Latest news with #AkashPrakash
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Plastic battles, dumping wars, and Apple's gamble
Have you ever been in a situation, where there's that sudden flicker while driving through an unfamiliar underpass. The streetlights blink once, then vanish. And at that same time, your headlight, too, dies in silence. You're still moving, but into a tunnel where no signs of exit are visible. You don't know how long this stretch is, or whether you'll come out the other side. The world today feels a lot like that. Let's dive in. Our first editorial explores how global oil markets, rattled by the widening Israel-Iran conflict, are about to turn India's fiscal tunnel pitch dark. Oil prices are up 9 per cent already, with projections nearing $150 a barrel. That could tear through India's trade balance, sink the rupee, squeeze inflation, and force the RBI's hand. If the Strait of Hormuz gets blocked, our headlight, that comforting fiscal projection of 1 per cent CAD, may just vanish. Elsewhere, as our second editorial explains, India is dodging another kind of dark road, a global spotlight on plastics. Nearly 100 countries endorsed the Nice Wake Up Call for a plastics treaty, but India held back, citing jobs and industry. Meanwhile, our $44 billion plastics sector churns out 9.3 million tonnes of waste a year, with only band-aid recycling rules and strained informal networks trying to keep the muck out of rivers and lungs. In the manufacturing corridor, Akash Prakash turns to the Apple-in-China story. The tech giant's vast China bet built a supply chain so dazzling, it lit up the global economy. Now, Apple's pivot to India could offer us a chance, if we don't miss the curve. But unlike China, we've yet to lay the full wiring of component ecosystems, long-term policy, and bold investments. As trade winds shift, Rajeswari Sengupta and Niharika Yadav show how India's ADD (anti-dumping duty) spree, aimed at shielding local firms from cheap Chinese imports, might be casting more shadows than clarity. MSMEs are hurting, solar goals are slipping, and policy unpredictability is turning investors blind. And finally, Neha Bhatt reviews The New Age of Sexism: How the AI revolution is reinventing misogyny by Laura Bates, a searing spotlight on how AI, deepfakes, and the metaverse are not liberating, but retooling patriarchy. Virtual misogyny is no longer fiction. It's coded. Programmed. And it's coming for younger and younger girls. Stay tuned, and remember, when the streetlights go out, the steering must be firmer, the mind calmer!
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Scaling manufacturing power: Apple in China, key lessons for India
One company turned China into a manufacturing powerhouse. Now India must ride the diversification wave to do the same Akash Prakash Listen to This Article I am in the middle of reading this fascinating book, Apple in China – The Capture of the World's Greatest Company. The book has been written by Patrick McGee, a Financial Times journalist based in San Francisco and responsible for covering Apple. The book tells two intersecting stories. First, how Apple moved from being just days away from bankruptcy in 1996 to becoming the most valuable company in the world within a span of 15 years. Second, it traces the contribution Apple has made to transforming China from a third-world, low-skill manufacturing base into the world's largest and most sophisticated
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
22-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Fiscal fights, market machines, and policy pain
There's a makeshift wooden ladder outside my building, made out of hollowed bamboo and wedged into the ground like it has no business being there. A mason climbs it daily, with one hand steadying the paint bucket, the other reaching out for support. It wobbles, always. But somehow, he gets to the top. I watched him again this morning, the ladder squeaking as he shifted his weight — and it struck me: that's the world today. Perpetually climbing ladders that rest on shaky ground — fiscal structures, market trends, regulatory balances, old institutions—and hoping it holds long enough to fix the wall. Let's dive in. Take the 16th Finance Commission. Tasked with redistributing India's tax revenues, it is juggling rising state debt, Centre-State friction, and demands for a larger state share in the divisible pool, highlights our first editorial. Add Tamil Nadu's pitch for GDP-based distribution, and you see the ladder tilt: richer states demanding more because they 'contribute more.' But then come the cesses and surcharges. They're like loose pebbles under the ladder's feet, eroding trust. In the markets, the human touch is slipping off the rails. Algorithms now command 54 per cent of trades in NSE's cash market, notes our second editorial. They're calculating, relentless — and often incomprehensible, even to the people who built them. Manual traders are slowly being edged out, like craftsmen watching machines duplicate their life's work. Trading floors aren't buzzing anymore; they're humming quietly, in binary. It is the long-term investors who keep the paint job going despite the ground becoming increasingly wobbly, unlike the day-traders. Akash Prakash highlights another wobbly climb: the US dollar. Still dominant globally, yet overvalued, out of sync with America's real economy. With $25 trillion in foreign-owned assets and rising bond yields, the dollar's grip is loosening. It may remain the world's reserve, but its golden pedestal is built on Wall Street illusions, not Main Street reality. Closer home, Prasanna Tantri explains how gold loan regulations could backfire. The RBI's new draft treats banks and NBFCs unequally, limiting NBFCs' lending while allowing banks more leeway. But banks aren't necessarily safer. This regulatory imbalance may deny underserved communities access to much-needed credit — yet another ladder set on loose ground. And finally, Neha Bhatt reviews Policing and Violence in India: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Realities edited by Deana Heath and Jinee Lokaneeta, a book that dissects institutional brutality. It's a stark reminder: even ladders designed to uphold justice can be weaponised when anchored in colonial design. Reform isn't about repainting rungs—it's about rebuilding the ground beneath. Stay tuned!
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
21-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
The US dollar can weaken but still remain the world's reserve currency
As a hegemon, the US no longer derives its hegemonic powers from manufacturing and goods Akash Prakash Listen to This Article One puzzling aspect of the massive volatility over the past few weeks has been that US safe haven assets, namely the US dollar (USD) and Treasuries, have not exhibited typical risk-off behaviour. Instead of investors flocking to buy US Treasuries and remain invested in the USD, both asset classes have actually weakened. Other safe haven assets like the Swiss franc and the yen have seen the usual flight-to-safety bid, but why have the USD and Treasuries lagged? The weakness in US Treasuries is linked to the precarious fiscal position of the US, the possibility of dumping of Treasuries by global
