India’s journey from a $3 trillion-to a $10 trillion economy coincides with ongoing climate action, polarising climate debate and climate-impacted economics.
China's $400 billion deal with Iran comes at a time when the US is showing little signs of lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran. This is not good news for India.
A greater role in Iran gives China the potential to exploit its investments in Pakistan’s ports and transport routes to Central Asia – countering 'Quad' in the process.
Foreign Minister Jaishankar met his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif amid concerns over alliance proposed by Iran, which will include China, Turkey, Russia & Pakistan.
The prospect of a comprehensive military and trade partnership between Iran and China is a concern for India. Beijing plans to invest $400 billion in Iran.
Despite growing passenger volume, 11 out of 14 carriers reported losses in 2023-24. IndiGo recorded profit of Rs 8,167 crore, which reduced to Rs 7.253 crore in 2024-25.
Dubai airshow crash & pilot death have rekindled concerns over pilot safety, and need for smarter automated systems that can step in when G-forces, temporary loss of consciousness hit the pilot.
None of Pakistan’s PMs has lasted 5 years. That the current PM has given Asim Munir 5 years shows that of all military dictatorships history has seen, Pakistan’s is most creative.
Serious question : Has anyone – ideally it should be Niti Aayog – broken down $ 10 trillion of GDP into its component parts. Evidently, it will be mainly services, which ones. Also some more agriculture, a lot more industry. Geographically, by states and major cities. What will the financial sector look like. Quantum and pattern of energy usage, apart from sources. Absent detailing – like doubling of farmers’ incomes in five years – it can be like Michelangelo waving his arms at the ceiling and painting the Sistine Chapel.
I agree with the author. It is not only about climate change and such issues. Whether it be the UN, WEF, other international organisations or the umpteen self styled do-gooder organizations which want to save the world. I have a thing about such studies, surveys and rankings.
Recently there was a report from WEF saying that India falls 28 spots on WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report
Let me explain. Though India is the fifth largest economy , the USA being the largest, we are way down at 144th in per capita GDP. Also remember that India is a country, at 1,380,004,385, with the second largest population in the world. The third largest population, with 331,002,651 (23.98562% of India’s) is in the USA. Bangladesh has a population of 170,060,000 (12.223% of India’s) – (source worldometer.info). We pretty much do not know what exactly happens inside China, the largest populated Nation in the world.
Size matters.
It has been a slow journey for India, which was decidedly left a poor Nation by Western foreign rulers when they left India in 1947. It has seen many ups and downs since Independence of only about 70 odd years, with nearly 50 of those years as a closed economy, when it did not pursue any emphatic economic policies for development and growth. In contrast, for instance, the USA has been an independent democracy since 1776 (245 years). So, there you are …
Time matters and is directly proportional to size.
It is a moot point where and how does these studies collect data in India for such surveys? Are such data applied linearly across countries in the great study being reported internationally? Does only arithmetic go into such studies or some logic too? You will realise what you see is not what it is.
As an example, let us take one aspect of women’s employment and look at some situations in India. One fact that is very important to note is that every citizen in the “developed world” has a unique identity and every employment even as a housemaid is reported through this unique identity such as a social security number, in the USA. The data is near dead accurate. The USA reports unemployment rates weekly to monitor its economy which is not done through measuring inflation as in India.
In India, many employments, mostly of women, are not recorded. For instance, more than 80% of the house holds in Bangalore, my city, employ maids. Have you ever seen a database for such employment? About 30% of road side vegetable and fruit vendors in my locality are women. There is also an iron lady (a lady who irons clothes) in my colony. I play golf (which is an economy that affords employment to a considerable number of men and women) considered a sin by many and resented as a snobbish sport. There are many caddies (employed in golf courses) in Bangalore who hail from UP, Bihar, WB and Assam. Most of them live single with their wives tending the small plots of land back home, cultivating seasonal crops, some vegetables and rearing a cow (buffalo) or two. I wonder if these employments are accounted for. Nobody here reports these expenditures / incomes.
I also wonder what exactly these surveys want to convey with disproportionate comparisons. With difference in numbers compared being huge and disparate, even percentages do not tell the true story. I suspect these surveys just want to convey a superiority of the West (and those controlled by them) and nothing else. And we, including our venerable media, “intelligentsia” and “experts”, fall prey to these shenanigans and play second fiddle in these machinations.
Tail piece: We as a Nation need to develop our own methods and datums to measure our status and progress .
Serious question : Has anyone – ideally it should be Niti Aayog – broken down $ 10 trillion of GDP into its component parts. Evidently, it will be mainly services, which ones. Also some more agriculture, a lot more industry. Geographically, by states and major cities. What will the financial sector look like. Quantum and pattern of energy usage, apart from sources. Absent detailing – like doubling of farmers’ incomes in five years – it can be like Michelangelo waving his arms at the ceiling and painting the Sistine Chapel.
I agree with the author. It is not only about climate change and such issues. Whether it be the UN, WEF, other international organisations or the umpteen self styled do-gooder organizations which want to save the world. I have a thing about such studies, surveys and rankings.
Recently there was a report from WEF saying that India falls 28 spots on WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report
Let me explain. Though India is the fifth largest economy , the USA being the largest, we are way down at 144th in per capita GDP. Also remember that India is a country, at 1,380,004,385, with the second largest population in the world. The third largest population, with 331,002,651 (23.98562% of India’s) is in the USA. Bangladesh has a population of 170,060,000 (12.223% of India’s) – (source worldometer.info). We pretty much do not know what exactly happens inside China, the largest populated Nation in the world.
Size matters.
It has been a slow journey for India, which was decidedly left a poor Nation by Western foreign rulers when they left India in 1947. It has seen many ups and downs since Independence of only about 70 odd years, with nearly 50 of those years as a closed economy, when it did not pursue any emphatic economic policies for development and growth. In contrast, for instance, the USA has been an independent democracy since 1776 (245 years). So, there you are …
Time matters and is directly proportional to size.
It is a moot point where and how does these studies collect data in India for such surveys? Are such data applied linearly across countries in the great study being reported internationally? Does only arithmetic go into such studies or some logic too? You will realise what you see is not what it is.
As an example, let us take one aspect of women’s employment and look at some situations in India. One fact that is very important to note is that every citizen in the “developed world” has a unique identity and every employment even as a housemaid is reported through this unique identity such as a social security number, in the USA. The data is near dead accurate. The USA reports unemployment rates weekly to monitor its economy which is not done through measuring inflation as in India.
In India, many employments, mostly of women, are not recorded. For instance, more than 80% of the house holds in Bangalore, my city, employ maids. Have you ever seen a database for such employment? About 30% of road side vegetable and fruit vendors in my locality are women. There is also an iron lady (a lady who irons clothes) in my colony. I play golf (which is an economy that affords employment to a considerable number of men and women) considered a sin by many and resented as a snobbish sport. There are many caddies (employed in golf courses) in Bangalore who hail from UP, Bihar, WB and Assam. Most of them live single with their wives tending the small plots of land back home, cultivating seasonal crops, some vegetables and rearing a cow (buffalo) or two. I wonder if these employments are accounted for. Nobody here reports these expenditures / incomes.
I also wonder what exactly these surveys want to convey with disproportionate comparisons. With difference in numbers compared being huge and disparate, even percentages do not tell the true story. I suspect these surveys just want to convey a superiority of the West (and those controlled by them) and nothing else. And we, including our venerable media, “intelligentsia” and “experts”, fall prey to these shenanigans and play second fiddle in these machinations.
Tail piece: We as a Nation need to develop our own methods and datums to measure our status and progress .