Finance ministers who ruled early, Post Independence India

BOOK REVIEW India’s Finance Ministers A K Bhattacharya Penguin (Business)2023 435 pages, Rs 999/- Finance Ministers (FMs), despite their dour calling, do not always follow the bland, understated credo expected of them. This is one message in this carefully packaged, extensively researched tome on eleven, post-Independence, Indian FMs, till the Emergency in 1977. Three themes […]

CBDC: Minting the Future

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a new asset class and system for global and domestic payments and settlements, has been under active research and development since around 2015. Oddly, the United States (US) seems relaxed about joining the race. United States makes up for lost time Reflecting this institutional languor, Jerome Powell, Chair of the US […]

Digital Rupee- Taking India higher, faster?

Expectations are sky-high that the “digital rupee” — a central bank digital (crypto) currency (CBDC) announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech this year — will ensure a quantum jump to the digital economy, enhance GDP growth and boost financial inclusion. Digital currencies – democratized uptake Nigeria and eight Caribbean countries have […]

No room for extravagance in 2021-22 budget

Despite the hoopla around this year’s annual budget, it is unlikely to be a stunning display of “clever accounting” catering to all whilst pleasing none. Nor is it likely to strew goodies all around. Challenges abound The need is to spell out hard fiscal decisions. The list of challenges is long. The interest burden consumes […]

Trudging up the recession gorge

We have got used to being feted by the international community as a “rising great power”. This suits our exaggerated self-perception and the choreographed diplomatic dance of real Great Powers (US and EU) with China, truly, a risen great power, albeit increasingly not a benign one. Covid mirror The Covid epidemic has shown up all […]

Deal making is back-at last!

Deal making in banking is returning after a gap of four years. Banking, not the retail stuff but the kind which gets the economy moving, is classically done through deals struck over convivial lunches and dinners. It’s tough to make deals in an environment of zero tolerance for corruption Stung by the proclivity of the […]

The price of fiscal exuberance

Politics is heating up. Elections in Bihar loom in November with Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu* and West Bengal tightly packed together in May next year, just after the FY 2021-22 budget. Bihar remains rural at heart. Luckily for the BJP, agriculture is the bright star in the Indian economy with expected growth of 3%. Doesn’t […]

New India – Vocal about local but aspirationally global

Prime Ministers Modi’s address on May 12 was, as expected, a dog’s breakfast of proposals aimed at pleasing everyone. Please all stimulus 10.5% of GDP The Rs 20 trillion ($260 billion) stimulus “package” – around 10.5% of the likely GDP of Rs 190 trillion in Fy 2021 – is touted as a silver bullet which […]

India needs a haircut

We have needed one since the 2008 global financial crisis when massive fiscal interventions provided the fizz to drag out a functioning economy for the next decade. The buzz fades This fizz has now run dry, sapped by – corporate freeloaders, who misused the cheap money at the expense of small investors, who naively assumed […]

Keep the demand fires burning in 2020

So now that the wine has run dry; the Christmas cake is mere crumbs and the New Year eve shenanigans are forgotten let’s get back to basics. What is 2020 going to be about? In one word- tough except for large industry and private banks which shall clock handsome bottom lines, their bonus boosted employees […]

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