World apart

Less emphasis on the PLI scheme ought to create room for a new industrial policy. (REUTERS)

Rahul Jacob: Grab the chance to reset India’s industrial policy

4 min read . 12:30 PM IST

German chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz, long a fiscal conservative and leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), recently made an about-turn on the virtues of higher deficit spending. (Bloomberg)

Rahul Jacob: Global alliances have changed and so have German policies

4 min read . 12 Mar 2025

'Hope', Pope Francis' new autobiography, is an occasionally disjointed memoir full of inspiring stories that have the quality of religious parables. (via REUTERS)

Pope Francis inspires hope across the globe for good reason

4 min read . 26 Feb 2025

This week’s events underline that we live in a world being remade by China and the US, for good or for ill, at a rapid pace. (Reuters)

Rahul Jacob: DeepSeek’s big AI shake-up holds policy lessons for India

4 min read . 29 Jan 2025

With India’s persistently K-shaped economy, even the silver linings come with looming clouds.

Inequality alert: India’s economy appears to be getting even more K-shaped

4 min read . 15 Jan 2025

Coincidence and circumstance come so elegantly woven together in Manmohan Singh’s life that much of it seems a fairytale. (HT_PRINT)

The understated leadership of Manmohan Singh was rare and inspirational

4 min read . 01 Jan 2025

The weakening of institutions is a global problem, with partisan judges and investigative agencies being used to settle political scores. (AFP)

South Korea’s political drama drew global applause for good reason

4 min read . 18 Dec 2024

Technology companies are mandated to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-age users from using social media services or risk being fined $32 million under Australia's new rules. (AFP)

Australia’s move to keep kids off social media is worthy of emulation

4 min read . 04 Dec 2024

In no Asian capital is the gap between grim economic reality and huge economic potential so wide. (via REUTERS)

The Dissanayake administration’s challenge is to reform Sri Lanka's economy

1 min read . 20 Nov 2024

It is a refrain playing out across Southeast Asia, with governments being forced to respond as industry-after-industry feels besieged by the Chinese export flood.

China’s export thrust is pushing tariffs up across Asia

4 min read . 11 Sep 2024

Beijing could increase social security benefits such as unemployment payouts and health insurance and use an economic stimulus. (AFP)

China’s economic slump holds lessons on development

4 min read . 28 Sep 2023

The most dramatic demonstration of union power coming back in the developed world would be if the almost 150,000-strong UAW elects to go on strike this week, but we are already seeing a feistier workforce in rolling strikes across the UK since last year and protests in France.

Today’s world war on inflation is yielding no winners

4 min read . 14 Sep 2023

Under the previous Congress-led coalition, India’s Olympian feat on the global trade scene, had been to bring World Trade Organization meetings to a standstill.

India’s approach to trade remains too anachronistic

4 min read . 03 Aug 2023

Sunak has done well to pull back from the brinkmanship and open hostility his predecessors showed in negotiations with the EU, but the effects of severing these links to dynamic supply chains with Europe are everywhere apparent. (AFP)

The British economy is haunted by the ghosts of Brexit

4 min read . 20 Jul 2023

Complex rules make India seem permanently socialist

4 min read . 22 Jun 2023

Voters pushing for change don’t always get enough of it

3 min read . 25 May 2023

Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla (via REUTERS)

King Charles gets a lot less credit than the man deserves

4 min read . 11 May 2023

Joe Biden has been a victim of serial underestimation

4 min read . 27 Apr 2023

Photo: Bloomberg

Nearshoring is the real deal in global manufacturing

4 min read . 29 Mar 2023

The denial of same-sex marriages violates a basic right

4 min read . 15 Mar 2023