Bicycle manufacturing is a complex chain of production that passes through a global value chain which is currently adversely affected by the pandemic.
Tag: Future of Capitalism
When does furlough end ?
Advertisements This was one of the top 5 “when” queries in Google search in 2020. Understandably, furlough has been a big topic for discussion here in Northern Ireland as well. Ever since I landed here, I have made countless friends and met complete strangers out of my journalistic curiosity a number of who I found… Continue reading When does furlough end ?
Can Atlas Cycles make a comeback?
Advertisements I wrote this for @moneycontrolcom and the inspiration came from my brother. More than a decade after he left high school, he invested in a bicycle. This reminded me of our favourite wheels as children — Atlas cycles. COVID-19 and the restrictions it imposed had clearly tested the patience of thousands like him who… Continue reading Can Atlas Cycles make a comeback?
David Graeber
Advertisements David Graeber passed away earlier this month. Around the same time, I tested positive for Covid, hence the late post. I kept reading the condolences and remembrances pouring on the internet, as tweets, articles and newspaper obituaries, starting with his partner Nika Dubrovsky tweeting about his demise: https://twitter.com/nikadubrovsky/status/1301898249951903744 She later also shared Graeber’s plans… Continue reading David Graeber
Will equal inheritance rights widen gender inequality?
Advertisements I explore this in my op-ed this week for Moneycontrol.
What has happened to Shinzo Abe?
Advertisements Photo credit: Wikimedia commons Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned on account of poor health. Speculations to this effect were rife after he was seen emerging out of a hospital earlier this week. Abe has been Japan’s longest serving prime minister, quite a remarkable feat for a country obsessed with consistently high performance,… Continue reading What has happened to Shinzo Abe?
Mint opinion: India’s descent into stepwells of growth
Advertisements Important long read by Kaushik Basu. How India started out as a promise and is now fast deteriorating into decline.
The Ambani-Adani alliance in Indian business
Advertisements Chances are, you have read this already. If you haven’t, I would urge you to read this sharp piece by Andy Mukherjee. It’s an alarming tale, cautioning us of the monopoly India is poised to be heading towards. If privatisation has done any good, it has mostly done it for the capitalists, more recently… Continue reading The Ambani-Adani alliance in Indian business
Mercantile capitalism in a polycentric world
Advertisements Interesting new paper on the evolution of Indian capitalism that challenges the age-old trope of exceptionalism of the West and Asia’s fall. A little brief on the paper and full download can be found here,
TikTok, China and Swadeshi
Advertisements India is facing an uphill task battling the Covid-19. New Delhi, its national capital, is flooded with cases and subsequent stories of misery and deaths due to the pandemic. Its financial capital Mumbai is buried neck deep in the crisis. The infectious disease has reached its southern state with a vengeance – there have… Continue reading TikTok, China and Swadeshi
Millennials are gutted but some companies are trying to uplift them
Advertisements Millennails are truly gutted. I remember I had barely started my career as a journalist when the 2008 financial crisis plunged the global economy and it seems, my generation has not recovered from it yet. Blame it on economic crises after crises, and this year, we are staring into a recession even as we… Continue reading Millennials are gutted but some companies are trying to uplift them
Netmeds
Advertisements India online pharmacy scene is hotting up. RIL has bought majority stake in Netmeds within days of Amazon making its foray into the Indian e-pharmacy market in Bengaluru. Walmart-owned Flipkart is also looking to foray in the space, which has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. This windfall for the online pharma space in India… Continue reading Netmeds
India Unemployed
Advertisements Five million salaried Indians lost their jobs last month. This is the highest figure for this year. And as the graphs show, it’s going to get worse in August. The job loss among the salaried class is not a surprise to me. I have known this for sometime as I have spent the last… Continue reading India Unemployed
Journal free access update, enjoy!
Advertisements https://twitter.com/a_capitalism/status/1288554690251194368
How businesses are innovating during Covid-19
Advertisements “The Happiest Place on Earth” isn’t staying locked down any longer and it has spread the message far and wide with an ad campaign that is drawing mixed reactions. The visitors to the Walt Disney World in the ad face dozens of masked workers at the recreation center even as children dressed in Disney… Continue reading How businesses are innovating during Covid-19
Who is WFH really hurting?
Advertisements The poor, the young and the women – they are the worst affected when it comes to assessing the impact of remote work, this new IMF paper suggests. Overall, workers in food and accommodation, and wholesale and retail trade, are the hardest hit for having the least “teleworkable” jobs at all. That means more… Continue reading Who is WFH really hurting?
Notes on Capitalism during Covid times
Advertisements Let me tell you simple things. Covid 19 quarantine is helping me get this straight and simple: I like capital and those who aid capitalism. So this bothers me when capitalism is blamed for the mess we are in. This world is complex and I am someone who believes the right set of institutions… Continue reading Notes on Capitalism during Covid times
Between the devil and the deep sea
Advertisements This Guardian cartoon totally sums up what I am trying to say! So we know what the world is looking like as lock downs come to an end in many parts of the world. People are gathering in hordes without masks, getting drunk like there is no tomorrow basically — https://twitter.com/StephenBLowe/status/1279522924836409344 …. even as… Continue reading Between the devil and the deep sea
Would you like to go to MIT without clearing college?
Advertisements This may become possible if Nobel winners Duflo and Banerjee’s efforts are successful. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is trying the idea in the field of poverty alleviation, hoping that the approach will allow it to enrol students from around the world who have the ability and motivation to succeed but lack the traditional credentials for… Continue reading Would you like to go to MIT without clearing college?
Video lecture series on Inequality
Advertisements Economics professors Arjun Jayadev and Branko Milanovic have collaborated on a video lecture series on Inequality – the five vidoes, free to watch, clearly and succinctly explain what Inequality is all about, why you should care and other fundamentals you have been wondering about for long. It’s cut-the-clutter stuff that you shouldn’t miss. Watch… Continue reading Video lecture series on Inequality
The business of caste in India
Advertisements Priyanka P. Narain and Pallavi SIngh Mumbai/New Delhi: Images of adventure reside in their collective memory—journeys into the cobbled streets of Antwerp to compete with powerful Hasidic Jew merchants for grubby stones, which, when polished and cut, would sparkle and dazzle. The journey that transformed the Palanpuri Jains from cloth and perfume traders into… Continue reading The business of caste in India
Five Ways You Could Reduce Inequality in Daily Life
Advertisements Start the new year by worrying less about things you can’t control and doing something about what you can. Inequality, for example. Photo credit: wikimedia.commons.org It’s a loaded term, alright, but let’s think like economists and see where exactly in our daily lives could we make a difference to mitigate inequality. So here are… Continue reading Five Ways You Could Reduce Inequality in Daily Life
Millennials and Money
Advertisements Four Reasons Why Millennials Don’t Have Any MoneyThe same forces… https://robertreich.org/post/190130389550 Same is true for India but the Indian media is busy sorting out its own credibility issues. Who has time to look at the real problems.
Greta and Greenpeace
Advertisements Exploitation of Greta – Greenpeace & Al Gore https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/exploitation-of-greta-greenpeace-al-gore/ I have been thinking about this for quite a while and now all of this makes sense. What do you think? Greta is an amazing girl, but sometimes, all that idealism ans activism could be harnessed for some people’s goals and not for world peace.… Continue reading Greta and Greenpeace
Should rich people pay more tax?
Advertisements Second Richest Man Spouts Nonsense https://www.econlib.org/second-richest-man-spouts-nonsense/
In the job market, Caste role reversal
Advertisements I am absolutely thrilled to share another story on caste. This one again has gone missing from Mint’s website. I found this story’s draft on my drive and googled with the first four lines. Guess what, this blog had shared the story with the Mint link that does not work anymore. Thanks to the… Continue reading In the job market, Caste role reversal
Dalit Capitalism
Advertisements I covered Dalit capitalism for Mint in its early days when DICCI as a chamber of commerce for the Dalit community had just come up. My boss at Mint, who is an economist, always felt proud of my work, especially on Dalit capitalism. Today, I spoke to Milind Kamble, founder and chairman of DICCI,… Continue reading Dalit Capitalism
‘Good research is vital’
Advertisements This very interesting interview with Alpa Shah is a must-read for anyone aspiring to write narrative non-fiction. Shah, a professor of anthropology at my alma mater London School of Economics, speaks beautifully and honestly about her writing process while working on ‘Nightmarch’ and has great messages for both academics as well as writers of… Continue reading ‘Good research is vital’
CAN INDIA ACT IN TIME?
Advertisements Almost every trade expert I speak to has been talking about the great opportunity that the continued US-China trade war offers to India to expand its trade with the US. Its true that global manufacturers reeling under the tariffs imposed by the US govt have begun looking to South and Southeast Asia to shift… Continue reading CAN INDIA ACT IN TIME?
18 percent of 50
Advertisements Wikipedia has been a deeply unequal place and this wasn’t going to change anytime soon. But thanks to the efforts of academics and researchers and gender experts around the world, the gender gap on Wikimedia has narrowed. Check out the figures for every country here. Since 2015, ‘Women in Red’ project based has been… Continue reading 18 percent of 50
Should India toe the US line on Huawei?
India is roughly 100 days away from its 5G trials and it can’t make up its mind on whether Huawei should be invited to the trials.
What Machine Learning has to do with Global Trade
Advertisements Machine Learning (ML) is commonly seen as the scientific study of algorithms and statistical models used by computers to perform specific tasks. Considered a subset of artificial intelligence, ML could have game-changing implications for people of the world struggling with language barriers. As we know, Chinese, Spanish and English are the most spoken languages… Continue reading What Machine Learning has to do with Global Trade