Selected Tag: Srinath Sridharan

Srinath Sridharan

Dr. Srinath Sridharan is a Corporate Advisor & Independent Director on Corporate Boards. He is the author of ‘Family and Dhanda’.

MPC Framework

There Should Always be Food on RBI’s Inflation Plate

As India debates whether food prices should be excluded from inflation targets, the RBI will find itself balancing political pressure with institutional credibility. The RBI must remember that inflation is not a percentage point; it is the price of a plate of food.

Srinath Sridharan

August 26, 2025 at 5:20 AM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: About Silent Goodbyes & How Middle-Age Friendships Disappear

In a world where ‘connection’ is measured by likes, emojis, and quick replies, the deepest friendships are quietly slipping away. This is the story of those silent goodbyes, and the cost we often don’t see until it’s too late.

Srinath Sridharan

August 24, 2025 at 9:02 AM IST

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Why India Refuses Asymmetric Bargains in Trade Coercion

India’s refusal to yield to unilateral US tariffs is an assertion of sovereignty in a world where economic power is being weaponised.

Srinath Sridharan

August 20, 2025 at 1:09 PM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: The Guest Room Host Sleeps In

Every luxury apartment flaunts it: the “guest bedroom.” But what it becomes in real life is far more interesting: part storage room, part marital timeout zone, part silent confession of fatigue and freedom.

Srinath Sridharan

August 17, 2025 at 10:36 AM IST

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Rules 2.0: Rethinking Compliance to Build Trust and Inclusion in India’s Economy

In India, compliance often feels like control, not trust. If ease of doing business is truly the goal, why aren’t these bureaucratic obstacles being dismantled?

Srinath Sridharan

August 16, 2025 at 7:11 AM IST

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ICICI’s Minimum Balance Hike Signals Banking’s Cost Reality Check

Indian banking must shed the pretence to free service and confront the structural trade-offs between inclusion and profitability.

Srinath Sridharan

August 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM IST

iStock/Mrinal Pal

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: One Master Bedroom, Two Baths: The Sanity of Middle Age

In many Indian homes, love no longer storms out, it quietly negotiates more room to breathe. Separate duvets and soon-to-be popular twin bathrooms could be quiet strategies to be together, and yet sane.

Srinath Sridharan

August 10, 2025 at 8:15 AM IST

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Building India’s Second Moat in AI: Beyond Code, Beyond Cost, Towards Sovereign Value

India’s AI opportunity demands more than code, cost advantage or hopeful rhetoric. To be relevant as a global-tech-participant, we must pair product ambition and sovereign strategy with decisive, long-horizon investment in emerging tech infrastructure and research.

Srinath Sridharan

August 6, 2025 at 3:20 AM IST

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Monetary Policy

Rate Cuts, Trade Shocks, and the Limits of Monetary Signalling

When monetary easing is not matched by credit traction, further rate cuts risk becoming ineffective. In a volatile global and domestic setting, the RBI must safeguard its credibility by acting only where it believes the real economy is ready to respond.

Srinath Sridharan

August 5, 2025 at 7:21 AM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: The ‘Hum Do, Hamare Do’ Mantra of the Middle‑Aged

In countless Indian middle‑aged homes, the old fight over the TV remote has quietly ended, replaced by two screens, two feeds, and a silence that feels like peace. But is there peace?

Srinath Sridharan

August 3, 2025 at 8:43 AM IST

AI Generated

Wrong Messaging When the State Comes for Anna‑data on the Footpath

Broadening the net should mean including those with real capacity, rather than chasing the smallest trader with penalties built on data alone. Reform must begin by trusting citizens, while still asking the better-off to pay their share.

Srinath Sridharan

Anand Venkatanarayanan

August 1, 2025 at 7:24 AM IST

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TCS Job Cuts

AI Tests India’s Tech Model and Policy Vision

TCS’s decision to trim jobs disrupts the industry’s narrative of frictionless transformation. It exposes how AI is not merely an efficiency lever but a structural force revealing India’s chronic underinvestment in education and innovation.

Srinath Sridharan

July 29, 2025 at 12:06 PM IST

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: Middle Age – Where the Joints Ache and So Does the Truth

We’ve grown into our sarcasm. We’ve earned our eye-rolls. And we’ve made peace with the fact that nothing in life bends quite the way it used to, neither our backs, nor our expectations.

Srinath Sridharan

July 27, 2025 at 6:30 AM IST

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Power, Desire, and What We Still Do Not Say

Workplaces teach us to win, not to unarm. The real question is why we built them that way.

Srinath Sridharan

July 25, 2025 at 9:05 AM IST

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Basis Life

Power, Desire, and The Boardroom: Kirti Tarang Pande On Gender And Control

Srinath Sridharan

July 23, 2025 at 11:45 AM IST

Trump Will Tom-Tom if Deal Happens, But India Must Stay on Tiptoe

Trump’s drama-driven diplomacy looms over US-India trade talks. Can New Delhi stay steady amid showy proclamations and shifting deals? Strategic patience may be India’s best defence.

Srinath Sridharan

July 23, 2025 at 6:32 AM IST

White House

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: Hormones, Homework, and the Hot Flash of Truth

Ask any middle-aged parent of a teen today, and they’ll tell you: we’re not raising children; we’re surviving tech-powered beings who believe your existence is a personal attack on their vibe.

Srinath Sridharan

July 21, 2025 at 7:24 AM IST

Istock.com

Banks as Instruments, Bankers as Shock Absorbers, Everyone Bears the Hidden Cost

Yet another banker’s suicide reveals a deeper design flaw: a system that cascades pressure downward faster than it builds capacity, while the state, as owner, demands banks be profitable engines, social levellers and campaign arms, yet seldom reforms the culture it controls.

Srinath Sridharan

July 19, 2025 at 6:02 AM IST

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India’s Cities are Not Broken. They’ve been Abandoned

India’s cities have been undone by the collapse of political accountability and the acceptance of dysfunction as ordinary. Without structural reform and genuine local democracy, urban India will remain trapped in a cycle of promises, paralysis and silent abandonment.

Srinath Sridharan

July 16, 2025 at 2:50 AM IST

istocks/Chris Bucanac

Basis Life

Why Even VIPs Falter Without Hunger

Legacy means little without hunger. Promoters must ask tough questions before strong brands fade into relics.

Srinath Sridharan

July 15, 2025 at 5:19 AM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: Then and Now and Somewhere in Between

Parenting, whether in the 1980s or 2020s, is still a complicated act of hope. It is believing that the child you raise will one day understand the parent you tried to be.

Srinath Sridharan

July 13, 2025 at 1:03 PM IST

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India Can’t End Corruption, But It Can End Its Celebration

The fight against corruption must go beyond tracing its origins to stop its public celebrations. Only when illicit wealth is harder to flaunt will its social currency collapse.

Srinath Sridharan

Anil Kariwala

July 11, 2025 at 3:52 AM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: Midlife In A Filtered Frame

Today, being visible means being active online. And being active online means you must pick a lane—funny, wise, relatable, aesthetic, or occasionally all of the above.

Srinath Sridharan

July 6, 2025 at 4:46 AM IST

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Guardianship Or Overreach? In Defence Of The RBI’s Right To Watch The Experts

The RBI’s move to intensify oversight is a necessary act of institutional responsibility in a governance landscape marked by silence, capture, and structural asymmetry.

Srinath Sridharan

July 1, 2025 at 9:10 AM IST

Basis Life

The Future of Leadership Need Not Be Algorithmic

Human-AI collaboration is not a technological milestone. It is actually a societal test for which our current models of leadership are not ready for.

Srinath Sridharan

July 1, 2025 at 1:16 AM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: The Realities Of The Great Holiday Showdown

The annual holiday planning is now an exchange of dreams, realities, and the occasional eye-roll. It’s about finding balance, compromising on the dream destination, and navigating the quirks that make shared adventures unforgettable.

Srinath Sridharan

June 29, 2025 at 5:55 AM IST

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Why Depth Must Defeat Virality

The current platform architecture disproportionately rewards performativity over process, and quick returns over slow mastery. But economies that endure are not built by those chasing virality.

Srinath Sridharan

June 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM IST

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Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: Joint Pain, Joint Account — The Midlife Budget Of Love

A funny bone meets a knee bone in this honest account of what middle-aged love looks like, between medicine alarms, mutual funds, and murmured sweet nothings about bank balance.

Srinath Sridharan

June 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM IST

iStock.com

Basis Life

The Warzones Of Today Have No Borders

And the fire we ignore abroad may soon burn through our own certainties.

Srinath Sridharan

Kirti Tarang Pande

June 18, 2025 at 7:50 AM IST

AI generated

Basis Life

Sarci-Sense: From Swoon Phase to Moon-phase — The Great Indian Marital Timing

A warm, cheeky look at how the spark in long-term Indian marriages just its own different calendar.

Srinath Sridharan

June 14, 2025 at 7:33 AM IST

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The Broken Compass Of Indian Insurance: Where Is The Consumer?

Despite its central role in financial protection, India’s insurance sector often appears to place industry functionality ahead of consumer trust—reflecting a regulatory framework that has yet to fully embrace urgency and consumer-centricity.

Srinath Sridharan

June 11, 2025 at 6:57 AM IST

IRDAI

Basis Life

It Takes A City, Not A Couple, To Run An Indian Household

In the great Indian city life, it’s not love or luck that holds a home together—it is the cook, the bai, the driver, the tuition teacher, and a prayer that everyone shows up on time.

Srinath Sridharan

June 7, 2025 at 7:38 AM IST

AI Photo

Monetary Intent And Content Matter, Not Just The Mic

Authority and influence in central banking are earned through judgement, not decibels.

Srinath Sridharan

June 6, 2025 at 12:47 PM IST

Preserve The Fiscal Union, Make States More Fiscally Competitive

India must reform fiscal equity within the Constitution — not fracture its sovereignty by devolving income tax to the states.

Srinath Sridharan

June 4, 2025 at 8:36 AM IST

Monetary Policy Or Market Theatre? When Headlines Front-Run The RBI

Overconfident headlines and speculative forecasts risk distorting monetary policy deliberations and undermining institutional credibility.

Srinath Sridharan

June 2, 2025 at 8:20 AM IST

IStock.com

Basis Life

When Parents Age And Middle-Aged Children Run Out of Time

Urban success has come at the cost of familial presence. As our parents age in quieter towns, we struggle to be there—not for lack of love, but for lack of time.

Srinath Sridharan

May 31, 2025 at 5:31 AM IST

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India’s Economic Rise And The Need To Make It Human-Centric

Sustained prosperity will depend on investing in people, institutions, and collaborative governance.

Srinath Sridharan

May 28, 2025 at 9:40 AM IST

istock.com/natbits

Basis Life

The Art Of Saying Nothing: India’s “Hi” Culture

In a hyper-connected India, our digital hellos often reveal a deeper discomfort with clarity, confidence, and saying what we truly mean.

Srinath Sridharan

May 24, 2025 at 5:38 AM IST

Opinion

Corporate Houses As Bankers? Not So Fast

India needs more banks, but not at the cost of its financial integrity. Allowing corporate houses into banking risks turning institutions of public trust into instruments of private influence.

Srinath Sridharan

May 23, 2025 at 8:05 AM IST

RBI

Mega & MAGA Governance 101: Lessons from America’s Democratic Monarch

Trumponomics is all in the family and is now teaching the world how to blur power, profit, and policy.

Srinath Sridharan

May 22, 2025 at 3:30 AM IST

Gage Skidmore

India’s Manufacturing Crisis: Stuck As A Global Assembly Line

India’s industrial sovereignty and relevance in the global economy depend on its urgent industrial reinvention.

Srinath Sridharan

May 21, 2025 at 8:18 AM IST

iStock.com

Basis Life

We Avoid Some People — And Why We Might Be One of Them

We have all dodged a call or avoided a message — but what if every silent exit says more about us than the person we are avoiding?

Srinath Sridharan

May 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM IST

iStock.com

The Fading Pulse Of A Rules-Based World Order

The global architecture built after World War II is no longer fit for the fractures of today. Without urgent reform and reimagination, multilateralism risks becoming a relic rather than a remedy.

Srinath Sridharan

May 15, 2025 at 5:52 AM IST

Via WikiCommons

Basis Life

If Only Tweets Can Bring Peace With Permanence

Donald Trump may rush to take credit for ceasefire theatrics, but the US’ decades-long complicity in funding and legitimising Pakistan’s terror machinery cannot be airbrushed with a tweet. .

Srinath Sridharan

May 12, 2025 at 7:40 AM IST

Basis Life

Healing Within, Finding Peace Beyond Outer Conflict

Our greatest battles are often not with the world around us, but with the unhealed emotions within.

Srinath Sridharan

May 11, 2025 at 5:29 AM IST

Panchayat Webseries

Why India Is Right To Challenge EU’s Carbon Border Tax

The EU risks weaponising climate policy as a tool of trade protectionism. India’s stance defends not just its economy but the sovereign right of developing nations to shape their own green transitions.

Srinath Sridharan

May 9, 2025 at 8:52 AM IST

Are Tech Broligarchs The New Global Rulers?

A silent empire is rising—not of nations, but of tech moguls—rewriting power, privacy, and the very fabric of democracy.

Srinath Sridharan

May 8, 2025 at 6:39 AM IST

Markets Hold Steady As India Shows Measured Retaliation, Strategic Resolve

Markets remained calm after India’s precision strikes, signalling investor confidence in its strategic restraint and economic fundamentals.

Srinath Sridharan

May 7, 2025 at 7:49 AM IST

Vinayaraj/ Via WikiCommons

IBC Cannot Survive If Finality Is This Fragile

Bhushan Power-JSW: When the law overrides commercial logic years after resolution, the cost is trust, capital, and credibility.

Srinath Sridharan

May 5, 2025 at 7:41 AM IST

iStock.com/naveen0301

Collaborative Federalism: Moving Beyond Symbolism

India’s vision of federalism is leaving citizens to navigate fractured education systems, crumbling cities, and neglected public services. True collaborative federalism must prioritise tangible outcomes and not symbolic gestures or political leverage.

Srinath Sridharan

April 28, 2025 at 3:57 AM IST

Vyacheslav Argenberg/ Via WikiCommons

Don’t Blame Green Finance for Promoters’ Greed

The Gensol episode seems a case of individual misconduct, not a failure of green finance. Misgovernance must be called out for what it is, without undermining the legitimacy of sustainable capital.

Srinath Sridharan

April 26, 2025 at 7:16 AM IST

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India’s Federal Compact Needs Trust, Not Just Transactions

India's federalism is at a crossroads. True collaboration between the Centre and states must be built on trust and shared responsibility, not just convenience.

Srinath Sridharan

April 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM IST

File Photo

India’s Digital Public Payments Infrastructure Needs A Backup Plan

India’s payments architecture has scaled with speed, but resilience—not just reach—must now define the next phase of policy and design.

Srinath Sridharan

April 23, 2025 at 5:55 AM IST

Signalgate: Why India Can’t Afford To Outsource Encryption

When the world’s largest democracy falters on digital discretion, the lesson for others is clear—sovereignty in statecraft demands sovereignty in encryption.

Srinath Sridharan

April 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM IST

RBI

Buffer That Wasn’t Needed And Why That Matters

RBI not triggering a key crisis buffer signals confidence in India’s financial stability—and a bet that growth can coexist with prudence.

Srinath Sridharan

April 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM IST

If Regulator Steps Back, Who Steps In?

Critiques of RBI’s supervision miss the point—robust oversight is not ritual, it’s what shields Indian finance from fragility and failure.

Srinath Sridharan

April 15, 2025 at 7:22 AM IST

RBI

The Bureau

India’s Economy Expands 7.8% in June Quarter, Highest in Five Quarters

Rupee Hits Record Low as Tariff Shock Fuels FPI Outflows

Trump Tests the Guardrails of US Credibility

India’s Industrial Output Growth Hits Four-Month High of 3.5% in July

Fed Eyes Data Before Rate Decision; Trump’s 50% Tariff on India in effect

Fitch Affirms India Rating Days After S&P Upgrade, Points to Tariff Risks

Lifting the Lid on Regulatory Silence

How Some Importers Mined a Scheme for Exporters to Dodge Exchequer

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

Sarci-Sense: About Silent Goodbyes & How Middle-Age Friendships Disappear

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