Provisioning for Appearances: RBI’s Half-Hearted Tryst with ECL

Has the RBI truly embraced global best practices, or just adopted them for appearances? India’s half-hearted ECL rollout exposes a deeper discomfort with accountability.

R. Gurumurthy

The Stain Theory of Investing

From tariffs to AI, every setback is being spun into a strategy. Investors should beware India’s growing stain premium before the rinse begins.

Krishnadevan V

Beyond the Green Mirage: A Blueprint for Global Infrastructure Finance

Climate finance is trapped in an ideological tug of war. Infrastructure must be judged not by its colour code but by its durability, resilience, and impact.

Sharmila Chavaly

Fifteen Years After Pittsburgh, the Global Economy Is Still Out of Balance

Advanced economies evade discipline, BRICS build alternatives, and the IMF remains trapped between surveillance and sovereignty

Arvind Mayaram

Monetary Policy

Review of MPC Decision: What Does it Mean to be Forward-Looking?

Is it forward-looking to let policy be decided by base effects, rather than encouraging the anchoring of inflation expectations at the target?

Ashima Goyal

Monetary Policy

Is the Hunt for a Terminal Repo Rate a Distraction?

Markets may be too eager to bottom-fish for a terminal repo rate. In today’s fluid context, flexibility could matter more than fixation.

Kalyan Ram

Geopolitics

PoJK On The Boil: Why India Must Replace Populism With Strategy

Islamabad underestimates how chronic misgovernance corrodes legitimacy. By treating civic protests as security nuisances, and by maintaining an ethnic superiority complex, the Army is creating conditions for prolonged instability.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Columnists

Michael Debabrata Patra

Michael Patra is an economist and former RBI Deputy Governor.

TK Arun

Arun is a seasoned writer on economic and policy matters.

Abheek Barua

Abheek is an Independent Economist and the Former Chief Economist at HDFC Bank.

Ajay Srivastava

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

Vijay Chauhan

Vijay, trade expert & ex-IRS officer, works with Deloitte India and Ashoka University’s ICPP.

Dhananjay Sinha

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

Kirti Tarang Pande

Kriti is a psychologist specialising in mental health, org behaviour, and brand strategy

Srinath Sridharan

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

Sharmila Chavaly

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

Nilanjan Banik

Nilanjan Banik, Professor at Mahindra University, specialises in trade and development economics.

Sachin Malhotra

Sachin was till recently an MD with Standard Chartered Bank.

Rajesh Mahapatra

Rajesh Mahapatra is the former Editor of The Press Trust of India

Krishnadevan V

Krishnadevan is Consulting Editor at BasisPoint Insight.

Dev Chandrasekhar

Chandra advises companies on big-picture narratives on strategy and markets.

Kalyan Ram

Kalyan Ram co-founded Cogencis. He now leads BasisPoint Insight.

R. Gurumurthy

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

The Bureau

Risk-Off Mood Persists Despite Nikkei’s Record High

Centre Primes States With Early Cash Before Festivals

India’s Biggest Investor Base Is Still on the Sidelines

RBI Reopens Rate Door, December Cut Alive

Most Indian Pharma Exports May Escape US Tariff, But Uncertainty Clouds Branded Generics

Moody’s Affirms India at Baa3, Flags Fiscal Constraints and Tariff Uncertainty

India’s Second Half Borrowing Plan Balances Market Needs, But Yield Relief Hinges on RBI

Eight Years, Many Judgements Later Bhushan Power Stays with JSW

From SBI Treasury to AMFI: Venkat Chalasani’s Market Journey

Jallikattu: Tamil Nadu’s Ancient Bull-Taming Tradition

Risk-Based Premiums Must Lead to Higher Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage

Mint Owl

Partly Monetary Policy, Largely Credit Policy

BasisPoint Groupthink

Reading Sanjay Malhotra’s Silent Dialogue

Kirti Tarang Pande

RBI Reopens the Door to Accommodation

Kalyan Ram

Monetary Policy

Unguarded Lending Won’t Fix Investment Demand

RBI holds rates but eases bank lending curbs—IPO, M&A, securities finance. Yet without investment demand or PPP reforms, such a leeway won’t fix growth.

TK Arun

Guardrails Key as India Pushes Rupee Abroad

India’s rupee push is bold—but trade gaps, credit risks, and shallow liquidity mean guardrails are key for lasting internationalisation.

Quixotic Banker

Briefing

Rupee’s Strategic Faultline-SWOT analysis

The rupee’s fate will hinge less on daily volatility and more on how India tackles its oil dependence, export narrowness, and dollar reliance.

Babuji K

Export Monitor

Indian Exports May be More than Just Faltering

India’s exports have weakened across major markets. A temporary surge in shipments to the US provided some relief, but rising tariffs have added pressure on growth prospects.

Rajesh Mahapatra

Monetary Policy

RBI Fixes its June Communication Misfire

The October review showed that central banking is about shaping expectations, not exhausting firepower upfront.

Mint Owl

India’s Growth Story Meets Its Consumption Wall

Tax breaks lift demand for now, but slowing income, weak investment, and US tariffs threaten to sap India’s growth momentum.

Shilpashree Venkatesh

Grieving for Glaciers: Warnings Written in Ice, Water, and Memory

Ancient ice is retreating fast. As rivers shrink and seas rise, glaciers warn of a climate reckoning we can no longer ignore.

Michael Debabrata Patra

RBI’s Insulated Optimism Jars with Ground Reality

Dhananjay Sinha

India’s Economic Balancing Act Faces Tariff and Oil Test

Alok Kumar Mishra

Iti Vyas

RBI Breaks Old Orthodoxy with Regulatory Measures

Sachin Malhotra

RBI Anchors Inflation as Growth Levers Shift Beyond Rates

Shubhada Rao, Vivek Kumar, and Yuvika Singhal

Monetary Policy

Banks Poised to Challenge NBFCs As RBI Unshackles Restrictions

RBI relaxes capital market lending, acquisition financing norms and higher share lending limits for banks after decades of restrictions

Krishnadevan V

Supreme Court’s Ruling May Set the Course for Land Justice in Bihar

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Bihar’s land registration law could curb fraud, protect the poor, and strengthen institutions critical for development.

Chandan K Jha

Sudipta Sarangi

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Baby Steps on Rupee Globalisation: Useful Nudges, But…

Recent announcements set the stage for rupee globalisation, but true scale awaits deeper trade and market adoption.

R. Gurumurthy

Regulated Pre-IPO Markets Can Generate Billions in Missing Tax Revenue

India's unregulated pre-IPO grey market causes massive tax leakage. SEBI's proposed regulated platform could unlock billions in government revenue.

Chandrika Soyantar

Raising Wheat’s MSP is Easy. What the Crop Needs is Real Reform

G. Chandrashekhar

Why RBI Must Define CRR as a Legitimate LoLR Tool

Karan Mehrishi

Sound Corporate Governance Needs Institutional Investors to be More Vocal

Srinath Sridharan

Ceasefire Dreams, Strategic Reality: Peace In Gaza Is Still A Pipedream

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Tragicomix

Nobel Committee’s Trump Problem

From peace talks to bleach cures, Trump’s legacy baffles the Nobel Committee: too vast for one medal, inspiring a new prize for sheer unintended innovation.

R. Gurumurthy

Currencies Under Siege as Fiscal Dominance Takes Hold

V Thiagarajan

Ladakh’s Aspirations and the Path Ahead

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Truth Beats Spin: Gandhi’s Playbook for Profit

Kirti Tarang Pande

India Hard-Sells Oil PSUs as Government Grows Restless With Investor Apathy

Krishnadevan V

The ABC and D of Bihar Elections

Bihar heads into the 2025 polls with 74.2 million voters and a three-cornered contest between NDA, Mahagathbandhan, and Jan Suraj. At the heart of the battle lies the ABCD seat classification system; a metric that reveals where each alliance truly stands.

Amitabh Tiwari

Not Just Make in India, Chips Need to be Made by India

TK Arun

Why JLR's £2 Billion Loss Could Change Corporate Insurance Forever

Krishnadevan V

Labubu Syndrome: Anatomy of a Plush Pandemic

R. Gurumurthy

Shrimp Tariffs Reveal the Hidden Costs of Global Trade Wars

Hemachandra Padhan, Ajit Kumar Babu, and Saanvi Sharan

RBI Should Stay on Hold in October to Preserve Stability

N. Srinivasa Rao

Trump's Beggar-the-Poor Remittance Tax

Hippolyte Fofack

JSW-BPSL, X vs Govt, Air India Crash Probe, and More

BasisPoint Insight

No More Taarif for Trump

Manoj Rane

Small Finance Banks: Leading India’s Financial Inclusion

Can India’s Small Finance Banks keep inclusion profitable as they expand deeper into rural markets and face rising credit, cost, and technology risks?

Babuji K

Jaguar’s Cyber Crisis: A £2 Billion Warning for Indian Boardrooms

Jaguar Land Rover’s uninsured cyberattack shows how one breach can devastate profits, supply chains, and investor trust.

Srinath Sridharan

Plaza Accord at 40: A Time Capsule of Macroeconomic Diplomacy

Forty years after the Plaza Accord tamed an overvalued dollar, can Washington still bend currencies to its will in a multipolar, fast-moving financial world?

R. Gurumurthy

Geopolitics

India’s Message to the World in the SCO that Everyone Missed

At the SCO summit, India balanced ties with Myanmar’s junta and China’s growing sway, while signalling its role as a trusted regional partner.

Rami Niranjan Desai

India’s Remittance Lifeline Faces New Strains

US tax and visa shocks threaten India’s $135 billion remittance lifeline, exposing risks in its most stable external buffer.

Babuji K

How Post-COVID Tailwinds Triggered H-1B Pushback; Is Macro Reset the Answer?

The post-pandemic export surge drew US fire on visas. With services under pressure, India’s answer cannot be piecemeal—it must be a macro-level reset.

Dhananjay Sinha

The $100,000 Question: How Trump's H-1B Fee Hike will Change the Future of Hiring

Is the $100,000 H-1B fee hike a turning point for Indian IT, or just another breadcrumb in a trail marked by layoffs, automation and offshoring?

Nilanjan Banik

Mastering the Regional Disparities Key to Bihar Elections

Bihar heads into elections with stark regional divides shaping the contest. Each of its nine zones has distinct demographics, challenges, and political leanings Decoding these disparities is key to understanding past results and the road ahead.

Amitabh Tiwari

Saudi Insecurity, Pakistan’s Rebound: Reviewing Persian Gulf Security

If Riyadh’s fears over external threats and about US reliability are widely shared, Gulf monarchies outside of Saudi may begin to seek similar arrangements.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Smartphones to Pharma, India’s Key Exports to US Take a Hit

Some tariff-free products are collapsing despite facing zero duties, while several highly-taxed sectors are showing surprising resilience

Ajay Srivastava

Opinion

Air India 171: Why a Flawed Probe Risks Burying the Real Story

Three months after 260 lives were lost, India’s crash probe raises more doubts than answers. Truth and data must surface before trust collapses.

Sanjay Mansabdar

Customer Service: The Missing Core of Survival in Indian Banking

India wants global banking giants by 2047, but without fixing everyday service failures, trust may erode faster than balance sheets grow.

Anupam Sonal

Retail Inflation Could Briefly Touch Zero in October

GST cuts and a favourable base effect may push India’s retail inflation near zero in October, posing a fresh test for the RBI’s rate calculus.

Datametricx

RBI Must be More Consistent, Transparent in How it Communicates

Predictability and transparency in communication are as important for a central bank as its policy actions. RBI must revisit its practices to ensure consistency.

Mint Owl

Unemployment Tracker

India’s Easing Joblessness Masks a Deeper Gender Divide in Employment

Unemployment eased in August, but the gains bypassed women and the young. Beneath the PLFS headline figures lies a troubling labour market fault line.

Akshi Chawla

“America First” Accounting Standards?

Howard Davies

Urban Company Monetises India's Growing Impatience

Krishnadevan V

BRICS - Building Brick by Brick

Babuji K

Why Air Pollution Fuels Crime and the Policy Lessons for India

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

PSU Bank Mergers Without Deal-Making Skills Will Have Little Global Impact

India's state-owned banks excel at lending but lose billion-dollar deals to global rivals. Why PSU banks need deal-making DNA for Viksit Bharat 2047.

Krishnadevan V

A New Middle Eastern Canvas for All Indian Diplomacy

Diplomacy in the Middle East has always been a delicate dance. Today, it resembles a freshly-painted canvas: vibrant, but with strokes that can blur if handled clumsily.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Little Impact on IT, But Trump’s H-1B Visa Fee Could Reverse Indian Brain Drain

The new $100,000 H-1B visa fee may cause short-term headaches for Indian IT firms, but it could strongly deter students from pursuing US admissions without a clear job path.

TK Arun

Trump’s Queen of Hearts Tariffs

Trump’s tariffs may sting, but India channels Ali’s art—floating lightly and stinging sharply when the timing is right.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: The Networking Delusion Where Everyone’s a Connector, Nobody’s a Friend

We hoard contacts like trophies, confuse politeness with connection, and mistake events for community. Networking promises belonging, but delivers only performance, leaving us abundant in numbers, and impoverished in friends.

Srinath Sridharan

Basis Life

Why India’s Marriage Market Punishes Working Women

Entrenched gender norms ensure that Indian women still pay a price in the marriage market for choosing careers, especially in non-traditional jobs.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

Basis Life

Who Moved My Cheez? Surviving the Everyday Chaos of Lost Objects

Life’s daily battles aren’t grand. They’re about your charger, your chair system, and the mysterious forces that keep moving your stuff.

Kalyani Srinath

Videos

Nepal in Crisis | Saibal Dasgupta and Dr. Pramod Jaiswal

Saibal Dasgupta

A. Balasubramanian on Building Birla AMC, Markets, and the Road Ahead

Manoj Rane

Sanjeev Sanyal on Trump, India’s Growth Path, and Process Reforms

Krishnadevan V

From 2008 Derivatives Bust To 9/11 Bond Shock – RBI’s Crisis Lessons | Part 2

Manoj Rane

Next Gen Bank Reforms Should be Asset Growth-Centric

India is the fourth largest economy, yet only two banks rank among the global top 100. Next-gen reforms must drive PSBs towards asset-led scale.

K. Srinivasa Rao

Crushed Volatility: How SEBI’s Clampdown Risks Killing the Options Game

SEBI’s clampdown on arbitrageurs has exposed retail traders’ habits, crushed implied volatility, and raised a sobering question.

Sanjay Mansabdar

One Voice, Many Questions, And a Test for Leadership

The resignation of an independent director of KRBL, a listed entity, highlights how a single voice can trigger scrutiny that tests the structures and responsibilities of leadership.

Srinath Sridharan

Bihar 2025

Travel Diaries: Of North-South and Other Divides

Traditional fear factors continue to influence core voter decisions, maintaining rigid voting patterns that have characterised Bihar politics for decades.

Amitabh Tiwari

India’s Outbound Investment Surge Signals Confidence, Not Flight

India Inc’s surge in overseas investment is less about an alternative to domestic investments than a strategic embrace of global markets, technology, and supply chains.

Sharmila Kantha

Growth Without Jobs, Wealth Without Equity: India Needs a Bold Course Correction

India’s economy is expanding, yet jobs are scarce and inequality deepens. Without a bold reset, growth risks leaving too many behind.

Arvind Mayaram

Atmanirbhar Bharat: Between Slogan and Substance

Atmanirbhar Bharat has shown flashes of true resilience, yet risks sliding into protectionist déjà vu. India must decide if self-reliance means global ambition or insular retreat.

Duvvuri Subbarao

India’s Bank Mergers: The Folly of Mistaking Size for Strength

Consolidation of India’s public banks offers scale without substance. Without governance reform and adjustments to their business models, they risk global irrelevance despite their domestic strength.

R. Gurumurthy