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A number of countries, including India, have either announced or are already implementing sustainable finance taxonomies that help mobilise capital for sustainable development and climate action. This brief examines the challenges to implementing sustainable finance taxonomies, including lack of harmonisation and standardisation, unavailability of data, lack of capacity, and financial burdens on companies applying these taxonomies. The brief prop

The history of the Planning Commission suggests that it was always an extension of the government's attitude towards the economy. This is not in itself a bad thing, but has been twisted an unfair criticism of the PC. Therefore, plans for the Niti Aayog and its working should be gauged very carefully.

An unshakable optimism about the long-term destiny of India's economy is counter-productive at moments of crisis

As the world grapples with uncertainty in the post-COVID-19 era, China appears to be focusing on bolstering its rural economy. China claims to have brought nearly 100 million people out of poverty since 2012, but the regime feels that unbalanced development can jeopardise the gains of poverty alleviation. The widening economic gap could also foment unrest in the rural areas. Additionally, the government believes that the reliance on grain

As India reels from the economic fallout of Covid-19 despite the announcement of a relief package, calls for a more refined and demand-inducing stimulus have emerged. However, the bleak state of the government’s coffers has left limited fiscal space to act. This brief explains the plausibility of financing a demand-inducing stimulus using debt monetisation as a one-time policy measure. Outlining the criticisms against such proposals and how the

Demonetisation is still hurting India's monetary stability, and govt/RBI have been unusually poor stewards of the macro-economy

Now in the fourth phase, China is rebalancing by emphasising consumption and promoting an innovation-based economy. This is a forty year timespan, not the half-decade process under Mao.

Hard work on inflation means there is monetary space in this crisis; but years of mismanagement means there is no fiscal firepower

If one thing needs to change after the coronavirus, it’s the relationship between the state and migrant workers.

India will assume the presidency of the G20 in 2023. One of the key policy challenges for India and other member states is how to regulate the global digital economy. Once a fringe policy issue, the global digital economy is now central to the G20 agenda, with significant implications for individuals, corporations, and governments. Bilateral cooperation within the G20 system can provide additional resources and capability to any presidency, which

India will become a digital society. It is also deploying all the right pieces and infrastructure for a digital economy. The foundation for both will be the cloud ecosystem, which, however, needs to be protected through a robust policy and legal framework.

This Paper looks at the three most important domestic issues-the state of the economy, healthcare and social issues-that American voters are grappling with in the run-up to the presidential elections later this year.

Is the digital economy about digitising the real economy, society and governance - or is it simply a valuation game? The question is particularly valid as a series of digital and e-commerce companies have totted up impressive funding without knowing how to build a sustainable business model.

India has assumed the G20 presidency at a critical and opportune time in history, even as the half-yearly report card indicates that consensus-building in the grouping has been more difficult than India may have expected. This brief identifies six areas where India can manifest its capability to lead the building of an effective and plausible climate action plan. Globally, championing the tracking of per-capita emissions and fossil fuel-b

Even as trade talks between the US and China seem set to resume, geopolitical tensions between the two powers show no sign of abating.

According to the Ministry of Power’s “Vision 2024” document, the power demand in India is expected to grow in the foreseeable future, and the supply will struggle to keep pace with it. This piece traces the recent developments in the energy sector in the form of a detailed commentary.

Flexibility and transparency critical for a gas-based economy; last mile pipelines get a boost in India — and other news and analyses from the energy sector.

SAARC remains the only viable vehicle for South Asian integration, a project vital for India because a viable South Asian economy is a necessary pre-condition for our ability to engage effectively with ASEAN and China. And when we look at SAARC, the key hurdle it must overcome is the India-Pakistan problem.

For him, Turkey is the Islamic power awaiting its due, and while it does not have the oil dollars backing its fragile economy, it is still working hard to create its own narratives and influence zones across the region.

A successful conclusion of the FTA with EU would go a long way in building international market confidence, giving much needed stimulus to the international economy. The loss of revenue from reduction in tariffs should be viewed in gains of transfer of technology, productivity increases and greater competition.

The shift from a one-world economy to a two-world system will force States to make hard choices. Europe is the testing ground

China has often showed a lack of willingness to abide by not only established international law but also certain norms that the global community has fostered over the years. It has flouted the decision issued by an arbitration court at The Hague regarding its claims in the South China Sea; it has also appropriated intellectual property.  In the 1970s when the Western economies were taking the lead in setting global norms while balancing the thre

Goals of universal financial inclusion have acquired new wings in India, with the mobile phone now seen as a catalyst in realising such aspirations. This brief analyses India’s performance in leveraging mobile phones for financial inclusion. It throws light not only on the various factors that have propelled the use of mobile banking, but also those that have served as obstacles for such use. The brief also proposes a strategy that has been dev

In November 2014, India introduced a visa facility allowing foreign travellers wanting to come to India for recreational purposes, casual visits with friends or relatives, short-duration medical treatment or business visits, to apply for their visa online. Since then, the government has taken specific initiatives to improve the process, with the more recent ones including the introduction of three e-visa categories (e-medical, e-business, and e-t

This brief examines the efficacy of the inclusion of private capital in development finance, using the cases of certain countries that have met with success in utilising such a strategy. It underlines the experiences of institutions like the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the United States International Development Finance Corporation (US-IDFC) that use innovative financial tools to support international financial institution

In today’s digital economy, the United States (US) remains a market leader in many digital technologies; meanwhile, China is fast catching up. In Europe, foreign technology companies have a strong presence, often creating dependencies that can undermine digital sovereignty. Digitisation, therefore, is high on the European Union’s (EU) political agenda. This paper analyses recent key policy responses by the EU, and finds that the union

This paper attempts to make a contribution in the context of the recent push in making India an e-empowered economy for promoting exports. The study stems from the premise that exports respond significantly to the costs associated with breaking into foreign markets and sustaining in those markets, whereas e-commerce offers a ready platform to minimise such costs. The empirical exercise focuses on export decision and export intensity, after adjust

Interstate (River) Water Disputes (ISWDs) are a continuing challenge to federal water governance in India. Rooted in constitutional, historico-geographical, and institutional ambiguities, they tend to become prolonged conflicts between the states that share river basins. This paper examines the constitutional complexities, contentious political federalism, and identity-based electoral political dynamics that fuel ISWDs. It discusses the River

Financial inclusion is critical to achieving the economic empowerment of women—one of the targets under the fifth Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality. In India, one in every five women lack access to a bank account. Although the country’s programmes promoting financial inclusion have increased the percentage of women having access to a bank account, wide gaps remain in account use, and access to savings and credit. Women c

As the world confronts multiple challenges which are intricately connected, our path for development stands at a crucial juncture. In the context of the embroiling polycrisis, progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has been steady but fragile with major and persistent challenges. Financing for Agenda 2030 has emerged as a major bottleneck with several developing economies, especially the least developed countries (LDCs), low-income

Climate change has emerged amongst India’s most formidable challenges to sustained GDP growth. To accelerate the implementation of the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement and advance its progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, finance is key. India needs to develop a comprehensive strategy and an integrated policy approach that aligns the country’s financial systems with the long-term needs of the economy while incor

Accumulated non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Indian banking system, specifically in the public sector banks (PSBs), have adverse effects on credit disbursement. An increasing amount of bad loans have prompted the banks to be extra cautious, which has dried the credit channel. Two components are key in resolving the NPA problem: the immediate task of resolving the current accumulation in the PSBs, and the more important long-term task of ensuri

Aiming to secure their marine resources in the Bay of Bengal, India and Bangladesh settled their maritime boundary in 2014. Despite the delimitation, however, fishers from both countries continue to commit unlawful forays into each other's sovereign waters, leading to the enforcement of punitive measures against those accused or convicted. Such incidents not only jeopardise the fishers’ livelihoods, but repeated occurrences also nettle relation

India is now being recognized as the fastest growing country in Asia. Even PM Modi recently said that Indian economy is doing much better now. But India's soft underbelly should not be forgotten -- India has the highest number of malnourished children under- five years of age in the world.

On August 12, 2016 the Observer Research Foundation convened the first in a series of multistakeholder roundtables on encryption. This report is the outcome of the discussion of issues and proposal of solutions conducted at the roundtable. Being a complex, technical-legal question around access to data for law enforcement, encryption has long been a contested issue. Creating best-in-class regulation on encryption will require targeted interventio

The 2023 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report highlights a surge in drug production in Myanmar, posing serious security challenges. The cultivation of poppy, key for heroin production, increased by 33 percent in 2022, reversing a downward trend seen since 2014. Experts attribute the rise largely to livelihood challenges: Myanmar’s economy contracted by 18 percent in 2021, with only a modest rebound in 2022, and there are the compound