Sticky inflation, weaker rupee raises odds of RBI rate hike after Fed policy pivots
Posted: Sep 18, 2026 at 4:02 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The US Federal Reserve has returned to rate hikes after a three-year hiatus, raising the federal funds target range by 25 basis points to 3.75 – 4 per cent as inflation remains stubbornly above its 2 per cent goal. The move has wider implications for emerging markets, including India, where a weakening rupee, elevated inflation and the risk of capital outflows are already complicating the Reserve Bank of India’s policy choices.[…]
The USD 137 billion RBI forex bet: Rupee rescued but risks remain
Posted: Sep 11, 2026 at 2:54 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The RBI’s special USD-INR swap facility has delivered a bigger-than-expected boost to foreign-currency inflows, helping shore up the rupee, replenish forex reserves and inject liquidity into a banking system hungry for deposits. But the success has also opened up a new set of questions around the risks of taking on large dollar liabilities and managing the excess rupee liquidity created by the exercise.[…]
Resilient domestic demand stands guard for growth
Posted: Sep 4, 2026 at 5:44 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Indian economy grew by 7.8 per cent in Q1 FY27, better-than-expected, despite a challenging global environment. India’s growth story continues to draw strength from resilient domestic demand.
Despite geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices and an uneven monsoon, economic activity has remained relatively firm, supported by healthy private consumption, a revival in investment, improving employment indicators and steady rural demand. […]
Warsh’s hawkish tone puts India and others on rate-hike radar
Posted: Sep 1, 2026 at 12:02 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, Kevin Warsh’s hawkish message at Jackson Hole has jolted expectations ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting, reviving bets of a rate hike later this year. While the new Fed chief stopped short of offering explicit guidance, his warning that the central bank still has “work to do” if inflation does not return to its 2 per cent target fast enough has added a new layer of uncertainty for global economies including India. […]
Time to reshape sustainability in the age of AI?
Posted: Aug 17, 2026 at 2:04 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
AI can help decarbonise complex systems, but its rapidly growing physical footprint is testing power grids, water supplies and corporate climate commitments. The outcome will depend less on the technology’s promise than on the choices organisations make now. […]
RBI’s pause signals confidence in India’s economy
Posted: Aug 7, 2026 at 12:32 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent came as no surprise. With inflation still being driven largely by food and fuel prices, and growth holding up better than expected, there was little incentive for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to either tighten policy or signal an easing bias. The unanimous decision to retain the neutral stance indicates that the central bank wants to preserve flexibility as the global environment remains fluid. […]
RBI rewriting 2013 forex script for a more uncertain world
Posted: July 14, 2026 at 4:27 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is deploying a multi-pronged strategy to strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves, ease domestic liquidity and shield the rupee from mounting global uncertainties, signalling a shift from reactive intervention to pre-emptive reserve building.
The central bank’s latest package of measures to attract foreign currency inflows comes at a time when imported inflation is rising, crude oil prices remain elevated due to geopolitical tensions in West Asia […]
Why India can no longer rent its AI future
Posted: July 13, 2026 at 11:46 am | Author: Manish Marwah
The era of “move fast and break things” in AI didn’t just slow down—it was handed a 90-minute eviction notice by Washington. When the US government retroactively pulled Anthropic’s most powerful consumer AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, from the global market via an export control law, it sent a shockwave that India cannot afford to ignore. […]
A new industrial revolution demands a new workforce
Posted: July 8, 2026 at 11:37 am | Author: Manish Marwah
Every industrial revolution has been defined by a breakthrough technology. Steam power mechanised production in the eighteenth century, electricity transformed manufacturing in the nineteenth, while computers and the internet ushered in the digital economy. Today, the world stands at the threshold of another transformation—one driven not by a single invention but by the urgent need to decarbonise economies, adapt to climate change, and build resilience against increasingly frequent environmental shocks. […]
Oil shock to growth boost: India comes full circle
Posted: July 6, 2026 at 11:49 am | Author: Manish Marwah
The easing of tensions in West Asia following the recent US-Iran peace understanding marks a significant turning point for the Indian economy, which had weathered the conflict with remarkable resilience.
The changing geopolitical landscape is expected to support stronger economic growth, lower inflation, healthier government finances and greater external stability, […]
RBI’s FCNR(B) push could unlock big currency inflow
Posted: June 29, 2026 at 10:05 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a series of measures to liberalize the Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), or FCNR(B), deposit framework earlier this month. Beneath the technicalities lies one of the central bank’s most significant macroeconomic interventions since the special FCNR(B) swap scheme that helped stabilize the rupee during the 2013 currency crisis. […]
The strategy behind global retail’s “GCC-first” move into India
Posted: June 22, 2026 at 12:31 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
E-commerce HomeGoods giant Wayfair recently established its new Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Bengaluru, marking a major expansion of its global technology and operations footprint. Partnering with management consulting firm Zinnov, the Boston-headquartered online retailer built the centre to tap into India’s e-commerce talent ecosystem. […]
India’s Digital Lifeline at Risk: The Silent Climate Threat to Telecom Networks
Posted: June 12, 2026 at 4:15 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India hosts one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks, with over 1.17 billion telecom subscribers, more than 800 million broadband users, and an estimated 770,000 telecom towers supporting digital connectivity across urban and rural regions. As digital services become increasingly integrated into everyday life, the exposure of this vast infrastructure network […]
Can Coal Gasification deliver India’s energy Self-Reliance?
Posted: May 21, 2026 at 5:33 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s energy story has always been shaped by one difficult reality: the country consumes far more energy than it produces. Despite being one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, India still relies heavily on imports for oil, gas, fertilisers, and several industrial feedstocks. Every global crisis — whether the Russia-Ukraine war, disruptions in the Red Sea, or even the recent volatility in LNG prices due to Iran-Israel conflict has exposed this vulnerability. […]
The Return of Inflation Anxiety
Posted: May 20, 2026 at 11:53 am | Author: Manish Marwah
After inflation averaged around 2% in 2025-26, or half of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 4% target, consumer price inflation is now steadily inching upward. Retail inflation rose to 3.48% in April 2026, the highest level in 13 months, while food inflation climbed to 4.01%, signalling that price pressures are broadening across categories. […]
Storms everywhere; why India isn’t sinking?
Posted: May 7, 2026 at 12:01 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Over the past five years, the global economy has been battered by an extraordinary sequence of shocks – pandemic disruptions, inflation surges, aggressive monetary tightening, tariff tensions, and now the Middle East conflict.
Yet amid this turbulence, India has emerged as one of the most resilient major economies. This resilience is neither accidental nor temporary; it reflects structural reforms, […]
Oil Shock Clouds India’s Growth Run in FY27
Posted: Apr 14, 2026 at 9:16 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s macroeconomic outlook for 2026–27 (FY27) must be assessed through the dual lens of strong domestic fundamentals and intensifying global disruptions. While the economy enters this phase with robust momentum, the evolving West Asia war introduces significant uncertainty, particularly through energy markets, trade channels, and financial flows. […]
Why the RBI may resist a rate hike in April
Posted: Apr 6, 2026 at 11:23 am | Author: Manish Marwah
At a time when geopolitics is once again dictating macroeconomics, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finds itself navigating a familiar but far more complex terrain. The flare-up in West Asia has sharply lifted global energy prices, unsettled financial markets, and revived concerns around inflation, growth, and currency stability. There are questions about whether the central bank will be forced into a rate hike cycle once again. […]
Energy Diversification no longer Optional for a Resilient Future
Posted: Mar 20, 2026 at 11:40 am | Author: Manish Marwah
India stands at a defining moment in its energy transition. As the world’s third-largest energy consumer and one of the fastest-growing major economies, the country faces a dual challenge: meeting surging energy demand while navigating climate risks and geopolitical uncertainties.
Energy demand in India is projected to grow at nearly 3% annually through 2035, making it one of the largest contributors to global demand growth. […]
Future-Proofing India’s Power Sector: Climate Resilience must anchor the National Electricity Policy 2026
Posted: Mar 12, 2026 at 3:58 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s electricity system stands at a critical crossroads. Over the past two decades, the country has achieved remarkable progress in expanding power generation capacity, improving grid connectivity, and providing near-universal electricity access. Yet the context in which this system operates is rapidly changing. […]
India’s Strategic Push for API Self-Sufficiency Gains Momentum
Posted: Mar 11, 2026 at 6:10 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s pharmaceutical industry stands on the cusp of transformative growth, propelled by the rapid acceleration of domestic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production.
Recent projections from CareEdge Ratings indicate that the domestic API market, currently valued at approximately USD 15–16 billion, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth […]
West Asia Conflict Puts India’s Growth Story to Test
Posted: Mar 10, 2026 at 10:56 am | Author: Manish Marwah
Barely two months into 2026, the global economy has already been thrown into a fresh wave of uncertainty. A series of developments—from legal upheaval in U.S. trade policy to statistical revisions in India’s economic data and a sudden military escalation in the Gulf between the U.S.-Israel alliance and Iran—has disrupted assumptions about stability in global markets.[…]
Social and Economic Implications of India’s USD 22.7 Trillion Net Zero Journey
Posted: Feb 19, 2026 at 3:17 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s twin goals of becoming a “Viksit Bharat” by 2047 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2070 have the potentials of the most ambitious economic transformations ever attempted by a developing nation.
At the heart of this transition is the difficult task of balancing rapid growth with the simultaneous rewiring of the country’s energy, industrial, and financial systems. Two recent reports by NITI Aayog make it clear that India’s climate journey is as much about money […]
India’s Reform Playbook Shifts beyond the Budget Cycle
Posted: Feb 11, 2026 at 3:49 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s economic reform playbook has undergone a quiet but decisive shift in recent years. The annual Union Budget is no longer treated as the sole theatre for reform announcements, grand policy pivots or politically sensitive decisions. Instead, reform has become a continuous process—deliberately sequenced, often executed outside the Budget, and increasingly insulated from the noise that typically surrounds fiscal announcements[…]
Budget 2026–27: Need Structural Reform Push Within a Tight Fiscal Framework
Posted: Jan 29, 2026 at 5:56 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Union Budget for 2026–27 is poised to mark a decisive shift in India’s economic policy trajectory, blending an expansive reform agenda with careful fiscal management. The government’s strategy—informally characterised as a fast-moving reform drive across sectors—signals that the coming year will prioritise structural transformation over short-term stimulus. This recalibration comes at a moment of global fragility: economic growth across major economies is slowing, trade tensions are resurfacing, and tariff pressures—particularly […]
GIFT City fuelling global portfolio shifts among Indian investors
Posted: Jan 5, 2026 at 6:11 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Once upon a time, global investing was a niche pursuit for a small and sophisticated group of Indian investors. Exposure to overseas markets was largely the preserve of ultra-high-net-worth families, multinational treasuries, and institutions with the scale, patience, and compliance bandwidth to navigate layers of regulation. For most individuals and family offices, international diversification was aspirational rather than practical[…]
India’s Nuclear Power Crossroads: Project SHANTI
Posted: Dec 24, 2025 at 9:11 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
For most of independent India’s history, nuclear power has occupied a singular place in the country’s development story. Neither fully commercial nor merely technological, nuclear energy was treated as a sovereign capability—bound tightly to national security, scientific self-reliance, and strategic autonomy. Power generation was only one of its objectives. Control mattered as much as capacity. That settlement is now being fundamentally re-examined. […]
Why the DPDP Act is India’s big digital win
Posted: Dec 2, 2025 at 3:30 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Supreme Court’s 2017 verdict, which held privacy to be a fundamental right, set the ball rolling for a comprehensive structure for protecting digital personal data. Eight years later on November 13, 2025, the MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) formally notified the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) rules 2025, putting India’s first comprehensive data law into full effect[…]
Indian GDP growth story in the shadow of a US tariff
Posted: Dec 1, 2025 at 1:28 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
After the United States imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods on August 27, dismay and concerns over India’s growth outlook intensified across markets, policy circles and industry.
Several analysts moved swiftly to revise their projections downward, expecting GDP growth to slip closer to 6 per cent for 2025–26. The tariff shock, aimed largely at labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, jewellery and seafood, introduced a fresh layer of uncertainty at a time when global trade was already weakening under the weight of geopolitical tensions, rising protectionism and softening demand in major economies […]
COP30: Finance, forests, and fractured frontiers of global climate
Posted: Nov 27, 2025 at 3:24 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The Amazon Moment: Context and Symbolism
COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, carried a weight few climate summits have borne. Convened deep inside the Amazon rainforest—the planet’s largest carbon sink and a living symbol of both fragility and hope—the conference marked a decade since the Paris Agreement. It unfolded against a backdrop of escalating climate extremes, record heatwaves, and widening adaptation gaps. […]
Moody’s projects a steady growth for India through 2027
Posted: Nov 24, 2025 at 12:48 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Moody’s Ratings has delivered a cautiously optimistic assessment of India’s economic trajectory, projecting that the country will maintain growth of around 6.5 per cent through 2027. In its latest macroeconomic report titled “Global Macro 2026: India’s Growth Will Be Steady but Subdued in 2026,” the agency reiterates that India continues to defy global economic strains, geopolitical uncertainty, and even targeted tariff increases by the United States. The report keeps India’s GDP growth forecast unchanged at 6.4 per cent for 2026 and 6.5 per cent for 2027 […]
A Strategic Leap towards Global Banking Giants
Posted: Nov 17, 2025 at 4:06 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
As India eyes its transition into the world’s third-largest economy, the government is quietly crafting an ambitious redesign of its banking landscape: the revival of public sector bank consolidation.
The renewed push, coming after a six-year pause, is rooted in a long-term vision to create two Indian banking giants that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s top 20 banks and fuel the country’s next phase of growth. […]
Turning Climate Commitments into Market Opportunity
Posted: Nov 4, 2025 at 5:31 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
When negotiators left Baku after COP 29 (Conference of the Parties), the global carbon-market landscape finally had a shape. Years of wrangling over Article 6 of the Paris Agreement—the rulebook for how countries can trade verified emission reductions—had produced workable text. For India, this was the moment to move from commitment to construction […]
Shield MSMEs from Global Trade Headwinds
Posted: Nov 3, 2025 at 1:43 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Contrary to widespread apprehensions that India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth might falter following the steep 50 per cent tariff imposed by the United States (US) on Indian goods, the country’s growth outlook remains resilient in the near term. […]
The Rise of Integrated Aviation Hubs
Posted: October 30, 2025 at 3:48 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India has now emerged as the world’s fifth-largest aviation market. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) data revealed in that India handled 211 million passengers in 2024, an 11.1 per cent increase from the previous year, moving past Japan. Only the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Spain are ahead of India. […]
India in a Softening Rate World: Navigating Strategic Opportunities and Risks
Posted: Sep 23, 2025 at 4:30 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
The US Federal Reserve’s decision on September 17, 2025, to cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4.00-4.25% marks more than a technical adjustment. It represents a pivotal inflection in global monetary policy, reflecting mounting concerns about slowing employment growth and growth sustainability in the world’s largest economy. After nine months of holding steady […]
India’s maritime sector riding high on a wave of reforms
Posted: September 9, 2025 at 4:12 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India, with a coastline that is approximately 11,098 km long, spanning nine states and four Union Territories, boasts one of the busiest trade routes in the world. The country has 12 major and 200 minor ports, besides 30 shipyards. In terms of merchant shipping fleets, India is ranked 20th in the world. According to a FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) report, seaways facilitate 70 per cent […]
India gets decisive with an online gaming law
Posted: Sep 5, 2025 at 2:18 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
India’s sweeping Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 has imposed a blanket ban on all real-money online games, triggering sharp debate and legal challenges. The government has cited addiction, fraud, and money laundering risks. While critics argue the ban ignores distinctions between skill and chance-based games […]
MSMEs are key to building a robust, self-reliant India
Posted: September 2, 2025 at 4:36 pm | Author: Manish Marwah
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) hold the key to India’s ambition of becoming a USD 30 trillion economy and a global manufacturing hub in the next two decades.
So, MSMEs are not only desirable, but they are essential to building a robust, self-reliant, and inclusive economy.
Yet, these small units are vulnerable to economic upheavals […]