Shankkar Aiyar
Inflation: Its economics and its politics
On Friday, the Congress took to the streets draped in black to showcase their disaffection with the government and its policies as the phantom of inflation has come home to haunt Indians.
07 Aug 2022
Brace for impact: RBI, central banks flying blind
Everything that should be up is down and everything that should be down is going up.
03 Aug 2022
What is a freebie, whose money is it anyway?
Freebie politics is effectively electoral insurance paid for with taxpayer monies. What a freebie is depends on who is asking, where and when...
31 Jul 2022
GST rate hikes and chaos of clarifications
The fact that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had to step in with a series of 14 tweets to clear the picture illustrates the state of drafting and explanatory communication.
24 Jul 2022
Out of school students, joblessness...: Questions for MPs for this Monsoon Session
Our columnist Shankkar Aiyar looks at five critical issues the MPs may want to flag to get a picture of the state of governance during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
17 Jul 2022
Rupee’s yoyo calls for new playbook
The value of a currency has the potent power to trigger national pride or dismay. 1991, 1997, 2002, 2008, and 2013 are all milestones of local dismay and global doubts.
10 Jul 2022
Xi’s ‘reborn’ Hong Kong tag and China’s Taiwan agenda
For the first time in 29 months, China’s President Xi Jinping stepped out of mainland China this week. His destination: Hong Kong.
03 Jul 2022
Maha mess: The BJP traps the Sena tiger
The interpretation of the law on defection by different state assemblies and the cases that followed present a spectre of uncertainty.
26 Jun 2022
Fiery Agnipath stir: Right idea, grim realities
The need for a plan to modernise the armed forces has been haunting India since the eighties when General K Sundarji authored the controversial ‘perspective plan’.
19 Jun 2022
The missing half of demographic dividend
India will add over 9.7 million every year to the workforce till 2031 and 4.2 million per year till 2041.
05 Jun 2022
The cost of war: Who is paying the price?
The Kissinger outrage did manage to hit a throbbing global nerve though and for good reason.
29 May 2022
Hunger games: World food crisis and G7 hypocrisy
India certainly doesn’t own the copyright on export bans.
22 May 2022
World on fire with inflation, RBI hems and haws
It had, via the monetary policy committee, taken the decision to raise the repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks) by 40 basis points.
12 May 2022
Ease of living challenges in the age of OTP
The aspiration of ease of living, for a billion plus Indians, is frequently found stranded amidst political lethargy and systemic apathy.
01 May 2022
US signals end of free lunch: Who is paying?
It can be safely said that the old adage ‘there is no free lunch’ has come home to roost.
24 Apr 2022
