Page 6 - Weekend Ruminations

Why BJP gaining foothold in the East is seismic shift in India's politics

The BJP's rise shows two things: first, it is better at winning elections than at governance; and second, it remains intent on pushing its trademark social and political agenda, writes T N Ninan

50 and beyond: How Bangladesh has fared in half a century of its history

Dhaka's justification for breaking away from West Pakistan is now self-evident. If it has done better than New Delhi in 50 years, it has completely outpaced Pakistan on every metric, writes T N Ninan

Future shock: New rules needed for the new world, but who will write them?

How should personal data be used and not used? What about the disintermediated media that has teamed up with Big Tech to re-invent politics by spreading post-truth and hate mail, wonders T N Ninan

New landscape in Old India: Building spree in the midst of familiar hassles

Even as the govt tries to scale up infrastructure, Centre-state squabbles, environmentalists' concerns, hassles over land acquisition and plain old project delays affect projects, writes T N Ninan

The meaning of 'partly free', and the direction in which India is headed

How far the govt will go towards establishing its control depends on the effectiveness of domestic institutional resistance and on how much it wants to risk international censure, writes T N Ninan

Poverty alleviation: Why India is not able do to what China has pulled off

What should concern India is not just its loss of economic momentum, but also the fact that it is not outpacing countries not even remotely like China in growth and development, writes T N Ninan

New tack on economic policy: Why's Modi govt going against its natural instinct?

The promise of a less suspicious govt is surprising. What about the disconnect between the new business stance and earlier push to dictate the narrative in politics and public life, wonders T N Ninan

A different Modi: The PM is no longer shy of showing his real hand

A faltering economy may have led to a re-think on economic strategy. And Mr Modi might think he is politically strong enough to take some risks. But there could be a minefield ahead, writes T N Ninan

Agricultural reforms, farmers' agitation, and the power of narrative

A group of people holding an elected govt to ransom and a govt turning against its own citizens in the name of law and order are both instinctively troubling in a democracy, writes T N Ninan

Budget for the victims: Some silent crises for Ms Sitharaman to address

A consumption boost through continued pay-outs for another year to those at the bottom of the pyramid, and still more money for the employee guarantee scheme should be in order, writes T N Ninan

Manufacturing might or services - what will steer India's future economy?

We must acknowledge that India cannot replicate the export orientation of the East Asian manufacturing story, or even Bangladesh. The services story will have to compensate for this, writes T N Ninan

What unicorns' coming of age means for big business and retail investors

While foreign investors like Japan's Softbank, China's Alibaba, and the US' Sequoia are big players in the start-up space, India doesn't have a serious VC sector with risk appetite, writes T N Ninan

Banking's game of pretend: It's time we recognised the fate of govt banks

The only feasible way to have a healthy banking sector could be making it mostly private, along with two or three large, better-run government banks, writes T N Ninan

Looking back, and forward: How economies and economics changed in 10 years

Even as both India and the world struggle to re-build after Covid-19, they face slow-burn problems that could develop into full-blown crises, writes T N Ninan

Annus Horribilis: It wasn't just Covid that made 2020 one of the worst years

The food crisis of the 1960s gave birth to the Green Revolution, and out of 1970s' stagnation was born the first, weak impulses for economic reform. T N Ninan wonders what good will come out of 2020

Big Tech's big worries: Why are govts everywhere out to de-fang FAANG?

So far, there seems to be limited debate about their activities in India, where virtually all FAANG companies have teamed up in different ways with India's most powerful businessman, writes T N Ninan

Things India must do to be a functioning social democracy

If even a modest but growing social welfare package is to be affordable, the public sector has to perform or be disbanded so that the govt can shut down one of the two cash burners, writes T N Ninan

Aspiration and realism: How Kashmir and Palestine have a similar story

A great many in Kashmir dreamt of 'azaadi', whose definition changed from one phase to the next. Palestinians also did. But people of both places demonstrated a clear lack of realism, writes T N Ninan

Unrealistic to expect manufacturing to be 25% of India's GDP, even by 2030

The decision to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has the potential to become in the long term one of the Modi govt's major blunders. T N Ninan explains why

Savings, profits, stocks can't stay high for long amid low income and interest rates

Things that cannot go on forever will not go on forever. There will be a change in the direction of the wind. One must hope it will be slow and calibrated, writes T N Ninan