August 15 remains a day for contemplating whether India’s 1947 Partition was avoidable. Some say the British forced it. Any student of history will say this is laughably false. The most popular narrative says Jinnah’s obduracy compounded by Congress’ lack of spine caused Partition. But historians globally disagree strongly. Read an excellent account in ‘Our […]
I-Day ruminations: Could Partition have been avoided? Read More »
A global media investigation has revealed that Pegasus, a telephone hacking software invented in Israel and supposedly sold only to governments, has been used across the world to tap the phones of politicians, journalists, NGOs and others. In India, the 300 targets include Rahul Gandhi, two serving Union ministers and 40 journalists. I applaud the
Why Pegasus is just the tip of the iceberg Read More »
I have written twice already on the rise of unicorns, unlisted companies valued at over a billion dollars each. The vast majority of unicorns have never made a profit, yet billions have been poured into them by the world’s biggest, most adventurous financiers hoping to find the Amazons and Facebooks of the future. Amazon and
Investor warning: Unicorns can go bust too Read More »
When Manmohan Singh launched economic liberalization in 1991, India was the world’s biggest beggar for aid. Today India is a net aid donor, having committed $30.6 billion to Asian neighbors and Africa. In 1991, India’s capita income was just $360 a year, having been overtaken by several “miracle economies” of Asia growing at 7% per
1991 reforms gave us miracle growth, but now it’s fading Read More »
Readers may be bored with lengthy, learned analyses of 30 years of Indian economic reform, starting with Manmohan Singh’s budget speech of July 24, 1991. For variety, let me instead write on what India will look like 30 years from now. Sam Goldwyn of MGM Studios once said, “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
Unicorns — unlisted start-ups valued privately at a billion dollars or more — are exploding in number and coming to market. Zomato, India’s biggest food delivery service, has just issued shares to the public and was massively oversubscribed. The issue price valued the company at $8 billion (Rs 60,000 crore), and the price will go
Why Zomato IPO is reason for cheer Read More »
Will China inexorably become the hegemon of the 21st century? Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party declared that “socialism with Chinese characteristics” would beat the rest of the world. Is he right? Or, like Japan and the USSR earlier, is China about to peak just when it feels confident
As incomes rise, Xi will have to change his China model Read More »
The Chinese Communist Party is celebrating its 100th anniversary, confident of making China the superpower of the 21st century. In purchasing power terms, it has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest economy, and will soon do so in dollar terms. It has become a world leader in high-tech areas like solar energy, battery storage
Lee Kwan Yew is the tallest Chinese leader Read More »
The BJP administrator of the Lakshadweep Islands has created a furore through proposals such as prohibiting anybody with over two children from contesting local elections. Similar prohibitions exist in Assam, Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This is silly. India and the world face not excessive but insufficient births. China once enforced a single
Two-child cap and other disincentives should go. We need more babies, not less Read More »
As a fundamental secularist, I have long favoured a Uniform Civil Code. There is nothing secular about today’s mess where different religious groups are allowed to have separate personal laws for issues like marriage, divorce, inheritance, and gender treatment. Secularism means a common law for all. That is already true for criminal law. Muslim clerics
Uniform Civil Code: Make it a secular exercise Read More »
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