Blogs

A former envoy explains the issues with Donald Trump’s Board of Peace and the five questions that India should seek before taking a decision. Peace initiatives usually arrive gift-wrapped in lofty language. Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) for Gaza has arrived with a bill – a $1bn price tag for permanence, surprising global leaders and…

Spain’s railway tragedies have lessons for India’s high-speed train dreams Two accidents in Spain in a span of a few days – the first one the worst in Spanish records since 2013 – put the spotlight on railway safety. In the first crash on Sunday in southern Spain, the tail end of a train carrying…

The financial sector landscape is becoming increasingly complex amid interoperable technology, buoyant growth, intensifying competition, demographic shifts, changing customer expectations, interconnectedness and interdependencies, rising risks, changing laws and regulations, geopolitical implications, and many other tectonic transformations underway. This is an ongoing, transformative business phenomenon in which, among many other strategic moves, risk management needs better…

Federalism implies a distribution of power between a central government and regional bodies, which promotes collaboration and cooperation. It highlights the necessity of an administrative framework for effective governance, emphasizing the need for a permanent, impartial bureaucratic body to implement policies. Bureaucratic competence is vital for sustaining political legitimacy and achieving public welfare, making the…

When the asset being traded is human attention, behavioural profiles, algorithmic insights and predictive monetisation, the old tax rules — tethered to territory and physical presence — begin to crumble like chalk on blackboard. The world’s tax cabinets now face a stark choice: retool jurisdiction, or watch revenue slip into the intangible. India’s journey illustrates…

‘Development’ and ‘redevelopment’: two much The old familiar city is disappearing before our eyes. Blame the two swag words, so-called ‘development’ and ‘redevelopment’. In the first, sarkari agencies are rewriting Mortimer Wheeler’s Still Digging. In the second, builders have appropriated the motto of mountaineers, ‘Higher Still and Higher’. Both sell a swanky future, but at…

SC upholds press freedom. But govts find it too easy to ignore constitutional provisions  Revoking Punjab govt’s shutdown of a daily’s printing press in Ludhiana, for alleged discovery of liquor bottles on premises, Supreme Court said, “Don’t hamper publishing of the newspaper (Punjab Kesari)…shall continue to function uninterruptedly.” Leave aside merits of the case –…

Going to Davos in Switzerland right now has many attractions — clean air, lots of snow, and a big meeting called the World Economic Forum (WEF). At this meeting, Indian states often sign lots of MoUs. MoU means Memorandum of Understanding. It’s basically a document that says, “We plan to work together.” But it’s not…

“We don’t need an army of actuaries to tell us that the catastrophic impacts of climate change will be felt beyond the traditional horizons…” said Mark Carney – the then Bank of England Governor – in his memorable “Climate change is a tragedy of the horizon” speech in 2015. AMOC One red flag in the…

By Jayant B Dave One jocular message on a mobile phone read: What is your business? The witty answer was: ‘Mind your own business’. It implies both a refusal to answer and right answer, too. ‘Mind your own business’ is a versatile virtue from personal, social, ethical and spiritual viewpoints. Instead of trying to fix…