trump Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons
28 February 2017

Trump: overturning the status quo

President Trump has moved to deliver on his campaign promises with rare alacrity: his executive actions cover everything from policies on trade and energy to bringing back manufacturing to America. But he has also been walked back on some of his explosive assertions while ambiguity looms large over several issues

silk road Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
14 February 2017

Interweaving the old Cotton and Silk Routes

China’s resurrection of the ancient Silk Road is ambitious, sprawling, hegemonic. Its pre-European origins, though, lay in a criss-crossing of nameless caravan routes on which Indian cotton was traded as vigorously as Chinese silk, tangible proof of the interdependence of two ancient civilisations over two millennia

28912263963_0b75893744_h Courtesy: MEA/ Flickr
14 February 2017

Indo-Pacific: a scenario of possibilities

The Indo-Pacific region is home to some of the largest and most rapidly growing economies as also powerful military forces. Nuclear threats, international terrorism and climate change are some of the issues that define the region. Uncertainty dogs relations among the four nations in the top league—U.S., China, India and Japan—but what is emerging is a hawkish, policy stance from the U.S. as opposed to an isolationist outlook apprehended earlier

1200px-Malabar_07-2_exercise Courtesy: Wikipedia
14 February 2017

A democratic quadrilateral in Asia?

A strategic coming together of the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India was close to fruition some years ago, impelled initially by the tsunami of 2004. The spirit of the enterprise remains alive even now, and there are many merits in India joining the quad, but such an arrangement can skew existing Asian equations, jeopardising the Act East policy

financial-chart-backgrounds-wallpapers Courtesy: Northernminer
14 February 2017

Global taxation and the perversion of capital flows

In the wake of trade-based globalisation followed by financial globalisation, a large volume of capital began moving from developing to advanced countries. This has resulted in relatively poor developing countries effectively becoming net creditors to the rest of the world. Reversing this massive outflow of capital requires governments to strengthen governance in all its dimensions and have closer international collaboration to tighten the regulatory oversight of tax havens for greater transparency

RBI Courtesy: India.com
14 February 2017

Retreat of globalisation: central banks in the crosshairs

Central banks play a critical role in forging the country’s international economic relations. Now, with the rule-based order being reset and new regimes getting established, they are better positioned to influence the playing field. It is, therefore, critical to strengthen the Reserve Bank of India so it can drive an agenda closer to the interests of emerging countries. This will also be a test of India’s future leadership capabilities

Donald_Trump_swearing_in_ceremony Courtesy: Wikipedia
9 February 2017

The West and the rest: resetting the order

There is a stark divergence between how the West views the world and how those outside it do. It is possible to oversimplify the equation, to portray the West as cynically self-interested. The West and countries like India need to reach a shared understanding of how the liberal international order can be reformed so it may be salvaged

Reversal of Globalisation2 Courtesy: Systemic Alternatives
8 February 2017

Is globalisation in reverse?

The contours of globalisation are being reshaped. The Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump mark a strong anti-globalisation sentiment even as leaders in China, India and Russia successfully marry nationalist rhetoric with a cleverly crafted overseas strategy, premised on the very tenets of globalisation. There seems to be a ‘pause’ in the unbalanced progress of globalisation of the last three decades—and this could have many positive outcomes