By R. Suryamurthy The Sixteenth Finance Commission’s horizontal devolution outcomes have been widely read as a technocratic recalibration—one that finally rewards economic performance by explicitly recognising states’ contribution to national output—but beneath the arithmetic lies a more consequential political-economic shift, in which India’s federal fiscal contract is being re-engineered...
By T N Ashok India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled her ninth budget on February 1 , a fiscal blueprint designed to sustain the world’s fastest-growing major economy at 6.5% even as Donald Trump’s tariff threats and global economic malaise force policymakers worldwide into a defensive crouch. The response...
By Tirthankar Mitra Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the military junta backed party won the Myanmar elections in what is widely perceived to be a “sham victory.’ Pointers of democratic irregularity do not make the three phase elections be free and fair poll process. This is the first...
By Jenny Farrell NEW YORK: Yet another Frankenstein film has made its way to the screen. Despite critical acclaim and projected awards, it has little in common with Mary Shelley’s novel. Readers interested in Shelley’s political vision and the historical pressures that gave rise to the book are far...
By K Raveendran The Union Budget’s political messaging has been read as carefully as its fiscal arithmetic, particularly in states heading into elections where expectations of targeted concessions were unusually high. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Parliament draped in a Kancheepuram silk saree, a gesture that appeared designed...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak The Union Budget 2026-27 clearly ignores core labour concerns of the country, though it speaks of the language of jobs, skill, and future readiness. The most worrisome aspect of the budget is that despite over a decade of contrary experience, especially since 2014 under Prime...
By Girish Linganna When the Finance Minister announced ₹7.85 lakh crore for defence in Budget 2026-27, many of us probably thought—okay, that sounds like huge money. But let me tell you something interesting: spending more rupees doesn’t always mean we’re getting stronger. This is exactly what’s happening with India’s...
By Kalyani Shankar As the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections approach, the main political parties feature two coalitions: the ruling DMK-led alliance with Congress and left parties, and the AIADMK coalition with the BJP and smaller parties. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin continues to lead the DMK, highlighting the importance of...
By Ashis Biswas When it comes to flagrantly violating the law and getting away with it, some Indian politicians seem to be in a class of their own! In April/May year, Assembly elections will be held in four states — Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala, along with...
By R. Suryamurthy India’s Union Budget for 2026–27 presents itself as a document of calm control. Fiscal deficits decline, debt ratios edge downwards, capital expenditure continues to expand, and the rhetoric of prudence is carefully maintained. There is no dramatic retrenchment, no populist surge, and no overt fiscal gamble....
By Anjan Roy Finance minster, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented a budget in Parliament on February 1 which is more a multi-year development blueprint for the country than a statement of government’s incomes and expenditures and how the finances are to be managed. At the same time, while the finance minister’s...
By T N Ashok By the time Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rose in Parliament to present her ninth Union Budget, there was little suspense about the broad direction. This was not meant to be a vote-catching spectacle, despite five assembly elections looming. Nor was it an exercise in fiscal...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has come as a big disappointment for Kerala. The Finance Minister has not conceded even a single demand of the State’s 29-strong wish list. The only saving grace – if it can be called one –...
By K Raveendran The sharp note of disappointment sounded by Scott Bessent over the India–European Union free trade agreement says less about a single deal and more about a changing geometry of power in the global economy. At one level, Washington’s frustration reflects a familiar concern that sanctions and...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Economic Survey tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Thursday has praised Kerala’s Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP) and the Kochi Water Metro as models worth replicating. The survey’s praise represents a ringing rebuff to the opposition which has been unleashing...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Though Economic Surveys do not dictate exact budget numbers, it strongly influences the Union Budgets of India. If it is the case, the Economic Survey 2025-26 indicates the four keys priorities that we may see in the Union Budget 2026-27: A growth-supported fiscal stance anchored...
By Anjan Roy President Donald Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh, as the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the country’s centre bank, from May when the term of the present chair, Jerome Powell, ends. In the run-up to that nomination there was the nasty fight against Powell that...
By T N Ashok WASHINGTON: There’s a delicious irony in watching a sitting president sue the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion while his own Treasury Secretary simultaneously runs the agency. Welcome to the Trump administration’s latest exercise in what might be called “government as performance art”—or perhaps more...