The IPO boom reflects domestic confidence, rising retail participation and improving market depth. But exuberance, mispricing and volatility warrant caution.

Michael Debabrata Patra

iStock.com

Will Customer Ever be the King in India?

Despite RBI’s call for customer-first policies, rising complaints highlight gaps in service. Can better training, tech tools, and accountability improve India’s banking experience?

Alpana Killawala

Crew Planning and Fatigue Management on Indian Railways: Why Trains Never Stop Running

Unlike airlines, Indian Railways never halts for crew shortages. Robust planning, training, and rest protocols ensure trains run safely, day and night, without disruption.

Shubhranshu

Unemployment Tracker

Joblessness Hits Sub-5% after 8 Months; Youth and Urban Gender Gaps Persist

India’s unemployment dipped to a fiscal low in November, aided by rural hiring and women’s participation. Yet some divides remain.

Akshi Chawla

Are We in the Goldilocks Scenario?

India’s Goldilocks moment looks enticing, yet surging growth and vanishing inflation signal a fragile equilibrium, a lull before the storm.

Mridul Saggar

Monetary Policy

MPC Signals Maturity as Policy Counters Shocks with Confidence

India’s MPC breaks from old precautionary playbooks, using countercyclical policy and clearer signalling to steady growth, inflation and financial stability.

Ashima Goyal

Opinion

A Year of Recalibration at Mint Street

Governor Malhotra’s first year at the RBI brought cleaner rules, quieter reversals, and a distinct shift in tone as the technocrat adjusted to the institution’s rhythm.

Kalyan Ram

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

India’s November Trade Deficit Narrows to Five-Month Low; Exports to US Rebound

Equities End Flat as FII Outflows, US Trade Uncertainty Keep Sentiment Muted

November Retail Inflation Rises to 0.71% But Still Below RBI’s Tolerance Band

Equity MF Inflows Rebound After Three-Month Slide; Gold ETF Inflows Halve

Fed Divided on Rate Cut as Powell Signals Long Pause Ahead

USTR Shares One-Sided Narrative on Trade Bargains With India

BofA Says Rupee Weakness Hurts Confidence More Than Prices

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

Stablecoins, CBDCs, and the RBI’s Selective Logic

In a world where money is becoming a networked technology, caution without engagement may itself become a source of vulnerability.

R. Gurumurthy

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

High-frequency data continue to send mixed signals, complicating interpretation. Retail automobile sales moderated sharply in November, even as wholesale dispatches surged.

Datametricx

Curating Playlists for Dopamine, Growth, and Disorder

From RBI recalibration to trade shocks and tech risks, India’s economy is learning to balance growth, control, and chaos, much like curating the perfect playlist.

Phynix

Why Intel’s Chip Deal May Undercut India’s Push for Self-Reliance

China, facing US chip bans, doubled down on indigenous chipmaking—with success. If India leans on Intel instead of investing in homegrown R&D, it could miss its chance to replicate that model.

TK Arun

Building an Effective Sovereign Borrowers' Club

While creditor coordination has long been institutionalized – through the Paris Club, the London Club, and industry-led efforts such as the Institute of International Finance – borrower countries have often been discouraged from sharing information, leading to ad hoc exchanges.

Homi Kharas and Mahmoud Mohieldin

What Physicswallah Built on Trust Now Balances on Cash

Physicswallah’s first letter to shareholders celebrates its performance, yet the narrative glosses over bigger risks as scale tests the mission that built the brand.

Krishnadevan V

Basis Life

Why Some Failures Stay Contained — and Others Become Televised Meltdowns

When a crisis flares, facts rarely decide its fate. Tone does. Some failures fade; others become national theatre. The difference is whether leaders steady the room—or leave it to silence.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Which Sectors Mexico’s Tariffs Will Hit in India, And Why New Delhi Has Limited Options

For India, the measures affect nearly three-quarters of its $5.75 billion exports to Mexico in 2024-25, fundamentally altering the commercial logic of accessing the Mexican market.

Ajay Srivastava

How Global AI Governance Could Work

The world needs AI governance that doesn’t rely on massive compute or heavy regulation. India’s digital architecture points the way.

Jayant Sinha

Has India’s Infrastructure Boom Transformed Its Economic Growth?

The impact of India’s infrastructure spending has been meaningful, but not explosive.

Shilpashree Venkatesh

MPC Moves Signal the Arrival of a Post-Cycle Policy Regime

Below-target disinflation, a structural liquidity pivot, and the RBI’s sharp separation of stance from liquidity signal a new level of complexity that requires a post-cycle reading.

Kalyan Ram

Why Smart Dealmakers Can Now Treat SEBI as a Counterparty in M&A

SEBI’s new informal guidance scheme subtly shifts the locus of regulatory risk management and could make savvy dealmakers now treat the regulator as a strategic counterparty rather than a roadblock.

Krishnadevan V

SIM-Binding is a Strategic Misstep

The SIM-binding mandate is not a procedural privilege the state grants itself; it is a structural redesign of India’s digital ecosystem.

Srinath Sridharan

Anand Venkatanarayanan

Monetary Policy

December Cut for Inflation, a February Cut for Growth

India’s December cut signalled entrenched disinflation, yet weakening growth may force another move in February as liquidity and demand slip.

Yield Scribe

Comprehensive Customs Reforms Are Urgent for India’s Trade Competitiveness

India’s high tariffs and cumbersome customs procedures are eroding its trade competitiveness. A comprehensive overhaul of tariffs, systems, and infrastructure is now essential.

Sharmila Kantha

Government’s Planned Bold Reset Could Make Indian Customs Future-Ready

The Budget can fix the maze of rates but the devil is sitting deep in the business processes and systems.

Reform Compass

COP30 Will Test India’s Ability to Grow Rapidly While Going Greener

COP30 arrives as India balances rapid development with intensifying climate risks. The summit’s finance, technology, and transition outcomes will shape its next decade.

Hemachandra Padhan

Why India–Canada Trade Needs CEPA Back on the Agenda

Rajesh Kumar*

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

Kalyan Ram

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

BasisPoint Groupthink

Power Without Certainty: America at a Strategic Crossroads

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Why Netflix Buying Warner Matters for PVR Inox Investors

Netflix’s bid for Warner could shift control of Hollywood content and squeeze India’s theatres. Investors must assess how upstream power may reshape box office flows.

Krishnadevan V

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

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

What Breakdowns Teach Us About Building Better

IndiGo’s meltdown, rupee jitters and RBI’s easing all underscored a bigger truth: India can’t afford reactive governance. It must build smarter, earlier.

Phynix

Beyond Diplomacy: The Economic Reality of India-Russia's $100 Billion Ambition

The India–Russia trade surge was built on cheap oil, and as that fades, the real test begins: whether India can become a genuine exporting partner rather than a commodity-led importer.

Nilanjan Banik

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

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

Basis Life

Why We Prefer Screens Over People Now?

Noise-cancelled brains, frictionless lives: India’s crisis isn’t loneliness—it’s dopamine induced sedation keeping young men happy but humanly inert.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Basis Life

Screen Masters and Meme Queens: Parenting Without the Manual

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.

Kalyani Srinath

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

Buffett’s Last Letter and Eight Principles

D. V. Ramana

The Nutrition Blind Spot in India’s Food Security Journey

G. Chandrashekhar

RBI’s Quiet Hawkishness Behind a Compelled Rate Cut

R. Gurumurthy

GDP Conundrum: India’s Supply Side is Likely Growing Faster Than its Demand Side

Karan Mehrishi

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

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

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

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

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

Airtel’s shift confirms Jio’s bet on wireless broadband as India’s home connectivity accelerates, reshaping market power and keeping price elasticity intact.

Krishnadevan V

Putin’s Visit: A Diplomatic Tightrope For New Delhi

The timing could hardly be more delicate. New Delhi is under pressure from Washington over its purchase of Russian oil and to open its markets to US goods and defence sales.

Ajay Srivastava

Rethinking SLR Through India’s Political Reality

Any debate on the SLR must be grounded in the political and fiscal realities, not in abstract theories of deregulation. And any rethink must acknowledge that liquidity reserving is not an Indian anomaly but a global norm for safeguarding stability.

Srinath Sridharan

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

SIM-binding and mandatory apps signal a push for stronger security—but without transparency and oversight, they could widen the trust deficit.

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

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

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

Rajesh Mahapatra

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