Infrastructure

AI and Circular Capital are Redesigning the Future of PPPs

AI can turn PPPs into real-time, transparent systems that enable circular finance, recycle scarce public capital and draw long-term institutional investment.

Arvind Mayaram

iStock/rvimages

India’s Manufacturing Moment Needs Industrial Coherence

India’s manufacturing push is real, but fragmented industrial responses and mismatched readiness are holding back the country’s ability to compete globally.

Sangeeta Godbole

Opinion

Malhotra Keeps Rate Cuts in Play, but Will He Move Again?

Governor Malhotra kept the easing cycle alive on Friday, yet his real objective may be to extract transmission rather than commit to another cut.

Kalyan Ram

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

Recent data tell a story of two Indias – booming GDP growth and record-low inflation, yet struggling with anaemic industrial growth and rising external risks.

Datametricx

MPC Review

RBI policy: Goldilocks, FX, and the Windscreen

A rare Goldilocks mix of strong growth and ultra-low inflation set the stage for a finely balanced policy call, even as a sliding rupee tested the RBI’s nerve.

Vivek Kumar

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Rate Cut Shows Rupee is No Obstacle to Easing

The MPC cut rates despite the rupee’s wobble, signalling what policy has long implied. The currency is simply not a factor in the RBI’s rate calculus.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Back to the Future – The Tokyo Drift

A look at Japan and China shows how familiar policy instincts can trap economies in slow-growth loops, even when policymakers believe they know better.

V Thiagarajan

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.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain is a former Commander of India’s Kashmir Corps.

The Bureau

RBI Pushes Back on IMF Remarks

RBI Cuts Rates, Reading Softness Beneath the 8.2% Shine

OMO Injections and VRRR Drains Can Run Side by Side

Expect Little From the Deputy USTR’s Visit: GTRI

Fitch Lifts India Growth Forecast, Expects One Last Cut This Week

Why IBC Resolution-to-Liquidation Ratio has Fallen Again?

November GST Collection Lowest Since September 2024

Sundeep Sikka on Building Team at Nippon MF & the Future of Mutual Funds | Market Makers Part - II

Jallikattu: Tamil Nadu’s Ancient Bull-Taming Tradition

When the Rupee Tosses, Pilots Tire And Delhi Sleeps

India loses sleep as the rupee twitches and pilots cut rest, yet officials stay serene. A look at the sleep politics shaping turbulence on the ground.

Krishnadevan V

Opinion

Whose Reputation Crisis Is It?

IndiGo’s chaos became a stress test for Indian aviation, exposing fragile oversight, furious flyers, and a sector running out of reputation to lose.

Minari Shah

Opinion

IndiGo’s Meltdown Exposes Loss of Regulatory Control

IndiGo’s crisis saw domestic routes descend into chaos while high-margin international operations stayed largely protected, raising hard questions.

Srinath Sridharan

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Dovish Turn Clouds the Story of India’s Goldilocks Economy

Accommodative push contrasts with claims of strong growth and benign inflation

Dhananjay Sinha

Monetary Policy

India’s ‘Goldilocks’ Moment: Stabilising Sentiment in a Hyper-Volatile World

Goldilocks isn’t just a fairy tale; it’s India’s economic mood right now—“just right,” and more fragile than we think.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Monetary Policy

Goodbye Inflation, See You in Next Cycle

The RBI’s rate cut reflects the end of an inflation cycle that began in 2022 and collapsed spectacularly in 2025.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Monetary Policy

Markets Have the Rupee-Wheel, RBI Keeps the Brakes

RBI will not defend rupee levels, only volatility. For India Inc, the message is blunt: hedge systematically and stop assuming a central-bank safety net.

Babuji K

Rupee Volatility Tells a Trade Story as Dollar/Rupee Enters the Nineties

Dollar/rupee crossing 90 is less worrying than the tariff risks driving volatility, as India’s exporters face pressure from a prolonged dispute with Washington.

Manoj Rane

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Quiet Hawkishness Behind a Compelled Rate Cut

A dovish rate cut on the surface masks a quiet hawkishness, as the RBI calibrates policy with a cautious eye on reflating a low-inflation economy.

R. Gurumurthy

India Can Increase Exports to Russia Sevenfold to $35 Billion by 2030; Here’s How

Closing the trade gap, will depend on identifying and scaling high-potential product lines where India is globally competitive but commercially absent in Russia.

Ajay Srivastava

MPC Review

Policy Reflects Growth Concerns

Repo cut and liquidity infusion signalled the RBI’s deeper worry that growth momentum is softening despite strong headline numbers.

Rupa Rege Nitsure

Monetary Policy

MPC Gets the Flexible Inflation Targeting Mandate Right

The MPC’s well-timed rate cut showed rare institutional clarity, reaffirming its inflation-targeting mandate and restoring flexibility to policy.

Sujit Kumar

Why India Keeps Paying the Psychological Price for the Fed’s Mixed Signals

India’s markets remain steady on fundamentals but still swing to every hint of Federal Reserve uncertainty, revealing how psychology now shapes price action.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Why Wealthiest States Are Lagging in Digital Payments Revolution

India’s digital payments boom hides a stark truth: the richest states are the slowest to go cashless.

Nilanjan Banik

A Leaner Rulebook Begins Malhotra’s RBI Legacy

The RBI’s consolidation of thousands of circulars into 244 Master Directions signals a structural shift in regulation and an emerging legacy for Governor Malhotra.

Mint Owl

Private Credit

The Cockroach Warning and the Garbage Lending

Private credit has grown into a vast, opaque engine of global finance, creating a blind spot where innovation surges but risk remains hard to see.

R. Gurumurthy

Here Comes the Sun

India’s solar revolution accelerates amid global expansion, driving clean energy growth, grid upgrades, and innovation despite major challenges.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Rupee Dilemma: The Case for Strategic Silence

RBI’s reticence, even as the rupee slips past 90, has unsettled markets. But sometimes, saying more only compounds the problem.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Nudge Versus Coercion and the Economic Psychology of Consent

The uproar over Sanchar Saathi proved a simple truth: in digital governance, defaults signal power. When consent feels assumed, trust collapses instantly.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Geopolitics

Ukraine, NATO and the Limits of Power: Is the West Facing a Strategic Climbdown?

For India, the strength lies in remaining strategically balanced — neither celebrating Russia’s endurance nor mourning Western recalibration.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

The Blazing Growth Print India Simply Doesn’t Feel

A headline GDP surge paints an 8% economy, yet earnings, credit, demand and the rupee all tell a softer story.

Dhananjay Sinha

India’s Growth Surge Outpaces its Productivity Gains

India’s strong GDP numbers contrast with uneven improvements in capital and labour productivity, suggesting potential growth has yet to see a durable rise.

Sakshi Gupta

Geopolitics

Why Rare Earths Now Sit at the Fault Line of US–China Power Politics

China’s hold over rare earths has become a strategic pressure point. The United States is now pushing outward in search of partners to soften that dependence.

Rami Niranjan Desai

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

A Nervous Rupee Meets an Uncomfortable Silence

The rupee’s slide toward 90 underscores a central truth: currencies are not just reflections of fundamentals. They are also mirrors of policy signalling, global crosswinds, biases, and narratives.

V Thiagarajan

Briefing

India’s Exchange Rate Regime Faces a Moment of Truth

With the rupee trading like a caged bird and IMF reclassification looming, India faces a reckoning on what its exchange rate regime really is.

V Thiagarajan

Pre-Policy

Malhotra’s Straight Ball and the Shot Market Played

Mint Owl

Why OMOs Matter in This MPC

Madhavi Arora

A Rate Cut Now Could Strengthen India’s Growth Cushion

K. Srinivasa Rao

RBI Must Avoid June’s Missteps as Stance and Signals Take Centre Stage

Richard Fargose

Putin’s Visit: A Diplomatic Tightrope For New Delhi

Ajay Srivastava

Bharti Airtel Realises Jio Was Right on Wireless Home Broadband in India

Krishnadevan V

Rethinking SLR Through India’s Political Reality

Srinath Sridharan

SIM-Binding Necessary Evil, But Govt Must First Win Trust

TK Arun

Base-Year Syndrome in India’s Real GDP Growth

High real GDP and low inflation reflect more statistical noise than economic strength. Outdated base years distort India’s growth picture and complicate policy choices.

Barendra Kumar Bhoi

When Vulnerability Becomes Strength and India’s Moment of Truth

Dharmendra’s tender masculinity offers a timely lesson: real strength lies in flexibility. From the rupee to labour reform, India’s systems could use that honesty.

Phynix

Deregulation in an Age of Imperial Ambition

Washington’s push to unwind post-crisis safeguards signals a deeper shift: political ambition overtaking regulatory discipline. As US institutions dilute standards they once enforced globally, the credibility underpinning the rules-based order begins to erode, with worldwide consequences.

Srinath Sridharan

India’s Unclaimed Assets Reveal a Trillion-Rupee Crisis Demanding Reform

India sits on nearly ₹2 trillion in unclaimed assets that never reach the people they were meant for. A unified, transparent, nomination-led system is now long overdue.

Rajesh Bansal

Stranger Things: India’s High Real GDP Hides More Than it Tells

India’s strong real GDP prints mask weak nominal growth, low inflation and strained fiscal dynamics. With tariffs biting and demand fragile, headline numbers mislead, raising questions for markets, policymakers and the path to sustainable expansion.

Yield Scribe

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

The RBI has a nice problem to have – a booming economy and record-low inflation. This may make the MPC’s policy decision a tighter call and keep markets on tenterhooks.

Datametricx

A Prize for Indian Research That Rarely Rewards India

India’s premier science prize seeks to inspire local research; yet most winners work abroad. This piece unpacks that contradiction and asks why India’s own scholars remain overlooked.

Rudra Sensarma

Why Faceless Customs Is Failing India’s Trade System

India’s faceless customs regime is colliding with the physical realities of ports and intermediaries, revealing deeper cracks in the clearance system.

Reform Compass

Sandesara Settlement Could Rewire Credit Culture in India

Sandesara’s court-approved payout is seen as exchanging prosecution for payment, sharpening debate over fairness, consistency, and the erosion of India’s credit culture.

Krishnadevan V

The Quarter When Nominal Growth Became the Real Signal

India’s latest GDP numbers reveal strong real activity but muted income generation. The narrow real–nominal gap reframes the entire growth narrative.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Why SEBI’s REIT-InvIT Split Risks Distorting Market Logic

India’s new REIT classification might boost liquidity but leaves InvITs sidelined, creating a regulatory mismatch that blurs categories and risks investor confusion.

R. Gurumurthy

Get Ready for an Overdue Fed Overhaul

Mohamed A. El-Erian

Crawling Rupee, Creeping Risks on the RBI’s December Tightrope

R. Gurumurthy

Pakistan’s 27th Amendment: Constitutionalising the Deep State

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Don’t Censor Content, Make Social Media Platforms Accountable

TK Arun

Rupee Under Watch: Venkat Thiagarajan Decodes IMF’s ‘Crawl-Like Peg’ Warning

Rajesh Mahapatra

Justice Cannot Rely on Technology Alone

For the judiciary to remain a trusted democratic pillar, technological upgrades must advance alongside institutional discipline, administrative reform, and a culture of transparent accountability.

Srinath Sridharan

Physicswallah Has Acceleration but Lacks Vector

When a teacher becomes a lender, students face debt before opportunity, and that could be a problem that ultimately damages brand equity and long-term credibility.

Krishnadevan V

Reform or Rollback? India’s Labour Codes Face Praise and Pushback

India has notified four new labour codes, replacing a plethora of existing laws to simplify compliance, improve ease of doing business, and expand worker protections. But trade unions warn that the changes prioritise corporate interests over worker rights and could weaken job security.

Shruti Mahajan

Should India Consider FX Auctions?

Babuji K

The Basel Consensus Is Cracking

Howard Davies

IMF Flags Rupee Regime as ‘Crawl-Like Peg’ as RBI Steps Up Intervention

Rajesh Mahapatra

US Treasuries are Losing Foreign Demand Steadily

Yield Scribe

Why Cyber Insurance Must Become India’s New Financial Essential

India’s digital payments boom has come with an explosion in cyber fraud, yet awareness of cyber insurance remains abysmally low. As attacks grow more sophisticated, insurance is becoming the last line of defence.

Alpana Killawala

Import Visibility Needed to Complete India’s Edible Oils Data Reform

Monthly production reporting is useful, but without visibility on import contracts, policy timing will remain reactive rather than anticipatory.

G. Chandrashekhar

The Real Story Behind India’s Gold Rush: Signals, Not Contradictions

Gold demand surged despite calm macros for reasons rooted in psychology, not fear. India’s financial actions reflect diverse motives that leaders must learn to read. People aren’t irrational. Our narratives about them are lazy.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Why India Still Lacks a Credible Framework to Resolve Failing Banks

India shelved its FRDI Bill amid public panic, exposing deep trust and capacity gaps. Without a credible resolution regime, the next financial failure could prove far costlier.

R. Gurumurthy

Basis Life

The He-Man Who Cried

Dharmendra's quietest truth was also his strongest one: the He-Man who cried taught India that vulnerability is not weakness but power.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Metamorphosis of Warrants into Growth Capital for Indian Banks

Reimagined and repurposed as a sophisticated tool rather than supplementary device and an emergency rescue capital, warrants are now empowering India’s growing banks to channel global capital.

Chandrika Soyantar

Formalisation at Scale: What India’s New Labour Codes Unlock

India’s Labour Codes offer scalability and ease for large enterprises, but MSMEs may struggle with rising costs and unfamiliar compliance burdens unless implementation is carefully supported.

Sharmila Kantha

India’s Anaemia Crisis Demands Policy Convergence, Not Parallel Efforts

Fresh evidence shows that India’s fight against childhood anaemia strengthens markedly when nutrition and sanitation programmes work together rather than in parallel.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

India’s New Data Regime Forces a Reckoning in Financial Governance

India’s new personal data regime places citizens at the centre of the digital economy and compels banks to rethink governance, accountability, and the ethics of information control.

Anupam Sonal

Geopolitics

Turkey and India: A Relationship Drifting into the Crosswinds

Is Ankara’s current posture towards New Delhi driven by ideological projection or geopolitical calculation—or both?

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

When Art Slaps You With Your Own Privilege

A film about migrant workers becomes a mirror for our privilege, reflecting the gaps in our economy, our ambitions, and our national story. It is time to hold the gaze.

Phynix

RBI Must Not Let Go of Its Communications Rhythm

Some of the RBI’s strongest communication practices are slipping out of view. A steadier rhythm would strengthen both access and expectations.

Mint Owl

India Inc’s H2 Optimism Meets Relentless Data Headwinds

Analysts expect a sharp revival, but earnings, demand indicators and trade dynamics continue to signal caution in an economy still struggling for momentum.

Dhananjay Sinha

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

India’s merchandise exports declined in October, as expected, but the weakness extended beyond the impact of US import tariffs.

Datametricx

India’s Scientific Diaspora: The Missing Engine of Our Knowledge Revolution

Bodies such as the UGC and AICTE continue to exercise detailed control over curriculum, hiring, and governance. While these controls once ensured minimum standards, they now often impede innovation

Arvind Mayaram

Black Friday: How a Post-Thanksgiving Sale Became a Global Psychological Trap

Black Friday did not begin as a celebration of discounts. It began as chaos.

R. Gurumurthy

Opinion

The Illusion of Reform in India’s Healthcare-Insurance Crisis

India’s healthcare-insurance crisis is rooted not in market forces alone, but in regulatory hesitation and a long-standing political reluctance to confront structural distortions. Cosmetic appeals for cooperation cannot repair a system.

Srinath Sridharan

Nitish Kumar's Tenth Ministry: Continuity, Caste Calculations, Gender and Regional Imbalances

The NDA’s new Bihar cabinet showcases stability at the top but uneven representation below — from caste arithmetic to gender gaps and regional imbalances.

Amitabh Tiwari

Bihar 2025

How RJD Lost the Plot: The Story of MGB's Electoral Collapse

The elections weren't lost because Congress underperformed—that was expected. They were lost because the RJD failed spectacularly to perform its core function: winning seats.

Amitabh Tiwari

India's Proposed AI Labelling Rules Won't Stop Deepfakes — They'll Stifle Innovation

A cottage industry of vendors, consultants, and certification schemes is poised to add new layers of cost that slow product development and burden users, even as actual threats slip through undetected.

Dev Chandrasekhar

RBI Trade Relief Measures Timely, Targeted With a Clear Sunset Window

The RBI’s trade relief package shows an institution relying on hard-earned crisis lessons to offer temporary support without loosening discipline.

Mint Owl

The Dangerous Shortcut in India’s Renewable Journey

A rushed battery-led transition stabilises the grid today but imports vulnerabilities tomorrow. India’s missing storage policy is becoming a strategic liability.

TK Arun