Tag: business standard

News: The Russia-Ukraine conflict has the potential of creating macroeconomic/financial crises in many countries. What is the vulnerability of dependence on Russian oil and gas? Before invading Ukraine, Russia was the world’s biggest exporter of oil, at about 8 million barrels a day. In addition, about a third of Europe’s gas supply came from Russia.… Continue reading Economic impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict: Global macro in 2022/2023

News: ‘Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022’ have been notified by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA). These guidelines have been long overdue. What are the key provisions under the new rules? Under the new rules, – Penalties for misleading advertisements have been linked to the definition of such… Continue reading Controlling the hard sell

Misery index is a simple sum of a nation’s annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate. The higher the index, the more the misery felt by average citizens. The first Misery Index was constructed by economist Art Okun in the 1960s. The Index has been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard and… Continue reading Misery Index

News: The government has recently announced eligibility conditions for the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). There is a noticeable difference between the CDS the government wanted in 2019 and what it seems to want today. It is disconcerting that the government has modified the eligibility criteria for appointment as CDS so early in… Continue reading CDS: Unsettled questions

News: The government is poised to launch 75 digital banks soon. What will be launched are Digital Banking Units (DBUs). These are a new way of making available digital products of existing banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). If one thinks that a sleek set of new banks is going to challenge traditional banks, one… Continue reading Fintech challenge is a fantasy

News: In 2022, international trade is being impacted by a continuing global pandemic, a European war, widespread economic sanctions, supply chains disruptions and sudden national bans and caps on exports of essential commodities. Global Trade The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that global goods trade has expanded by about 40 times (in terms of volume)… Continue reading International trade remains important

News: About 60 countries, including India and China, have pushed for a joint proposal for consideration of several WTO rules. The proposal was pushed at the upcoming 12th ministerial summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The proposal has been moved to solve some of the contentious issues linked to, food stockholding, agricultural subsidies, international… Continue reading WTO rules on foodgrains must be updated

News: In late April, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram angrily ordered its officials to find out who dumped “malba” — the Hindi word for Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) on either side of the Gurugram-Faridabad road. Frameworks to tackle C&DW already exist. Implementation needs to be improved. What are the causes behind C&DW? C&DW is… Continue reading Urban mining

News: Inflation is a macroeconomic phenomenon which is under pressure at global and local level. Major driving factors behind inflation Inflation is caused by a number of factors which may includ supply, demand, local and global factors. Globally The inflation started with the US fiscal stimulus during Covid-19. This pushed inflation. This led to increased… Continue reading The inflation spectrometer

Context: How did the web cookie become the bone of contention in the battle for privacy? What is a web cookie? A cookie is a little piece of text stored on one’s web browser. It can identify what sites one has visited, to which sites one goes too often, or even, under some circumstances, the… Continue reading Say no to cookies from strangers