Showing 1 - 10 of 17
India needs more leaders like Manmohan Singh
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 10/04/2024
» Almost 10 years after he gave way to Narendra Modi as prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh retired last week from public life. During his long career, Mr Singh also served as chief economist, central bank governor, finance minister, and foreign minister. Although he disappointed many who hoped he would accomplish more, India today owes much of its success to the reforms he implemented.
Has Pakistan's military finally lost its mystique?
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 14/02/2024
» Its leader was clapped in jail, its ballot symbol erased, and its candidates forced to run as independents -- and yet the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of former prime minister Imran Khan shockingly pulled ahead of its two biggest rivals in last week's elections. Although Pakistan's powerful army did not conceal its desire to end Khan's political career, many voters clearly had other ideas. In the process, they have delivered an unprecedented and shocking rebuke to the military brass who have exerted inordinate influence over the country's fate since its birth in 1947.
Long hours won't help India grow
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 06/11/2023
» Do Indians not work enough? According to one of the co-founders of the Indian software giant Infosys Ltd, we don't. The billionaire Narayana Murthy said last week that young Indians in particular were picking up "undesirable habits" from the lazy West and thereby holding back India's productivity and its growth. "My request," he said, "is that our youngsters must say, 'This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week.'"
West's message on war gets lost
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 09/03/2023
» Here in New Delhi, policymakers are beginning to worry. India's long-awaited presidency of the G-20 grouping is turning out to be even more difficult than they anticipated.
Modi needs to have less power, not more of it
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 23/05/2019
» India's long and exhausting general election is almost over. One of its casualties has been the reputation of the Election Commission of India, the constitutionally independent body that oversees the polls.
Democrats' 'Green New Deal' isn't global enough
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 18/03/2019
» At the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in Kenya this past week, experts and officials from around the world debated how to come up with the investment and innovation needed for countries to grow without dooming the planet. National leaders, NGOs and others discussed how to create more "sustainable patterns of consumption and production". What really struck me in Nairobi, though, was what wasn't discussed: the "Green New Deal" being pushed by Democratic Party politicians in the US.
Politics as usual in India again
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 05/02/2019
» India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a spot of trouble. He has to face reelection in a few months amid growing dissatisfaction with his government's performance; he's likely to use every lever available to eke out a win. One such lever, unfortunately, was the interim federal budget that his lame-duck government presented last week, to keep official machinery running till the next government can come in with a mandate and make decisions about taxation and spending. As many of us feared, Mr Modi broke with bipartisan convention: He used the occasion essentially to launch his election appeal to India's voters. And, unfortunately, it's one that they have heard before.
US reign at World Bank must end now
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 08/02/2019
» In many ways, David Malpass, whom US President Donald Trump nominated to head the World Bank, is an unsurprising choice. He's a senior Treasury official overseeing international affairs. Plus, his background absolutely screams "Trump nominee": He isn't a woman (Indra Nooyi, formerly of PepsiCo Inc, was being considered). He is an outspoken critic of the institution he is now to head (recall Scott Pruitt's tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency). And he has a controversial Wall Street background (he was chief economist at the ill-fated Bear Stearns), as well as some embarrassing calls in his past (he wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2007 insisting that the housing market couldn't pull down the broader economy).
Tarnishing a developing-world star
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 04/01/2019
» Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina looks like a developing-world success story. Last year, its economy grew at close to 8% a year, faster than its neighbour India's. Its human development indicators, as Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen is fond of pointing out, are even better than its income level would indicate.
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.