BUSINESS
Periodic Labour Force Survey: Men leave the farms, women shoulder the burden
Services now employ more men than agriculture. But three in five women still work on farms—and over a third don't get paid
BUSINESS
The 16th Finance Commission’s ambitious fiscal roadmap vs the budget’s cautious glide path
The 16th Finance Commission charts a bolder path to 3.5% fiscal deficit and 47.6% debt-to-GDP by 2030-31 than the Union Budget 2026-27’s more measured steps, yet both signal a shared commitment to long-term fiscal discipline
BUSINESS
The Daddy of all Deals: India-US trade breakthrough resets the entire playbook
The sharp rollback of US tariffs on Indian exports is more than a trade reset—it lowers uncertainty, revives market sentiment and reshapes India’s economic and strategic positioning
BUSINESS
Union Budget 2026: Boxes ticked, but where’s the spark?
The finance minister offers a steady, investment-heavy Budget that sustains momentum, but stops short of the transformative reforms needed to secure India's place in a fractured global economy
BUSINESS
The Economic Survey's delayed gratification delusion
The Economic Survey 2025-26 blames India's development struggles on citizens' impatience and preference for shortcuts, but perhaps the real culprit is institutional failure that makes "delayed gratification" economically irrational
BUDGET
The Rupee Paradox -- India's macroeconomic triumph meets a persistent weakness: Economic Survey 2026
Beyond the headline GDP numbers, the Economic Survey sounds a cautionary note on the rupee. It ties together global fragility, capital flows, and the imperative for competitive manufacturing
BUSINESS
IIP growth surges to 7.8%, giving Budget room to tackle debt, boost employment
Amidst sustained industrial growth and robust high-frequency indicators, the Union Budget should shift focus to fiscal consolidation and targeted support for lagging employment sectors
BUSINESS
Beyond the Headlines: IMF report reveals stark divergence between gloom narrative and steady growth
Despite geopolitical storms, tariff uncertainties, and other tensions, the IMF projects global growth to remain solid at 3.3% in 2026, powered by AI-driven investment and adaptive policies
BUSINESS
The metamorphosis of Davos Man
Davos Man has shed his cosmopolitan cloak, revealing the enduring pursuit of power and profit in a fragmented world where the strategies have changed, but the game remains the same
BUDGET
OPINION | How a Sunday Budget stiffens our collective spine
Nothing builds character quite like fiscal responsibility delivered on a Sunday
BUSINESS
Substance over Form: Supreme Court redefines treaty benefits for foreign investors
A landmark Supreme Court judgment in the Tiger Global tax case has fundamentally reshaped the rules for foreign investment in India by enforcing the primacy of economic substance over legal form
BUSINESS
The Union Budget must focus on national security
Amid persistent geopolitical challenges, the Union Budget must accelerate the nation's momentum in strategic autonomy to close the gaps and secure long-term economic and political resilience
BUSINESS
Data Story | December data show rural jobs hold firm as urban labour market cools
Latest jobs numbers reveal a divergence, with stable rural employment contrasting against rising urban joblessness, even as both show improvement in the medium term
BUSINESS
India’s New Investment Framework: Growth without crisis
India's current investment rate, while lower than its 2011-13 peak, represents a structural change—an upgrade from the fragility of a credit-fuelled, import-heavy boom to a more sustainable, model of growth
BUSINESS
Budget Snapshot | The Indian State vs The ASEAN model: A fiscal disconnect
IMF projections reveal India’s government spends and borrows at a scale closer to the U.S. and China than to its regional peers, creating a unique growth-versus-sustainability dilemma for policymakers
BUSINESS
A resilient 7.4 percent GDP growth masks a stark divide
While India's economy is projected to grow at 7.4 percent in 2025-26, the expansion remains narrowly driven by a couple of services sectors, leaving the vast majority of workers in agriculture and mass-employment sectors behind
BUSINESS
The RBI's tale of two equity markets
Beyond the headlines, the RBI's Financial Stability Report issues a dual alert: caution against global AI euphoria and a red flag on India's sentiment-driven small-cap rally
BUSINESS
The PMI's warning for the Budget: Animal spirits are fading
As private sector optimism hits a multi-year low, the clearest call from the latest PMI data is for the Union Budget to make a decisive move to restore business confidence and rekindle investment appetite
POLITICS
Venezuela and the new American doctrine: A regional strike reveals a global strategy
The US action in Venezuela was the opening salvo of a stark new global strategy—one that treats alliances as transactions and sovereignty as conditional
BUSINESS
Tax revenue squeeze forces Centre to slam brakes on spending
GST cuts meant to stimulate the economy have backfired on the fiscal front, with central tax collections rising just 3.3% and forcing the government into spending cuts which could stall the growth momentum
BUSINESS
IIP's November Surge: A false dawn or the start of a 2026 turnaround?
While industrial output hits a two-year high, underlying volatility in key sectors and a long-awaited index rebasing will define the true trajectory of India's factory activity in 2026
BUSINESS
The Two Indias: How soaring inequality is shaping markets, economy
New data reveal a decade of intense income and wealth concentration in India, creating a dual economy that is redefining winners and losers across consumer and asset markets
MARKETS
The Currency Battleground: How undervalued yuan powers China's surplus while India's rupee tells a different story
Beyond the political noise, BIS exchange rate data exposes the true scale of competitive devaluations, showing why China's surplus is a policy outcome while India's deficit reveals a growth story
BUSINESS
A hawkish ease? The Fed’s 2026 clues could shift capital from AI to emerging markets
While markets have already priced in a rate cut, the true significance of this FOMC meeting lies in the signals it sends about the longevity of the easing cycle and its implications for a richly valued AI-led rally and global capital flows
