Page 5 - T N Ninan

The LIC way or the Air India way: A tale of two suboptimal paths

One path waits for the company to go bankrupt while the other continues to subject it to government whim, writes T N Ninan

Reparations for colonialism and the complicated business of compensations

How does one calculate reparations? Who decides how the money will be spent? If it is to be distributed, who will get how much - and as cash, or in some other form - wonders T N Ninan

What explains RBI's 'near-unanimous' inaction even as inflation was rising?

For the RBI, a correct reading of its mandate would have been that the inflation target is 4%, not 6%. And action to raise interest rates should have begun last year, writes T N Ninan

Why we must clearly define atmanirbharta and our reasons for chasing it

Employment deficit is a bigger problem for India than trade deficit. That and the feasibility question should not be lost in PLI's search for strategic self-reliance, writes T N Ninan

The biter bit: The sanctions on Russia are beginning to hurt buyers now

All things considered, might it have been better and cheaper, shed less blood, and avoided a huge refugee problem if Russia had been allowed a buffer zone in Eastern Europe, wonders T N Ninan

Indian economy looks better than others, but don't raise a cheer just yet

The comparative numbers spell bad news for the world rather than any good news for India, whose growth forecasts are getting tempered even as the inflation picture is getting worse, writes T N Ninan

Debt-trap diplomacy: Should China be blamed for Pakistan, Sri Lanka crises?

China exacerbated but didn't mostly cause the problem whose roots lay in borrowing countries' broken politics and economic mismanagement. The loans may only have solved some problems, writes T N Ninan

India in a divided world: Keeping old friendships and cultivating new ones

The question for India, as a middle or swing power with long-term external dependencies for energy and military hardware, is how to not let old friendships come in the way of new ones, notes T N Ninan

Wealth-income mismatch: The curious case of India's missing millionaires

While India had 764,000 dollar-millionaires in 2019 by one account, just 316,000 filed tax returns declaring income of over $75,000. Large-scale I-T evasion may still be taking place, notes T N Ninan

Multiple dimensions: Three ways to see the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Is Putin the bad guy in the Ukraine conflict, or has the West ignored the need for a legitimate buffer zone, or is it all about ideological underpinnings of civilisational ideas, wonders T N Ninan

Shock-proofing the economy: Quality jobs the best possible safety net

Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, writes T N Ninan

Shooting a bunch of missiles at the architecture of globalisation

The West's attempt to bring Vladimir Putin to heel by weaponising everything from aircraft spares to finance will have much wider repercussions, writes T N Ninan

Oil shock: Economy will suffer, but less reason to worry than in the past

The fear now is that consumers will take longer to come out of their shell, growth will moderate and full recovery from the effects of the pandemic will be stretched out even longer, writes T N Ninan

Climate goals: Can investor activism deliver what govts could not?

The moves by investors and accounting innovations by economists and auditors could make a critical difference on the margin. Call it Plan B; there is no Plan C, writes T N Ninan

Dilemmas after the boom: Market euphoria and an obvious disconnect

The likelihood is that the new Samvat will be a period when the market either corrects, or at the least digests the excesses of the year gone by, writes T N Ninan

Festival cheer and beyond: Admirable sangfroid in the face of negative news

The government's recent spate of programmes should be expected to generate some momentum, but the macro-economic numbers are not encouraging, notes T N Ninan

Pandora papers: A rich man's game, and its most willing participants

As an international consortium of journalists unearths the 'Pandora' list of stashes in tax havens, accountability becomes the call of the day. But what we get instead is hypocrisy, rues T N Ninan

Dominance by default: How China was handed East Asia on a platter

Anyone within range of China's expanding navy will have to build capabilities faster and/or work more closely with the US, as Australia has just announced, writes T N Ninan

No easy rides: Why is India becoming a graveyard for world's auto majors?

India is a market for low-priced cars with low running costs. The global majors don't have models that fit the bill; only Maruti and Hyundai have successful entry-level models, writes T N Ninan

Rs 6-trillion monetisation plan: Modi govt's ambition in a minefield

Given the record of past blunders, under-achievements, vulnerabilities and the manifest influence of stigmatised capital, what India might get is yet another school for scandal, cautions T N Ninan