does the CBDC solve? The answer, of course, is control. A CBDC is sovereign money in new packaging, fully embedded within policy architecture. Yet in a world where money is becoming networked technology, caution without engagement can itself become vulnerability.

The state is attempting other recalibrations too. Reform Compass and Sharmila Kantha outline the government’s ambition to overhaul Indian Customs: a system so tangled it resembles permanently knotted earphones. The goal is a shift from transaction-based suspicion to entity-based profiling, letting 95% of shipments clear smoothly. A single compliance portal, clear rules, and the principle that unlisted requirements cannot be enforced would mark a structural reset. Trade facilitation is no longer a luxury; it’s competitiveness.

External pressures are rising regardless. Ajay Srivastava details Mexico’s decision to impose steep tariffs on imports from countries without free trade agreements. Nearly three-quarters of India’s exports to Mexico are affected. This isn’t about India alone; it’s Mexico aligning early with US priorities ahead of USMCA review. India is unlikely to retaliate. Imports from Mexico are too small. Instead, this becomes another data point in the accelerating erosion of global trade rules.

The US trade conversation remains similarly lopsided. Srivastava notes that Washington’s “forward-leaning” posture is largely about opening India’s markets, especially agriculture, while clarity on access for Indian exports remains elusive. If partnership is the goal, tariff asymmetry cannot persist indefinitely.

Some relationships, though, deserve rebuilding. Rajesh Kumar makes a compelling case for reviving CEPA talks with Canada. Bilateral trade has grown regardless, but without institutional architecture, it remains sporadic and below potential.

With Russia, the recalibration is starker. Nilanjan Banik notes that the $100 billion trade ambition, built largely on cheap oil, now needs reinvention. India has never exported to Russia at full potential. Services, skilled labour, and technology cooperation offer a more durable foundation than hydrocarbons ever did.

Srinath Sridharan and Anand Venkatanarayanan argue that SIM-binding for messaging platforms isn’t incremental regulation; it’s a structural redesign. The most troubling gap is the absence of evidence linking the policy to stated cybercrime objectives. Without proportionality or analytical grounding, the move risks turning law into declaration rather than reason.

Corporate India is improvising within this noise. Physicswallah’s first shareholder letter, analysed by Krishnadevan V, celebrates scale, intent, and trust. And rightly so. The company democratised access to education. But engagement metrics are not pedagogy. Trust is measured in outcomes, retention, and renewal rates. Momentum isn’t mastery. Many companies lose their way precisely when confidence peaks.

Dealmakers, meanwhile, have gained a new tuning tool. SEBI’s revamped Informal Guidance Scheme allows sophisticated players to treat the regulator less as a referee and more as a counterparty—testing structures before committing capital. Regulatory clarity, sought early, becomes strategic advantage.

Even entertainment economics is shifting. Krishnadevan notes that Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery could matter deeply for PVR Inox investors. Control of content pipelines often matters more than ownership of venues. A platform-first owner may think very differently about theatrical releases.

At the strategic frontier, T.K. Arun sounds a necessary caution on India’s chip ambitions. Collaboration with Intel may look glamorous, but over-reliance risks undermining indigenous R&D. When geopolitics tighten, only technology you control is fully reliable.

Infrastructure remains the stage on which much of this plays out. Shilpashree Venkatesh shows that India’s fivefold capex boom in a decade has delivered visible assets. Highways, metros, airports. Yet the GDP multiplier remains modest compared to China’s peak years. Faster execution, better clustering, and state coordination will determine whether this becomes a sustained growth engine or merely a well-lit set.

And looming over everything is climate. Hemachandra Padhan argues that COP30 will test whether India can reconcile rapid growth with environmental reality. Solar and wind have surged, but coal still dominates. The real test won’t be declarations, but financing, partnerships, and technology access that allow transition without derailing development.

So where does this leave us?

Much like our personal playlists, the economy has outgrown single-genre answers. There is no perfect track. Only context. We need restraint and risk-taking, export aggression and domestic ballast, regulation and experimentation. The teenage rock-loyalist in me believed there was one superior sound. The adult knows better.

Every sound serves its purpose. Every policy tool has its moment. The art lies in knowing which hormone you’re trying to regulate, which risk you’re managing, and having the humility to change the track when the mood shifts.

Until next time, may your playlists be balanced, and your policies coherent,

Phynix

Also Read:

• The Nutrition Blind Spot in India’s Food Security Journey by G. Chandrashekhar: India may be food-secure, but it is far from nutrition-secure.
• Why We Prefer Screens Over People Now? by Kirti Tarang Pande: India’s crisis isn’t loneliness; it’s dopamine induced sedation keeping young men happy but humanly inert.
• Why Some Failures Stay Contained — and Others Become Televised Meltdowns by Kirti Tarang Pande: Some failures fade; others become national theatre. The difference is whether leaders steady the room, or leave it to silence.
• Screen Masters and Meme Queens: Parenting Without the Manual by Kalyani Srinath: Today’s “entitled” kids aren’t spoiled; they’re adapting. They’re digital natives using humour, boundaries and tech to survive smarter in a chaotic world.
• Building an Effective Sovereign Borrowers’ Club by Homi Kharas and Mahmoud Mohieldin: While creditor coordination has long been institutionalised, borrower countries have often been discouraged from sharing information, leading to ad hoc exchanges.
• America Will Pay for Pushing India Away by Brahma Chellaney: The US calls India indispensable, but treats its interests as peripheral, adopting policies that undercut India’s economic strength, regional security, and strategic autonomy.
• Power Without Certainty: America at a Strategic Crossroads by Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain: A first view commentary on the new American National Security Strategy.
• How Global AI Governance Could Work by Jayant Sinha: The world needs AI governance that doesn’t rely on massive compute or heavy regulation. India’s digital architecture points the way.