Interview

Calm Hands Steer India Through Policy Storms

Dr. Michael Patra’s new book reveals the inner theatre of India’s central banking—from crisis firefighting to quiet reforms.

Kalyan Ram

Why This Outrage over LIC Investing in Adani?

Probe the allegations of government-Adani nexus in airport privatisation bids, but why oppose the company getting support from the country’s financial institutions when it was vital.

TK Arun

Tale of Two Reports and the Inflation of Words

The RBI–SBI plagiarism spat turned research into theatre, proving that even economists now crave trending status.

R. Gurumurthy

Infrastructure

Architecting the Platform-Based ‘Arterial Grid’

The Prescription: A new grid architecture conceptualised in three distinct but interconnected functional layers, each with a clear role and economic logic.

Sharmila Chavaly

Gold’s Glow Can’t Revive India’s Spending

Surging gold prices have inflated household wealth on paper, yet the wealth effect remains mostly notional as weak incomes and high debt restrain spending.

Dhananjay Sinha

When Capital Allocation Strategy overrides Conventional Approach

Bonus preference shares show how firms mix restraint, control, and reward with quiet precision.

Chandrika Soyantar

Week in Numbers: Tracking India’s Economic Pulse

Early October data showed no significant boost in private-sector activity, even though the full impact of the GST rate cuts had taken effect.

Datametricx

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, trade expert & ex-IRS officer, works with Deloitte India and Ashoka University’s ICPP.

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 Consulting Editor 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.

The Bureau

US-China Trade Truce Talk Sparks Global Rebound, Boosts Risk Appetite

India’s Processed Potato Exports Surge as Asia’s Snack Demand Booms

When Infrastructure Kills the Vibe, Ambition Turns Up the Volume

Green crackers, Sahara-SEBI, Digital Arrest, Asian Paints, and more

CoinDCX Raises Again — Is India’s Crypto Winter Finally Thawing?

India’s Exports to US Fall 20% in September as Trump Tariffs Bite: GTRI

MPC Keeps Powder Dry as Rate-Cut Debate Heats Up

Mission Pulses: Does It Pack The Protein Punch India Needs?

Jallikattu: Tamil Nadu’s Ancient Bull-Taming Tradition

The Rube Goldberg Machine of Progress: When Complexity Becomes Culture

From useless boxes to endless liquidity, we’ve turned simple problems into elaborate contraptions. But what if the machine itself is the point?

Phynix

Letter and Spirit: What the Latest US Sanctions on Russian Oil Really Mean

Srinath Sridharan

Reliance is Turning Its Energy Bill Into a Business Model

Krishnadevan V

Lower Taxes, Higher Trust

Nilanjan Banik

RBI Sitting on 100 bps of Policy Space

Barendra Kumar Bhoi

Why Our Prosperity Endures: The Human Story Behind Modern Growth

The Nobel Prize in Economics celebrates the thinkers who explained why economic progress and prosperity has not stopped since the Industrial Revolution.

Chandan K Jha

Sudipta Sarangi

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Is No Longer Optional; It’s Economic Survival

Shekhar Pawar

The Invisible Frontline: Cyber Wars And India’s Digital Destiny

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Why JLR's £2 Billion Loss Could Change Corporate Insurance Forever

Krishnadevan V

Jaguar’s Cyber Crisis: A £2 Billion Warning for Indian Boardrooms

Srinath Sridharan

Briefing

Why RBI’s ECL Mandate Puts Banks on a New Prudential Frontier

The new expected credit loss framework signals a shift in RBI’s supervisory philosophy, from reactive cleanup to forward-looking prudential control.

Babuji K

Regulate Bullion Trade for Transparency

The government should establish a robust mechanism to monitor the source of funds used in gold imports and implement end-to-end regulation of the bullion trade.

G. Chandrashekhar

Infrastructure

The End of the Centralised Grid, the Dawn of a New Power Order

The Diagnosis: A one-way grid built for the industrial age can no longer power the digital one. The shift to a decentralised, adaptive network is already underway.

Sharmila Chavaly

Blockchain

Between UPI and Cryptos, India's Digital Rupee Fights for Relevance

Two years since launch, India's digital rupee is getting challenged in a country already fluent in UPI, and tempted by the promise of crypto.

Babuji K

Not All Coins Are Equal: India’s Deliberate March Toward Digital Money

India cautiously explores stablecoins and CBDCs, balancing innovation, programmability, and systemic stability in a rapidly digitalising financial world.

R. Gurumurthy

Crypto Without Clarity: India’s Risk of Leading From the Shadows

India tops the world in crypto adoption. Yet its unclear rules, high taxes and hesitation risk turning a booming movement into a missed opportunity.

N. Srinivasa Rao

Why Piyush Pandey’s Identity Ladder Works and Why Luxury Brands Fail

Customers don’t buy your product; they buy a better version of themselves. Purpose, not price, makes a product truly aspirational.

Kirti Tarang Pande

Monetary Policy

RBI Reopens the Door to Accommodation

By keeping the repo unchanged yet signalling policy space, RBI corrects June’s misstep and restores credibility to its accommodative posture.

Kalyan Ram

Can Acquisitions Transform the Indian Financial Sector?

Foreign banks are back, this time buying their way into India’s lenders. Is this just another fling or lasting change of capital with conviction?

R. Gurumurthy

Geopolitics

Ukraine and Russia: Is There Still a Road to Peace?

With Gaza calming and Europe tiring, the world’s attention may turn again to Ukraine, where fatigue, not force, could open a window for peace.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

When Collateral Isn’t Enough: Why ECL Could Redefine Indian Banking

The Expected Credit Loss regime may finally end India’s collateral-first mindset, forcing banks to forecast risk instead of discovering it too late.

Rahul Ghosh

The Morning Edge

Markets Turn Risk-Off as US Sanctions on Russia, China Curbs Stir Global Tensions

Here’s your quick read to start the day: a chatty, no-fuss look at overnight moves, the big story, what’s on the docket, and the tickers you need to watch.

Richard Fargose

Indian Refiners Lose the Russian Cushion

Washington’s sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil threaten to upend India’s cost advantage in crude oil imports.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Bihar Election 2025: NDA Banks on Experience, RJD Bets on Change

BJP-JDU is backing experience and RJD betting on change, as caste dynamics drive ticket distribution across key social groups in Bihar elections.

Amitabh Tiwari

The Next Crisis: Too Liquid to Fail, Too Clever by Half

When every crisis is met with more liquidity, risk mutates. The next meltdown may expose the limits of faith in money as the ultimate fix.

R. Gurumurthy

Reliance Turns Bottled Water Into Its Next Big Disruption

Reliance launches Campa Sure with sharp pricing and massive reach, squeezing rivals, as ₹15 a litre resets bottled water economics across India.

Krishnadevan V

When SEBI’s Discretion Overshadows Deterrence and Investor Trust

SEBI’s settlement framework, designed for swift justice, risks eroding market faith as discretion eclipses discernment and leniency replaces deterrence.

Indra Chourasia

Beyond Grants: Rethinking How India Funds Infrastructure

India’s infrastructure push can no longer rely on one-time grants and optimism; it must shift from funding gaps to creating value — treating infrastructure not as a cost centre, but as an ecosystem that pays for itself.

Arvind Mayaram

Private Talent in PSBs Will Need Open Minds on Both Sides

Leaders supporting top management must be exposed to stronger risk appetite and sharpened marketing skills.

K. Srinivasa Rao

India’s Banking Future Lies in Embracing Foreign Capital

India’s central bank and government are striking the right balance by allowing foreign capital into the banking sector while safeguarding stability.

Mint Owl

The New Friction: How Supply Chains Are Quietly Redrawing India’s Map

The world’s supply chains aren’t broken anymore, but they aren’t smooth either. And India’s metals, energy, and grain sectors are feeling every bump.

Hemachandra Padhan

Riding Giants: How India May Catch the Next Big FDI Swell

Trump’s tariffs may unleash a new FDI swell, with reforms, startups and geopolitics aligning as India readies to ride the next big wave.

Michael Debabrata Patra

Firecrackers as Class Aggression

The rich make competitive noise, pollute the air, switch on their air purifiers and air conditioners, and leave the less well-off to choke, wheeze and sicken

TK Arun

India’s Growth Will Run on Commodities, But Are We Ready?

India’s next phase of growth will be fuelled by commodities like food, metals, energy, and fibre. But the question is whether we can scale up without exhausting resources.

G. Chandrashekhar

The Illusion of Balance: Why Centrism Can’t Lead India

India’s future won’t be shaped by the safety of the middle but by the strength of conviction. It needs moral clarity, not centrism, to guide its democracy.

Srinath Sridharan

Why the Dollar Is Quietly Winning Again

Political turmoil in Europe and Japan, and a genuine US productivity revival, are fuelling a dollar rebound few expected.

Yield Scribe

Inside RBI’s Basel III Credit Risk Overhaul

RBI’s alignment to Basel-III capital requirement norms will free up more money to be lent to MSMSEs and NBFCs.

Rahul Ghosh

India’s Innovation Gap Widens: GII 2025 Highlights Urgent Need for R&D Investment

The Global Innovation Index 2025 spotlights persistent gaps in India’s innovation ecosystem that reiterate the imperative for greater incentives for businesses to engage in R&D.

Sharmila Kantha

Trump's Destruction of Maritime Law Raises the Risk of War

US President’s order can lead to conflicts in the high seas and prove to be an ecological disaster

Guy Standing

Fixed Vegetable Oil Tariffs: A Recipe for Market Distortion

Locking vegetable oil tariffs for years would rob policymakers of flexibility, harm consumers and farmers, and chiefly benefit refiners.

G. Chandrashekhar

Monetary Policy

Is the Hunt for a Terminal Repo Rate a Distraction?

Markets may be too eager to bottom-fish for a terminal repo rate. In today’s fluid context, flexibility could matter more than fixation.

Kalyan Ram

WRAP

Partly Monetary Policy, Largely Credit Policy

RBI holds repo rate at 5.5% but turns back to credit policy playbook, spurring lending while leaving December wide open for rate cuts.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Monetary Policy

MPC’s New Voice Speaks the Old Grammar of Caution

Indranil Bhattacharyya’s debut echoes the RBI’s old grammar of caution—clear in logic, yet padded with the rhetorical crutches it didn’t need.

BasisPoint Groupthink

Briefing

Myth of Currency Debasement

Markets often mistake monetary flexibility for monetary decay. The greater risk lies in misreading cycles as signs of systemic erosion.

V Thiagarajan

Opinion

Gold’s Rational Resilience in an Irrational World

For central banks, gold is not a relic of history but a rational hedge against the politics for & of money, the fragility of debt, and the unpredictability of power.

Srinath Sridharan

RBI’s Silence Makes its Cheque Reform Harder to Clear

Mint Owl

Beyond the Green Mirage: A Blueprint for Global Infrastructure Finance

Sharmila Chavaly

Is Strategic Disinvestment the Next Frontier in Economic Reform?

Nilanjan Banik

Genome Editing: A Quiet Revolution in Indian Rice Fields

G. Chandrashekhar

Unemployment Tracker

India’s Job Market Stalls as Unemployment Creeps Up Again

After two months of mild improvement, India’s unemployment rate edged up in September, widening the gender gap and exposing the fragility of recent gains.

Akshi Chawla

Opinion

Tata Trust Crisis: Silence Is Not a Strategy

A silence this loud can be deafening. As factional rifts shake the Tata Trusts, the Group’s famed moral halo is being tested fully by questions of both ownership and governance it cannot ignore.

Minari Shah

To Fuel the Cloud, India May Have to Dig Deeper into the Ground

India’s data-centre and AI ambitions could strain its clean-energy goals. As power demand surges, coal may quietly keep the digital lights on.

TK Arun

Why the State May Have Chosen to Nudge the Tatas

When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers – an African proverb

Sohini Ghosh

Optical Illusion in Public Capex

The public investment surge this year appears impressive, but much of its strength comes from accounting adjustments and base effects rather than new capital creation

Madhavi Arora

Gloves Off: Trump Hits China with 100% Extra Tariff in Chip-vs-Rare-Earth Showdown

As the US hits China with 100% tariffs, Beijing retaliates with rare earth curbs. India must read the fine print—no US deal is ever final in a world of shifting power.

Ajay Srivastava

The Most Profitable Part of LG Electronics Is the Least Obvious

LG Electronics has a profitable business hiding in the open and powering its margins

Krishnadevan V

RBI Loosens the Leash, Banks Must Tighten Risk

India’s new credit freedoms mark a turning point for banks, but the real reform lies in how they recalibrate risk, governance, and talent.

K. Srinivasa Rao

Risk-Based Premiums Must Lead to Higher Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage

Mint Owl

Traders Should Brace For Shock From GIFT City’s Daily Option Expiry Push

Krishnadevan V

Optics Over Power: Trump’s Elusive Quest for the Nobel Peace Prize

Saibal Dasgupta

The Case for IMF Gold Sales

Tim Hirschel-Burns and Marina Zucker-Marques

Geopolitics

Afghanistan Standoff: The Shifting Sands Of Pakistan’s Strategic Depth

Pakistan’s long-cherished notion of strategic depth in Afghanistan has collapsed. India, through quiet resilience and measured engagement with the Taliban, has reclaimed moral and strategic space.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Geopolitics

PoJK On The Boil: Why India Must Replace Populism With Strategy

Islamabad underestimates how chronic misgovernance corrodes legitimacy. By treating civic protests as security nuisances, and by maintaining an ethnic superiority complex, the Army is creating conditions for prolonged instability.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Self-Sufficiency Will Need More Than Just Pulses Mission

Missions are okay, but India must modernise the whole production and marketing ecosystem to become self-sufficient in pulses.

G. Chandrashekhar

When RBI Rules Push a Tata Giant to Market, Unexpected Openings Emerge

Tata Capital's regulatory-driven IPO offers investors exposure to an established NBFC brand whose valuation merits scrutiny.

Krishnadevan V

Death Syrup: Why Licences Cannot Be Wished Away in All Sectors

The government should mandate traceability of every ingredient used in the pharma industry by deploying tokenisation facilities of the blockchain.

TK Arun

Reading Sanjay Malhotra’s Silent Dialogue

Kirti Tarang Pande

Does Sustainable Palm Oil Deserve Any Concession?

G. Chandrashekhar

Review of MPC Decision: What Does it Mean to be Forward-Looking?

Ashima Goyal

The Paradox of Prediction: Why We Can't Stop Forecasting What We Can't Know

Babuji K

Geopolitics

Japan’s First Woman PM Faces Big Tests, And India Has a Stake in the Outcome

As Japan elects its first woman Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, India watches closely as her conservative nationalism and China stance could reshape Tokyo’s Asia strategy.

Saibal Dasgupta