The Union government seems set to launch a new round of banking policy liberalisation. Among the pointers is a recent statement made by the Finance Minister that “India needs a lot of big, world-class banks” and that a strategy to…
The Indian rupee losing its value against the US dollar should normally not draw undue attention as it has been a long-term trend. But three factors have contributed to concerns about the recent and ongoing descent of the rupee vis-a-vis…
India’s banking sector appears poised for a structural shift, entering a new era after one defined by the rise of “new” private banks such as Global Trust Bank and Yes Bank. In what could prove to be a new milestone,…
Advocates of neoliberal financial policies still argue that the post-1991 licensing of the so-called new generation private banks was a major step in enhancing competition and spurring “innovation” in the banking space. This position is maintained despite a raft of…
Recent discussions on economic policy in the US and other high-income nations make it appear that there is only one domain and one instrument that really matter: monetary policy and interest rates. Whether on the eve of meetings of the…
There is a paradox at the core of the efflorescence of science that has occurred over the last millennium. In essence this efflorescence has the potential to increase human freedom immensely. It increases the capacity of man within the man-nature dialectic; scientific…
With India experiencing a severe second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing decentralized lockdowns, a crisis of loss of jobs and livelihoods and resulting hunger is being reported from across the country. A reluctant central government has, therefore, been forced…
A common refrain in assessments of India’s current economic predicament is that the economy is performing below potential because of a lack of ‘liquidity’. Often, this is merely a means of stating that an inadequacy of credit flow is choking…
The European Central Bank last month pushed its benchmark interest rate to minus 0.5 per cent, which means that if it gives a loan of 100 euros then it would be paid back only 99.5 euros at the expiry of…
Mid-September saw some unusual developments in US money markets, which gave market players and monetary authorities the jitters. Over three days, a key short term interest rate rose sharpy to reach levels last touched about a decade ago, when the…
