Tag Archives: India

by Lekha Chakraborty and Harikrishnan S As the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shri Shaktikanta Das puts it upfront, these are extraordinary times, and we need to respond with “whatever it takes” to deal with the pandemic. Over the past few days, our hope for systematically “flattening the curve” by containing the COVID-19 pandemic and moving to a quick V-shaped or U-shaped recovery is waning[i]. Evidence is increasingly pointing towards the situation worsening to a dual crisis — a...

by Harikrishnan S and Lekha Chakraborty As predictable as it can be, the Indian Prime Minister announced lockdown at 8 PM on March 24th 2020, giving the country and its 1.3 billion people all of four hours to get ready, evoking memories of the demonetisation announcement and the midnight launch of the GST! This was done by invoking the National Disaster Management Act of 2005. While many analysts lauded the communication strategy of the leader “directly” speaking to the people as...

India believes that the RCEP trade deal doesn't provide adequate protection against possible surges of imported goods. In particular, India is concerned about cheap Chinese goods flooding the domestic market.  The Indian ExpressExplained: Why India has said no to regional trade pact RCEP

The barely disguised secret is that India’s economy, as the historical record shows, is inherently protectionist. There’s no way a possible removal of agricultural tariffs protecting farmers would not provoke a social cataclysm.... The Vineyard of the SakerThe RCEP train left the station, and India, behindPepe Escobar

Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards peace with Eritrea, though the committee acknowledged it’s still a work in progress. Ethiopia has also loosened some of its more repressive policies around security and journalism recently. Commentary from BBC starting around 6 minutes here (both stories h/t Laura Seay).For longer...

By Sunanda Sen (Former Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Guest Blogger)That the Indian economy is currently experiencing a slowdown is more than evident, both with the deliberations in different private circles and with official statements signalling a series of remedial measures , mostly focused on the ailing financial sector! However, as we point out, the ailing Indian economy has concerns that go beyond flagging GDP growth and the ailing financial sector. Downturn in the economy ...

As energy or trade corridors, the fact is both Chennai-Vladivostok and Belt and Road spell out Eurasia integration. India in this particular case will profit from Russian resources traveling all the way from the Arctic and the Russian Far East, while Russia will profit from more Indian energy companies investing in the Russian Far East. The fine-print details of the Russia-China “comprehensive strategic partnership” as well as Russia’s push for Greater Eurasia were also discussed at length...

Must-read. It's short.Not only does this have a potentially huge impact on Big Pharma, but it is also China poking the US in the eye in retaliation for it regards as humiliation. So it is also "saving face."Perhaps the largest and longest lasting impact of the trade war that is already occurring is the change in attitude of Chinese consumers about American products. The Chinese are very nationalistic and patriotic. They are also ethnically proud and justifiably so based on being able to...

Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action India’s government is hiring behavioral scientists for a new nudge unit (h/t Neela Saldanha)Cancer researcher Peter Bach points out how Novartis used anchoring to set price expectations high for a new immunotherapy, making a 2 million dollar drug price (much higher than other life-saving treatments) sound reasonable years in advance by consistently referring to the new treatments in development as “million dollar therapies.” In...

M. K. Bhadrakumar seriously faults the Modi government for a strategic blunder of unprecedented proportion for India. India PunchlineUS pours oil into fire in Gulf, mum’s the word for IndiaM. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service