By Nantoo Banerjee If in the United States, the world’s second largest federal democracy, the number of seats in the House of Representatives could remain capped at 435 since 1913, there is no reason to justify the latest delimitation exercise to freshly fix the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each state […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Returning empty-handed and crestfallen from his meeting with United States President Donald Trump, popular satirical comedian turned Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky looks more like a totally confused person now. He doesn’t know whom to trust — highly peeved US President Donald Trump or the leaders of the EU-UK combine, the backstage instigators […]
By Nantoo Banerjee If the United States of America is the provider of the largest trade surplus to India year after year, there is no reason for India to impose unreasonable tariffs on merchandise imported from its best trading partner. In fact, the import tariff should not be allowed to be a bone of contention […]
By Nantoo Banerjee India, the world’s second most preferred destination of illegal migrants, has a lot to learn from the United States about how the latter has been handling the situation in recent years. Although US President Donald Trump is lately hogging the limelight for forcing illegal immigrants out of the country, such deportations are […]
By Nantoo Banerjee The government disinvestment in India’s state-controlled enterprises is always welcome if it is aimed to make them professionally managed entities for faster growth. Unfortunately, the haphazard disinvestments in public sector enterprises (PSE) by the government seem to have only a single purpose — financing part of the annual union budget deficit. The […]
By Nantoo Banerjee With Indian Rupee (INR) dwindling almost daily against US Dollar (USD), it is good the Union Budget for 2025-26 has stopped repeating on making the Indian economy a $5-trillion GDP to become the world’s third largest by the end of this year or anytime too soon. The budget also provides no indication […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It would be wrong to underplay the impact of rising foreign disinvestments from the country’s secondary market on the economy and the very stability of Indian Rupee (INR). Both the domestic economy and INR have been constantly under pressure from large deficit trade balances year after year, external borrowings, loan servicing, very […]
By Nantoo Banerjee India’s net economic growth minus inflation during the current financial year may be well below the projections made by the government, the Reserve Bank and external agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. The net economic growth is calculated after subtracting the current […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Indians are travelling abroad like never before. Last year, over 30 million Indians travelled abroad, mostly on leisure trips. The number is nearly 15 percent more than that in 2023. The total expenditure rose by 25 percent. Rich and upper middle-class Indians are also increasingly sending their children for foreign studies. Over […]
By Nantoo Banerjee There seems to exist a method in US President-elect Donald Trump’s madness when he talks about his desire to annex Canada and Greenland, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico among others. A US annexation of Canada is possible through a treaty between the two countries involving the British Monarch, or a referendum […]
By Nantoo Banerjee The slump in India’s GDP growth rate is understandable. Contrary to the government claims, the job market is down. The income growth, in general, is shrinking. A vast section of consumers are not spending enough, except for wage goods or daily dire necessities, as their real income is not growing. The FMCG […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Unbelievable but true. The government of the United States of America, supposedly the vanguard of modern capitalism, is fighting with its back to the wall to prevent a private corporate takeover of a publicly-listed US firm by a widely-held Japanese company. Both the outgoing US President Joe Biden of the Democratic Party […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It will be unfair to expect much from the new Reserve Bank governor, Sanjay Malhotra, a career bureaucrat and former revenue secretary, in terms of delivery of key functions of a central bank chief such as controlling inflation, stabilizing domestic currency, foreign exchange control and lifting economic growth. If three of his […]
By Nantoo Banerjee China’s sudden change of mind to uphold peace and tranquility with India at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and work for early resolution of outstanding issues should not be read beyond these words as framed at the joint declaration at the end of the 30th meeting of the Working Mechanism for […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It is a matter of grave concern that counterfeit Rs 500 notes from the Mahatma Gandhi (new) series have nearly quadrupled between 2018-19 and 2023-24. And, the detection of counterfeit Rs 2,000 notes has tripled since 2020-21. The Rs 2,000 notes continue to remain legal tender and can be exchanged at RBI […]
By Nantoo Banerjee If bribery is a common practice in business, and often viewed as the normal way of doing business in many countries, including India, there is little too sensational about the US Department of Justice indictment, last week, against India’s US$37-billion infrastructure conglomerate Adani group head Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Adani […]
By Nantoo Banerjee from Manila It may be seen as an irony of fate that the Philippines, a pioneer of the modern rice production technology helping some of the world’s major rice producers, including India, to become self-sufficient in paddy production, has itself become the world’s biggest rice importer. For the third successive year, the […]
By Nantoo Banerjee from Manila The US-backed new Philippine Maritime Zones Act and Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act clearly defining the extent and boundaries of the country’s maritime zones and nullifying China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea promises to raise fresh tensions in the region threatening to affect the estimated global maritime trade of […]
By Nantoo Banerjee With geopolitical tensions rising in Europe and Asia and central banks across the world buying gold like never before are mainly behind the near continuous rise in gold prices since last year. The surging gold price trend may continue through the coming months unless peace and economic stability soon return to the […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Domestic issues often override international commitments in diplomacy. China’s preference of Kamala Harris to Donald Trump as the next US president may look unusual but not entirely illogical from the world’s second largest economy’s business point of view. China may not mind if such a possibility could enhance diplomatic discomfort to its […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It is good to note that the proposed India-UAE food corridor has already roped in a third partner, Israel. The project is expected to eventually involve the United States as well. The US was a key initiator of the historic four-nation I2U2 virtual summit in July 2022 bringing together leaders of India, […]
By Nantoo Banerjee It is heartening to note that global lenders are increasingly coming forward to strongly support India’s ongoing clean and green energy expansion programmes. India, the world’s third largest energy consumer after China and the United States, has set a target to reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Union Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari may be right to say that electric vehicles manufacturers do not need any more government subsidies, as consumers are now opting for EVs and CNG vehicles independently. The minister reasoned that the drop in production costs and the lower GST on EVs make […]
By Nantoo Banerjee The oil price decontrol — at first, the retail prices of petrol by the Manmohan Singh-led government in 2010 and, thereafter, diesel prices by the Narendra Modi-led government in 2015 – to link the local retail market prices with global price trends seems to be meant more to mislead the general public […]
