IPA Staff
16492 stories by IPA Staff
Trump’s Dismantling Of Obama’s Endangerment Is A Danger To Climate Science
By T N Ashok NEW YORK: When the Environmental Protection Agency moves this week to repeal the “endangerment finding”—the 2009 scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten human health—it will mark more than regulatory rollback. It represents the culmination of a worldview President Donald Trump has articulated for over a...
Kerala Let Down By The 16th Finance Commission Too
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union Budget was a big let-down for Kerala. The State had, however, pinned high hopes on at least the 16th Finance Commission addressing its concerns. That was not to be either. The Commission has followed in the footsteps of the Union Budget by refusing...
British PM Keir Starmer Is Facing His Moment Of Truth During His Tenure
By Ben Chacko LONDON: As the wheels come off the Starmer operation we need pressure from the left for policy change as sweeping as the personnel clear-out at No 10.The PM may not last long, but the culture of cynicism, greed and contempt for democracy personified by Peter Mandelson...
India Offers Auto Duty Cuts, Lower Alcohol Tariffs Under US Trade Pact
NEW DELHI: India will extend quota-based duty concessions in the automobile sector and offer market access to alcoholic beverages through tariff reductions and minimum import price-based formulations under its trade pact with the United States, the government said on Monday. Under the agreement, tariffs on Indian exports worth $30.94...
Moody’s Projects India’s GDP To Grow 6.4% In FY27, Fastest Among G20 Economies
NEW DELHI: Moody’s Ratings on Monday projected India’s GDP to grow at 6.4 per cent in the next fiscal, the fastest pace among G-20 economies, driven by strong domestic consumption, policy measures, and a stable banking system. In its banking system outlook report, Moody’s said their asset quality will...
RBI Issues Norms Doubling Collateral-Free Loans To MSMEs
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has issued amended guidelines, doubling the collateral-free loan limit to micro, small and medium enterprises from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, effective April 1, 2026, to increase their access to formal credit. “These amendments have been carried out to enhance the extant collateral-free...
NITI Aayog Charts ‘Development-First’ Road Map To Net Zero 2070 Goal
NEW DELHI: India becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047, when it seeks to be a “Viksit Bharat”, will not come in the way of the country’s greenhouse-gas emission achieving net zero 23 years later, with the transition anchored in demand moderation, large-scale electrification, and financial and institutional reform,...
Industry Split, Government Reviews Import Policy On Refurbished Med Devices
NEW DELHI: As India pushes ahead with bilateral trade agreements, the issue of importing refurbished medical equipment has emerged as a contentious flashpoint in the medical devices sector. Domestic players have warned against easing restrictions, flagging patient safety risks and concerns over unfair competition, while MNCs are advocating a...
Supreme Court Orders Extension Of Time For Objections By A Week In Bengal
By Dr. Gyan Pathak The Supreme Court of India ordered extension of time for objections in West Bengal SIR by a week from Feb 14, which in the notified date for publication of the final electoral roll for the state. It has pointed out problem with the “software” that...
Indo-US Interim Trade Deal: More A Capitulation Than A Strategic Win For India
By T N Ashok NEW YORK: When India and the United States announced an interim trade framework in early February 2026, the declaration was terse — a few paragraphs and a handful of bullet points in a framework rather than a full legal text. But beneath that brevity lay...
Continuous Disruption Of Lok Sabha Is A Bad Omen For A Functioning Democracy
By Kalyani Shankar Communication between the Modi government and the Opposition has broken down, as evidenced by the turbulent proceedings in Parliament last week. There have been no back-channel negotiations to resolve the paralysis. The protests intensified on Monday, when Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced that the Leader...
Under The Latest Indo-U.S. Trade Deal, Chinese Imports Importance For India Have Gone Up
By Subrata Majumder US President Donald Trump’s tariff relaxation on India, in lieu of India’s less imports of oil from Russia, gives a new outlook to India- China trade relation. USA’s reduction of reciprocal tariff to 18 percent from 25 percent and withdrawal of penalty tariff of 25 percent...
In Bengal, State BJP Leaders Are Still Failing To Combat TMC In Poll Campaign
By Tirthankar Mitra KOLKATA: Defeating Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress by BJP in West Bengal is easier said than done even as BJP leaders are speaking of government formation after the assembly elections in April/May this year. Having failed to sweep successive Lok Sabha and Bidhan Sabha elections despite...
India’s Urban Housing Crisis: When Mumbai Costs More Than Manhattan
By T N Ashok By the time you finish reading this sentence, another middle-class Indian family has abandoned the dream of owning a home. Across India’s sprawling cities—from Mumbai’s glass towers to the expanding edges of Pune and Hyderabad—homeownership has shifted from aspiration to impossibility for millions of salaried...
Newly Developed Plastic Set To Replace Microplastics In Indian Market
By Asad Mirza Microplastics have infiltrated our food supply. Now, a Japanese research team has developed a breakthrough plastic that fully dissolves in seawater within hours—pointing toward cleaner and safer packaging. Microplastics represent an escalating challenge worldwide. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, an estimated 2.7 million tons...
India Have Reasons To Be Happy At Big U.S. Switch On The Status Of Kashmir
By T N Ashok NEW YORK: For seven decades, American diplomats danced around Kashmir with the precision of tightrope walkers, carefully avoiding any gesture that might suggest the United States had chosen sides in South Asia’s most intractable territorial dispute. Maps were scrubbed of political meaning. Statements were lawyered...
Energy Is Pivot In $500 Billion Indo-U.S. Interim Trade Agreement
By K Raveendran The joint declaration accompanying the Indo-US trade agreement, where the first item on the expansive $500 billion agenda is energy and the lifting of additional tariffs is explicitly tied to India curtailing its purchases of Russian crude, crystallises a shift that had been quietly unfolding in...
Some Tariff Relief For India: Strategic Gains Including Tariff For U.S.
By R. Suryamurthy The India–United States Interim Trade Agreement has been unveiled as a diplomatic breakthrough and marketed domestically as evidence of India’s growing economic heft. In reality, it marks a decisive shift in how trade, security, and sovereignty are being re-ordered in India’s engagement with Washington. The agreement...
