The Times of India

The next twists in the Gulf war are unpredictable. US President Trump has threatened to land troops to take Kharg Island, Iran’s main export hub, despite the enormous risks involved. He has also threatened to blast Iran’s power stations and oil infrastructure if it does not call an end to the war on US terms. […]

Can the world’s greatest naval power be foiled by something as low-tech as floating mines? Right now, massive US aircraft carriers and destroyers dominate the Gulf. Iran has no comparable vessels. Yet the damage caused by Iranian drones and mines has paralysed commercial traffic in the Gulf, and the US is unable to ensure security.

The govt has liberalised Press Note 3, an executive device to kill Chinese investment proposals through unending security scrutiny. But strong constraints remain that will keep Chinese FDI very low. This reveals muddled thinking on both economics and security.China today has the greatest pool of savings in the world and the best technology in several

India is energetically pursuing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). It has signed deals with the UK, EFTA, UAE, Oman, and Australia. It has finalised negotiations with the European Union, a really big market, and ratification by EU members should follow next year. A framework agreement with the US has been negotiated. Donald Trump has already said

Led by Thomas Piketty, leftist economists protest that inequalities are getting intolerable, so the richest should be taxed severely. Countering this, Jeff Bezos of Amazon pointed out last year that company founders had frequently made minority shareholders extremely wealthy. He suggested that entrepreneurs should be ranked not by their own wealth, but by the wealth

Donald Trump is advertising his abduction of Venezuela’s President Maduro as hard-nosed realpolitik. Without putting troops on the ground, he says Washington will do business with Nicolás Maduro’s lieutenants, secure oil, and put American companies — notably Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and ConocoPhillips — back in charge of the world’s largest proven reserves. This is a

Trump has triumphed over critics, including me, in 2025. His state of the union message in January foretold a sharp rise in tariffs, and dismantling of the global rulesbased economic system as well as the US’ role as global policeman that had driven the fastest economic growth in post-WW2 history. Then came his ‘Liberation Day’

Opening the nuclear power sector to private investors is desirable. But India should proceed cautiously without rigid targets, ready for sharp changes in the investment mix as required. The govt has announced the opening of nuclear power to the private sector, framing it as a landmark reform. Officials say that to raise nuclear capacity from

India’s GDP growth of 8.2% in Q2 FY26 has astonished even seasoned observers. This is not merely ‘better than expected’, or ‘excellent’. It’s, as one analyst put it, ‘almost surreal’. Surreal not because India has never grown at this pace. But because it has done so in one of the most difficult global economic years

This article was originally published by The Times of India on Nov 19, 2025.