When Disclosure Meets Discipline: Recasting India’s Financial Regulatory Architecture

As India’s markets mature, the distinction between a disclosure-driven regulator and a prudential guardian reveals both strength and strain in our governance model. An introspective analysis shows that the predicaments of financial supervision demand not just transparency and buffers, but an integrated approach to systemic risk.

Srinath Sridharan

Bugdet 2026

Why Carbon Markets Are Failing the World’s Farmers and What Budget Can Do About It

Despite rapid growth, carbon markets exclude smallholder farmers by design. Budget 2026 can fix this by funding public MRV, institutional aggregation, and risk sharing.

Arvind Mayaram

Currency Valuation: From Competitiveness to Coping Mechanisms

A tour of REER, FEER and BEER shows why currency valuation models often explain discomfort better than they explain exchange rates.

R. Gurumurthy

Budget 2026

Time for an Economic Reset

As India prepares Budget 2026, the focus shifts to fiscal discipline, debt anchoring, federal realignment, and trade reform to reset growth on a sustainable path.

Shubhada Rao, Vivek Kumar, and Yuvika Singhal

Spotlight Back on Process Patents

Indian pharma companies, and the regulatory and judicial support system, must wake up to the challenges of personalised medicines and the changes this would necessitate in formulating and approving drug trials and patenting of drugs and production processes.

TK Arun

Budget 2026

A Tightrope Walk Between Political Compulsions and Economic Imperatives

Budget 2026 walks a tightrope between election-year pressures and economic discipline, juggling jobs, rural distress and middle-class relief without undermining fiscal credibility.

Amitabh Tiwari

The Snack Boom Is India’s Tobacco Moment

Global investors are pouring billions into Indian snack brands. Profits look strong, but the long-term health and regulatory risks are mounting.

Krishnadevan V

Columnists

Michael Debabrata Patra

Michael Patra is an economist and former RBI Deputy Governor.

TK Arun

Arun is a seasoned writer on economic and policy matters.

Abheek Barua

Abheek is an Independent Economist and the Former Chief Economist at HDFC Bank.

Ajay Srivastava

Ajay Srivastava is the founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative.

Vijay Chauhan

Vijay Singh Chauhan, a former IRS official, is a Senior Visiting Fellow at ICPP, Ashoka University

Dhananjay Sinha

Dhananjay, a D-School alum, is CEO and Co-Head of Equities at Systematix Group.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Kriti is a psychologist specialising in mental health, org behaviour, and brand strategy

Srinath Sridharan

Srinath is an author, corporate advisor, and independent director on corporate boards.

Sharmila Chavaly

Ex-civil servant Chavaly held key Railways, Finance roles; specialises in infra & PPPs

Nilanjan Banik

Nilanjan Banik, Professor at Mahindra University, specialises in trade and development economics.

Sachin Malhotra

Sachin was till recently an MD with Standard Chartered Bank.

Rajesh Mahapatra

Rajesh Mahapatra is the former Editor of The Press Trust of India

Krishnadevan V

Krishnadevan is Editorial Director at BasisPoint Insight.

Dev Chandrasekhar

Chandra advises companies on big-picture narratives on strategy and markets.

Kalyan Ram

Kalyan Ram co-founded Cogencis. He now leads BasisPoint Insight.

R. Gurumurthy

Gurumurthy is an ex-central banker who handled markets, and later, financial stability for RBI.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain is a former Commander of India’s Kashmir Corps.

The Bureau

IIP Growth Hits 26-Month High as Consumer Demand Lifts Industrial Momentum

Equities Extend Gains on EU Trade Deal Optimism, Budget-Linked Stocks Lead

Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar Dies in Plane Crash Near Baramati

India Faces Higher EU Tariffs as GSP Suspension Hits 87% of Exports

India Insurance Sector Seen Gaining Profitability on Premium Growth, Reforms: Moody’s

Cyber Threats Set to Intensify in 2026 as AI Arms Race Accelerates: Moody’s

Bloomberg Defers Call on India Gilts Inclusion for Global Aggregate Index

Stablecoins Are No Longer Just a Crypto Story

Budget 2026: India's Manufacturing Conundrum

Learning to Shoot: I Tried to Fly Before I Could Walk

Budget 2026

India’s Green Bond Story: Why the Budget Matters More Than Ever

India’s green bond market is testing pricing limits. With demand proving fragile, the Budget’s role in creating incentives and deepening investor participation will determine whether green finance scales beyond symbolism.

Venkatakrishnan Srinivasan

India–EU FTA Anchors Ties, But CBAM Remains the Elephant in the Room

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism remains outside the deal, creating a structural imbalance.

Ajay Srivastava

Budget 2026

State Finances are India’s New Macroeconomic Frontier

India’s fiscal story can no longer be read through the Union Budget alone. State borrowing and spending now shape growth, interest rates and macroeconomic stability.

Duvvuri Subbarao

Spaghetti Bowl: You Have Been Served

The Trade-Off Paradox: How India could have leveraged market access to optimise FDI and domestic manufacturing

Reform Compass

The Turkey Illusion

The illusion of rupee stability in 2024 hid rising risks, as intervention suppressed price signals until volatility returned with force

V Thiagarajan

The Fiscal Pit: The Union Budget Plays to a Crowd of Contradictions

From crowds singing in unison to a budget struggling to harmonise multiple economic voices, India’s moment demands more than just rhythm.

Phynix

Budget 2026

Why the Budget Should Support Development Goals

Beyond headline numbers, this Budget must align fiscal discipline with productivity, inclusion and institutional reform to sustain growth and realise Viksit Bharat.

Ashima Goyal

Gold Fantasies vs. Financial Reality: The Reserve Narrative That Doesn’t Add Up

Claims of gold reclaiming a 1970s-style dominance in global reserves ignore today’s monetary reality, supply constraints, and the operational limits that keep hard currencies at the system’s core.

R. Gurumurthy

Tax Residency Certificates No Longer Sacred After Supreme Court's Tiger Global Verdict

SC's Tiger Global ruling overturns Mauritius treaty protections, demotes TRC status, and unleashes GAAR against offshore investors nationwide.

Sangeeta Jain

Budget 2026

Transforming India's Grid for a Renewable Future

India’s renewable push is running ahead of grid readiness. As variability strains stability, the Budget must pivot from capacity addition to firm power, storage and grid modernisation to secure reliable, clean energy growth.

Sharmila Chavaly

Opinion

GAIL is Embedding Itself at Scale into India's Energy Infrastructure

GAIL continues to be perceived as a mature utility even as it invests in becoming a total infrastructure play.

Dev Chandrasekhar

Opinion

Budget Unlikely to Offer any Succour to Capital Markets

Despite a ₹50-trillion market-cap wipeout, fiscal constraints, weak tax buoyancy and currency pressures leave little room for the Budget 2026 to offer direct relief to capital markets.

Chokkalingam G

The Asset That India’s Markets Left Behind

India raced ahead with demat accounts and SIPs but skipped the emotional ballast. SEBI data shows why awareness surged while conviction lagged.

Krishnadevan V

Budget 2026

Don’t Miss the Window to Overhaul Tariffs and Customs to Boost Trade

None of the reforms will succeed in isolation. Implemented together, they could lower trade costs, attract investment and position customs as a facilitator rather than a bottleneck. But the policy window is narrow.

Ajay Srivastava

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

The high-frequency indicators pointed to an improvement in economic activity at the start of the year, suggesting stronger momentum in January.

Datametricx

Opinion

The Budget Through a Political Lens

With key elections due in states considered difficult terrain for the ruling BJP, the Budget could double as a political opportunity.

Rajesh Ramachandran

Budget 2026

When Governments Choose What’s Safest to Defend

Governments favour policies that can be measured and defended over commitments that demand belief. Visibility beats credibility when political risk outweighs growth ambition.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Baltic Dry Index in a Fragmenting Global Supply System

The Baltic Dry Index reveals global supply fragmentation through freight volatility, route disruption and choke point risk before traditional indicators signal stress.

Chandrika Soyantar

Budget 2026

From Fiscal Arithmetic to Economic Statecraft

The Budget must move beyond fiscal math to economic statecraft, strengthening institutions to manage volatility, competitiveness, climate transition and social risk.

Arvind Mayaram

Scott Bessent Is in Denial – and the Bond Market Is Watching

Bessent has continued to choose loyalty to Trump’s reckless whims over any semblance of fiscal responsibility.

Desmond Lachman

Budget 2026

PSB Mergers: Bigger Balance Sheets, But Not Quite Better Banks

India’s PSB mergers created scale and stability, but five years on, credit growth, competition, and inclusion suggest consolidation alone cannot deliver global champions.

K. Srinivasa Rao

Budget 2026

Elusive Investments, Silent Disinvestments: Budget's Real Test

India’s growth narrative is being propped up by public spending while private investment and disinvestment quietly retreat. Budget 2026 must choose political courage over fiscal politeness if the demographic dividend is to be saved.

Srinath Sridharan

Budget 2026

Budget Must Treat Critical Minerals as Economic and Security Assets

India’s growth and security now depend on critical minerals. This Budget must move past intent and set out how the country plans to secure supply.

G. Chandrashekhar

SEBI's Index Proposal Tackles Governance, Leaves Competition Unaddressed

SEBI’s index regulation tackles transparency in a ₹12-trillion passive market, but leaves untouched the oligopoly quietly steering India’s largest pool of investor capital.

Krishnadevan V

Budget 2026

Budget Must Rescue Indian Agriculture From Drift and Denial

India’s farm crisis needs more than MSPs and subsidies. Budget 2026 must pivot to outcomes, technology and accountability, or risk surrendering food security and farmer incomes.

G. Chandrashekhar

Japan’s Bond Shock Isn’t a Crisis — But It May Be a Warning Shot

Japan’s bond shock isn’t a collapse, but a warning that fiscal credibility, safe assets and global rate stability can no longer be taken for granted.

R. Gurumurthy

Budget 2026

When Private Credit Becomes India’s Financial Morphine

Private credit is emerging as India’s fast-growing financial instrument at a time when global equity capital is cautious, and exits are under sharper scrutiny.

Srinath Sridharan

Budget 2026

How Federal Drift Is Starving Strategic Priorities

As the Centre expands into state subjects, defence, R&D and strategic autonomy suffer. India’s budget problem is not size, but misplaced priorities.

TK Arun

Budget 2026

Net-Zero or Clean Air? India’s Climate Challenge Is About Timing, Not Tradeoffs

India’s climate dilemma isn’t net-zero versus clean air. The real challenge is aligning capital, policy and timing to deliver health gains now and decarbonisation later.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

Budget 2026

Will the Budget Truly Reignite Industry Confidence?

As policy signals increasingly emerge outside the Budget, industry awaits clarity on investment, manufacturing, exports and long-term growth.

Sharmila Kantha

Budget 2026

Copying the iPhone Model Will Fail Auto Component Manufacturing

India’s iPhone export success tempts copycat policy, but auto components need standards, engineering depth, and integration, not anchor clients

Krishnadevan V

Budget 2026

India’s Bond Market Will Test the RBI in 2026-27

Nearly ₹30 trillion in bond supply and fragile demand mean yields will remain high in 2026–27 unless the RBI steps in as the buyer of last resort.

Yield Scribe

Budget 2026

India’s External Strength Masks a Growing Vulnerability Problem

Strong reserves give India comfort today, but frequent geopolitical and tech shocks risk steadily eroding its external resilience.

Abheek Barua

Capital Discipline Is Not Investor Hostility

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Tiger Global tax case signals institutional maturity, not caprice, as India shifts from capital accommodation to capital discipline.

Srinath Sridharan

Geopolitics

Why MBZ’s Two-Hour Dash to New Delhi Matters

When the President of the United Arab Emirates lands in New Delhi for barely two hours, it is not a courtesy call or a routine stopover. It is a signal.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Budget 2026

A Budget for Capital Formation, Not Just Fiscal Bookkeeping

India’s real budget challenge isn’t deficit maths but mobilising patient capital, deep savings and long-term risk-taking in a capital-scarce economy.

R. Gurumurthy

History Marches Past Davos

The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos will feature the usual pledges about stakeholder capitalism, purpose-driven business, and sustainable development. But without binding conditionalities, accountability frameworks, and risk-sharing that distinguish genuine value creators from rent extractors, it remains theater.

Mariana Mazzucato

Budget 2026

Why the Budget Must Focus on the Next Mile

As fiscal stimulus tapers, the government must shift focus from headline growth to private investment, jobs and long-term economic quality.

Vijay Chauhan

No ‘10-Minute’ Promises: What India’s Quick Commerce Reset Really Signals

India has softened the promise of instant delivery, not the model behind it. The reset reflects labour concerns, not a retreat from fast, app-led retail.

Abhishek Dey

India’s Securities Code Could Quiet Markets Without Saying a Word

India’s Securities Code consolidates market laws, enforcement and settlement to reduce friction, while raising questions on discretion, precedent and checks.

Krishnadevan V

Budget 2026

Union Budget as the Catalyst for Climate Finance

By using guarantees, blended finance and smarter risk metrics, public money could crowd in private capital and turn climate ambition into bankable projects.

Sharmila Chavaly

India’s Statecraft in a Disorderly World: Why Growth Must Come First

When growth is the binding constraint, India’s foreign policy must prioritise economic flexibility over posture in an increasingly volatile global order.

Arvind Mayaram

Budget 2026

India’s Growth Moment: Cyclical Strength, Structural Test

India’s post-pandemic growth has leaned on supply-side reforms, public capex and upper-income demand, while private investment stays uneven. Budget 2026 will decide if growth turns durable and private-led, or remains state-driven.

Srinath Sridharan

Opinion

Say No to Trump’s Offer of a Seat at the Board of Peace

It is a Board for Undermining the UN and the rest of the multilateral framework

TK Arun

The Yen’s Regime Change from Monetary Tool to Fiscal Currency

Japan's yen transitions from interest-rate currency to fiscal barometer as central bank intermediation recedes and sovereign risk resurfaces

Chandrika Soyantar

The Watcher’s Guide to a World That Won’t Sit Still

Phynix

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

Datametricx

BMC Polls: Voting Pattern Shows Split Between Development and Identity Politics Persists

Amitabh Tiwari

India and Trump’s Gaza Peace Board: A Risky Invitation

Ajay Srivastava

Budget 2026

Budget’s Bond Test Lies in Solving the States’ Borrowing Problem

With ₹30.5 trillion of bond supply looming, would it make more sense for the federal government to borrow on behalf of states?

Yield Scribe

Millets: Turning a Policy Mirage into a Daily Food Miracle

Even after increases in minimum support prices, returns over cost for millets are still inferior to crops such as wheat or mustard.

G. Chandrashekhar

Budget 2026

When Credit Scores Gatekeep, India Must Regulate Bureaus As Utilities

Once neutral data pipes, credit bureaus now decide who gets to borrow, build or belong. India must regulate them as public utilities before exclusion hardens.

R. Gurumurthy

Budget 2026 and the Fragile Math of Corporate Legacy

India’s first-gen unicorns have scaled Maslow’s pyramid. The harder test comes now: can they metabolize growth into legacy?

Kirti Tarang Pande

Geopolitics

Why the ‘Islamic Nato’ Will Remain a Strategic Mirage

Turkey–Pakistan–Saudi Arabia and the Limits of Sunni Convergence

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Greenland’s Lesson for India: US Trade Deals Don’t Guarantee Protection

In a volatile global order, restraint, diversification and sovereign decision-making matter more than promises that can be withdrawn overnight.

Ajay Srivastava

Opinion

Indian Oil’s Hefty Green Transition Bill Comes With Struggling Payback

The prospects of IOC's green energy initiative appear shaky, forcing costly capital choices between profitable fossil operations and renewables commitments.

Dev Chandrasekhar

A Requiem for Reading

Reading is fading fast as screens take over daily life. Reviving this habit is essential if societies hope to preserve knowledge, empathy, and cultural memory.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Navigating the Trump-Powell Feud

Even if the feud between the Trump administration and the Fed does not turn out to be catastrophic, the challenge is to transform it into something constructive.

Mohamed A. El-Erian

Why Jerome Powell Had to Say No

If the public comes to believe that the central bank will tolerate somewhat higher inflation for political ends, firms will start raising prices in advance. The result will just be higher inflation. Breaking this political-monetary cycle is a key reason why Congress created an independent central bank.

Gabriel Chodorow-Reich

What the Fed Moment Reveals About America’s Malignant Normality

Why Trump was never the real anomaly, and how institutions, professionals, and elites slowly learned to treat democratic danger as routine.

R. Gurumurthy

Unemployment Tracker

Urban Jobs Are the Weak Link in India’s Otherwise Stable Labour Story

India’s unemployment rate remains below 5%, but December data shows a fragile urban labour market, with youth and women bearing the brunt despite rising participation rates.

Akshi Chawla

Foreign Investors Keep Fingers Crossed as Tiger Global Loses Tax Case

The SC judgment makes it clear that grandfathering is not a blanket amnesty. If an investment vehicle lacks economic substance or fails beneficial ownership tests, it may still face scrutiny.

BasisPoint Insight

Briefing

Why the RBI Uses Buy-Sell FX Swaps and What They Really Mean

RBI’s buy-sell FX swaps are read as rupee signals. They are not. An explainer on why swaps manage liquidity and hedging, not the exchange rate.

V Thiagarajan

Budget 2026

Why India’s Cities Are Failing the Growth Story

India’s growth has turned decisively urban, but the financial foundations of its cities remain weak. Unless municipal finance, land monetisation and city-level balance sheets are fixed, urban India will become the binding constraint in the next phase of growth.

Srinath Sridharan

India’s Credit Spike: A December Distortion, Not an Economic Signal

A ₹6.3 trillion December credit surge looks dramatic, but history and fundamentals suggest window-dressing and frontloading, not a durable revival in demand.

Dhananjay Sinha

Charting a New Course: Why India’s Shipbuilding Ambitions Need a Strategic Redirection

The world’s shipbuilding order is being rewritten in an age of geopolitical rivalry and friend-shoring. India has a unique chance to write its own chapter — one of a nimble, technologically adept maritime industry integrated into global supply chains as a strategic partner.

Sharmila Chavaly

Trump’s Tantrums: Disruptor or a Symptom of a Disrupted World?

Trump’s volatility isn’t an aberration but a feature of a fraying global order. For India, the lesson lies not in theatrics, but institutional strength.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Opinion

ICICI Lombard’s WhatsApp Slip Will Test SEBI’s Resolve

A WhatsApp status leak at ICICI Lombard raises hard questions on UPSI discipline, draft disclosures, and how serious SEBI is about enforcement.

Krishnadevan V

The 2026 Outlook Calls for Recalibration

For investors, the standard playbook will need to change. Riding a broad structural wave is no longer such an obvious and rewarding strategy. The 2026 outlook is likely to demand a more tactical, bottom-up approach.

Mohamed A. El-Erian

Opinion

Disengaging with Iran Only Sensible Way Out

US secondary tariffs put India–Iran trade in a bind, forcing New Delhi to weigh strategic ties against far larger economic exposure to the US market.

G. Chandrashekhar

How the Stock Market Could Sink Trump in 2026

It would be an understatement to say that stocks are priced at lofty valuations; in fact, they are priced for economic perfection.

Desmond Lachman

From Chai Chats to Voter Silence: Unmasking Young India's Quiet Revolt

A dinner-table question opens a window into why educated, ambitious young Indians are disengaging from voting, and how their apathy masks a deeper reckoning.

Kalyani Srinath

How Caste and Soil Texture Skew Consumption Within Indian Households

New evidence shows urbanisation does not equal fairness. Caste norms and lost female bargaining power skew household spending against women and children.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal*

Global Capability Centres: The Brain Drain Under Our Nose

It is welcome that millions of Indian graduates get decent jobs, but they toil to create intellectual property for foreign firms, rather than to strengthen India’s strategic muscle

TK Arun