Sharmila Chavaly

Sharmila Chavaly

Sharmila Chavaly, a former civil servant who held key roles in the railways and finance ministries, specialises in infrastructure, project finance, and PPPs.

Why India’s Municipal Bonds Need Founding Rigour, Climate Reset

Budget incentives revive municipal bonds, but without restoring 2017 rigour and adding climate safeguards, cities risk fragile debt growth.

Sharmila Chavaly

February 25, 2026 at 7:22 AM IST

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Building Boxes in a Storm

Budget 2026

A Countercyclical Manufacturing Gambit: India bets ₹100 billion on container production amid global trade flux, eyeing niche value and logistics leverage over volume dominance.

Sharmila Chavaly

February 7, 2026 at 3:51 AM IST

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Transforming India's Grid for a Renewable Future

Budget 2026

India’s renewable push is running ahead of grid readiness. As variability strains stability, the Budget must pivot from capacity addition to firm power, storage and grid modernisation to secure reliable, clean energy growth.

Sharmila Chavaly

January 23, 2026 at 10:14 AM IST

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Union Budget as the Catalyst for Climate Finance

Budget 2026

By using guarantees, blended finance and smarter risk metrics, public money could crowd in private capital and turn climate ambition into bankable projects.

Sharmila Chavaly

January 19, 2026 at 7:31 AM IST

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Charting a New Course: Why India’s Shipbuilding Ambitions Need a Strategic Redirection

The world’s shipbuilding order is being rewritten in an age of geopolitical rivalry and friend-shoring. India has a unique chance to write its own chapter — one of a nimble, technologically adept maritime industry integrated into global supply chains as a strategic partner.

Sharmila Chavaly

January 13, 2026 at 1:23 PM IST

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State Anchor to Global Competitor

Privatising a flag carrier is never just a sale. From JAL’s bankruptcy reboot to Air India and PIA, the real test is whether the state can enforce discipline—and then step back.

Sharmila Chavaly

December 29, 2025 at 10:50 AM IST

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The Nuclear Crossroads: An Inflexion Point or a Dead-end?

India’s nuclear opening was meant to unlock private capital, yet its first pilot has exposed deep structural flaws. The country now faces a choice between engineering a breakthrough or entrenching a dead end.

Sharmila Chavaly

December 3, 2025 at 12:14 PM IST

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Via WikiCommons

Financing and Proving the Platform-Based Grid Model

Infrastructure

The Implementation: The new architecture’s power lies in breaking the monolithic grid into distinct asset classes, each with its own risk-return profile.

Sharmila Chavaly

October 28, 2025 at 6:46 AM IST

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Architecting the Platform-Based ‘Arterial Grid’  

Infrastructure

The Prescription: A new grid architecture conceptualised in three distinct but interconnected functional layers, each with a clear role and economic logic.

Sharmila Chavaly

October 27, 2025 at 7:47 AM IST

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The End of the Centralised Grid, the Dawn of a New Power Order

Infrastructure

The Diagnosis: A one-way grid built for the industrial age can no longer power the digital one. The shift to a decentralised, adaptive network is already underway.

Sharmila Chavaly

October 24, 2025 at 5:44 AM IST

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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

October 4, 2025 at 5:36 AM IST

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How India’s Great Urban Decentralisation Experiment Has Stalled

India’s cities are trapped in a half-decentralised limbo. Powerless mayors, weak finances, and fragmented planning. Three decades after the 74th Amendment, the great urban reform experiment risks becoming a stillborn promise.

Sharmila Chavaly

August 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM IST

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Why India’s Infrastructure Is Breaking Before It’s Even Finished

India’s crumbling bridges and tunnels reflect systemic neglect, weak enforcement, and vanishing accountability. A national crisis is building, before the infrastructure does. 

Sharmila Chavaly

June 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM IST

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Why Infrastructure Is Facing Public Backlash Again

Poor planning, patchy communication, and weak execution are turning solid infrastructure policy into flashpoints of public anger.

Sharmila Chavaly

April 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM IST

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Electrifying India’s Ports For Cleaner Freight And Cleaner Air 

Subsidies for EVs are drying up. Nudging companies to spend CSR funds on freight electrification around major ports could fill the gap.

Sharmila Chavaly

February 27, 2025 at 2:17 PM IST

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The Bureau

Duvvuri Subbarao on India’s Growth, Inflation Targeting and Centre–State Faultlines
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