By K Raveendran

By K Raveendran India’s 2022 began with hopes of a rebound from covid-induced downturn, which materialized to a large extent as the year progressed, but is winding down to a close with dark clouds beginning to appear on the horizon over threats of a return to the pandemic environment. The government hasn’t yet enforced covid […]

The post 2022 That Began On Optimistic Note Ends With Ominous Signal Due To New Covid first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A relatively disappointing year-end and a possible less dramatic interplay between inflation and central bank intervention globally have India’s domestic gold trade keeping its fingers crossed over what could happen in 2023. November-December months have been less than reassuring for the domestic trade, with soft retail demand forcing discounting of prices, which […]

The post After A Disappointing Season Gold Trade Hopes For Better Luck Next Year first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran After taking on the Supreme Court for the impasse on Collegium, which he described as ‘alien’ to the Constitution, Law Minster Kiren Rijiju has played another bite from His Master’s Voice – prime minister Narendra Modi’s favourite simultaneous elections. Rijiju said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha the other day […]

The post Modi Govt May Be Dusting Out Its Plan For One-Nation, One-Poll By 2024 first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A global survey of companies has revealed a serious shortage of tech talent when it comes to artificial intelligence, which is threatening to slow down the shift towards the new productivity tool. A majority of respondents in the survey, carried out by management consultancy McKinsey, have reported difficulty in hiring for each […]

The post India’s Next I-T Boom May Be In Artificial Intelligence, Related Sciences first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Inflation is showing signs of softening, providing much-needed relief to the government as well as the managers of the economy, not to speak of the common man, whose household budgets have been under a squeeze in view of skyrocketing prices. The improvement is reflected in the latest rate hike by the Reserve […]

The post No Extra Credits For India As Easing Of Inflation Threat A Global Phenomenon first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran India is leading a global recovery in gold jewellery. This is despite the fact that gold prices have hit a five-month high. The demand engine is driven by urban consumers, encouraged by a return to pre-covid levels of economic activity. Rural consumers were more cautious as their inflation outpaced that of their […]

The post India Leads World Gold Jewellery Demand Recovery After Covid Blues first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The price cap of $60 for Russian crude is coming into force full steam, with EU countries joining the G-7 and American punitive measure aimed at squeezing out Moscow’s financial resources so as to force it abandon the Ukraine war. A few countries, such as Poland, had initially refused to toe the […]

The post EU Price Cap Of $60 For Russian Oil Takes Hold, Advantage For India first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Deductive logic has gone for a toss when it comes to forecasting international oil price behaviour. Defying all expectations of a spike, crude prices have hovered just about the same level as last year this time, which means the commodity is trading in the $70s range. This is quite a turnaround, given […]

The post Oil Price Behaviour Surprises With A Turnaround Despite Bullish Undertones first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The 61st Constitution amendment of 1988 that brought down voting age in India from 21 to 18 had reasoned that the present day youth were literate and enlightened and therefore deserved the opportunity to give vent to their feelings. It was also observed that ‘they were very much politically conscious’. The amendment […]

The post It May Be Time To Lower Voting Age To Include ‘I-Gen’ Voters first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran From frying pan into the fire. This is exactly the case about the tenure of the managing directors and CEOs of public sector banks (PSBs). The perennial complaint about leadership tenure in PSBs was that frequent changes at the top led to instability and lack of consistently and continuity. Now the pendulum […]

The post 10-Year Tenure For Public Sector Bank Leadership Is Out Of Sync With New Banking first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Some 70-odd crore-strong Indian male population will be called upon to come out of their obsession with masculinity as the draft Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, unveiled by Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for public debate the other day, only identifies them in the feminine gender. Under the proposed law, everyone is a […]

The post New Data Protection Bill Boosts Feminists As It Creates Legislative History first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Supreme Court Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has elucidated his concept of ‘equal‘ and ‘modern’ judiciary, free from colonial hangovers, in which there would not be any subordinate judges, often used in the context of district courts, but only judges of equal worth, irrespective of where they serve. The district judiciary is […]

The post CJI D Y Chandrachud Is Emphasising On ‘Equal And Modern’ Judiciary first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The first major indication of the Supreme Court thinking on the reservation issue was available in the apex court’s judgment in the Maratha reservation case of 2021, although the substantive issue raised in that plea was different from the court’s latest stand in the 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections. A […]

The post New Sense Of Realism Emerging In Approach To Quota As Welfare Tool first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran It is six years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the fateful night of 8 November, 2016 announced demonetisation, putting the nation to untold miseries and breaking the backbone of the country’s economy, but people are still groping in the dark as to why the draconian decision was taken and whether it […]

The post Questions That Refuse To Go Away Even Six Years After Ill-Fated Demonetisation first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Soaring international gas prices in recent weeks have caused much concern in consumer countries like India, but the latest trends indicate that power prices may be reversing course. Although Indian gas prices, particularly in terms of supplies for vehicles as well as cooking, have remained moderated, thanks to government intervention, consumers in […]

The post Mild Weather Prompts Soaring International Gas Prices To Reverse Course first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The disgraceful incident in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara in which a man ‘auctioned’ his daughters to repay his debt is a social evil that manifests in similar occurrences in parts of northern India from time to time. The incident attracted widespread condemnation and lowered the prestige of India as a modern nation in highly […]

The post Legislations Unable To Thwart ‘Auctioning’ Of Daughters, Wives And Sisters first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran With a new round of assembly elections, including that of Gujarat, round the corner, the freebies issue has occupied the centre-stage of political discourse. The matter is now before the Supreme Court, which has favoured an early hearing of a PIL in this connection by a larger 3-member bench. The court’s approach […]

The post It May Be Time To Consider Setting Up Of A Competition Commission For Elections first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Violations and atoning for them are in the DNA of Google and its owner Alphabet. Google had to pay penalties of Rs 2,274 crore within the space of a week, in two orders issued by the Competition Commission of India for misusing its dominant position in relation to Play Store and engaging […]

The post Fast-Growing Indian Market Irresistible Attraction For Digital Payment Giants first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The release of Bilkis Bano rape case convicts by the Gujarat government is turning even more dubious amidst new disclosures that the remission was allowed despite opposition from the CBI as well as the city civil and sessions court of Greater Bombay and the prisons and correctional administration assistant DGP of Ahmedabad. […]

The post Disclosures Further Cloud Remission Of Bilkis Bano Rape Convicts’ Sentence first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The Supreme Court of India has added very little to its credibility by holding a special sitting on a most uncommon Saturday morning and setting aside the Bombay High Court order for the release of human rights activist G N Saibaba, the wheel-chair bound former Delhi University professor, who had been sentenced […]

The post Supreme Court Bench Behaved In A Bizarre Manner In Prof. Saibaba Case first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The move by the US and western nations to enforce a price cap on Russian crude as part of their sanctions against Moscow to put even a tighter leash on its finances provides another opportunity for India to maximise its benefits through the purchase of discounted Ural crude. India has made it […]

The post Russian Oil Price Cap Move Provides India Another Major Opportunity first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Chief Justice U U Lalit can feel happy that his 74-day tenure, coming to an end on November 8, is not the shortest in the history of India’s Supreme Court. That dubious record belongs to the 22nd chief justice, K N Singh, who occupied that position for a mere 17 days, followed […]

The post It Is High Time Age Of Supreme Court Chief Justice Is Reconsidered first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran As the global oil markets digest the news about OPEC+ announcement of a 2 million barrels per day of crude output cut, more details emerging from market analysts should calm Indian nerves a bit as the impact may not be as severe as feared. The Brent price had touched $94 straightaway from […]

The post Sigh Of Relief As OPEC-Plus Cut Unlikely To Reach Declared Levels first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The government has raised the price of natural gas by an incredible 40 percent to take it to a new level, and the move comes like a bolt from the blue to consumers who are already finding their energy costs unbearable. Household budgets are expected to see further squeeze, with cooking gas […]

The post Higher Gas Royalty To Cause Ripple Effect, Squeeze Household Budgets Further first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Crude oil prices have now dipped below the level when Russia’s Ukraine war broke out, which means the market has not only absorbed the shock of disruption in supplies, but the end game is approaching for the oil cartel. The war, however, forced a tectonic change in the oil market dynamics, of […]

The post Oil Prices Below Level Before Ukraine War, But No Solace For Consumers first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The rampaging dollar has caused a bloodbath in the currency markets, with all other major currencies falling to multi-decade lows. The rupee has not done any better. The Indian currency touched historical lows, crossing 81 to the dollar, the lowest it has touched for all times. The dollar rampage, a by-product of […]

The post Gold Has A Tough Summer, Yet Holds Out Well Amidst Turmoil first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Arvind Kejriwal seems to have come of age as a politician. The Delhi chief minister is apparently taking a page out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi book to speak the same language, same content and wear the same demeanor.  He needs to be given credit for his assessment that Modi’s language strikes […]

The post Kejriwal Follows Modi-Style Vote Catching And Succeeds first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A major hurdle in the shift to electric vehicles has been the price disadvantage of EV units. But this is expected to change soon, as electric vehicles are expected to hit price parity with petrol and diesel engines by next year. The shift is being made possible in view of the increasing […]

The post Price Parity With Fuel Vehicles Next Year To Remove Major EV Hurdle first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The Supreme Court has kept its word in terms of protecting the rights of undertrials by granting bail to journalist Siddique Kappan, who has spent over two years in UP jails without trial in connection with the Hathras conspiracy case. The decisive action comes within weeks of the apex court having warned […]

The post Supreme Court Keeps Its Word For Protecting Rights Of Undertrials first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The gap between time of booking and delivery of new cars is changing from months to years, which is causing frustration to buyers of new vehicles. During the pandemic, the industry was down in the dumps as demand dried up completely dried up. But as the industry rode out of the pandemic, […]

The post Frustrating Increase In Auto-Makers’ Delivery Timeframe first appeared on IPA Newspack.