Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Why India's airlines fail to take off
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 03/12/2018
» Anyone puzzled by how the Indian economy manages to grow swiftly while somehow failing to be prosperous could do worse than look at the state of India's airlines. Over the past four years, passenger growth in India has been rapid: The number of flights taken has increased between 15% and 20% per year. Demand growth this year is likely to be the highest in the world. Yet the industry itself hasn't benefited. Almost every Indian airline is struggling.
Indians' skills don't match up -- yet
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 16/11/2017
» If India is to live up the expectations of its own people and become a successful middle-income country in a few decades, the country has multiple problems to solve -- its sclerotic politics, its clogged infrastructure, its choked judicial system, its lack of investable capital, its interfering and inefficient state. But perhaps the greatest hurdle is its poor stock of human capital. Without better education, health and skills, India won't be able to build a middle class and its efforts to become the next China can't succeed.
An age of undiplomatic diplomacy
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 09/05/2017
» What happens when strongmen meet? We know that the world is slowly filling up with populist nationalists, from Manila to Washington. But how do they plan to deal with each other? Will they join forces against the sanctimonious, supra-national powers that dismay them all? Or will they compete, as erstwhile tough guys seem most comfortable doing?
In the Trump era, Asia must unite
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 24/01/2017
» Every new occupant of the White House has his -- still, unfortunately, "his" -- way of looking at the world. America's allies, friends and rivals have always adjusted to these shifts in worldview. But so far they've been relatively straightforward. Some presidents have sought to extend democratic values, others to fight grand strategic battles. The last swore not to "do stupid stuff". Adjusting to President Donald Trump won't be that easy.
'Gradualist' reform slowed growth
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 26/07/2016
» On July 26, 1991, Manmohan Singh -- then Finance Minister, and later prime minister for 10 years -- rose in parliament to deliver an address that would transform India. That speech, outlining the first budget of a just-elected government under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, launched India's journey of economic reform, dismantling many decades-old socialist-style controls on the private sector.
Butter before guns please, Mr Modi
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 17/06/2016
» The breathless excitement that surrounded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington, DC last week wasn't completely undeserved. By pushing forward Indo-US defence and strategic ties -- in spite of considerable domestic opposition to any de facto alliance -- Mr Modi can claim to have made India stronger. Yet unless he puts similar effort into fixing economic relations between the two nations, much of that progress could be at risk.