• OPINION

  Cape Town may soon run out of water

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 25/01/2018

  » April 22, Earth Day, might have a bit of extra significance this year. It might be the day that, for the first time, a great world city runs out of water.

• OPINION

  The cost of a Modi election victory

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 14/12/2018

  » Many of us have long argued that, whatever its problems, India is one of the best long-term bets in the world for one simple reason: It has the sort of world-class institutions that can help build and sustain a genuine market economy. Sadly, many of those same institutions are being undermined by the country's own leaders -- most recently the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which Prime Minister Narendra Modi appear intent on subjugating as part of his bid for reelection. Of all people, Mr Modi should recognise that no election victory is worth giving up on India's best chance at becoming a world-beating economy.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Why demonetisation was a 'failure'

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 03/09/2018

  » The Indian central bank's final tally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2016 demonetisation drive -- intended to take money derived from tax evasion out of circulation -- showed that 99.3% of outlawed high-value banknotes had been returned. That's a severe loss of face for officials, who had argued that holders of the cash would rather destroy it than return it to banks, providing a windfall for the government.

• OPINION

  China's Silk Road isn't so smooth

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 12/07/2018

  » You may not have noticed, what with the outbreak of trade war with the US and all, but China's economic diplomacy has had a bad few weeks. The country's flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is dealing with ever-greater resistance, slowing a momentum that once seemed unstoppable. In fact, I'd argue that the BRI is stalled.

• OPINION

  How India can win from big cash bust

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 09/11/2017

  » Almost exactly one year ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on national television to announce that, in a few hours, existing 500- and 1,000-rupee notes (255 and 510 baht) would no longer be legal tender. This came as a complete shock to most; the weeks and months that followed featured long queues at bank tellers as hapless Indians tried to exchange old notes for new, and at ATMs where they tried to withdraw enough cash to keep going. The sudden drought of cash made it increasingly difficult for small- and -medium enterprises to operate, as they relied on piles of cash for working capital. Many estimated that economic growth would slow as a consequence and events seem to have borne out this point of view.

• OPINION

  Bad advice is driving India's bulls

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 15/09/2017

  » India's economy is not doing as well as many had hoped. Growth has been slowing for several quarters, and even if there's a slight recovery in coming quarters, the signs for the medium term aren't propitious.

• OPINION

  No end in sight to India's slow-motion bank crisis

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 01/03/2017

  » India's slow-moving banking crisis continues to drag on, as ponderous and unstoppable as the state-controlled banking sector itself. A recent study found that the gross "non-performing assets" of state banks rose by 55% in 2016, and 135% in the last two years. They now account for 11% of all state bank loans.

• OPINION

  Cash crunch woes only beginning

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 06/01/2017

  » 'Give me 50 days, friends," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked citizens after he cancelled 86% of the country's currency notes. After Dec 30, if Indians saw his decision as flawed, he promised to "suffer any punishment". But, he said confidently, if they could bear 50 days of disruption, they would have the "India of their dreams".

• OPINION

  India starts to abandon cash, maybe a bit too fast

  News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 10/11/2016

  » It certainly took everyone in India by surprise. But then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a flair for the dramatic. In an unexpected prime time address on Tuesday, he announced that in a few hours, millions of high-denomination currency notes would no longer be legal tender. It was the only way, he insisted, to deal with "the disease" of unaccounted-for income -- or "black money", as it's called in India. "Your money will remain yours," he assured a stunned citizenry -- as long as you get around to depositing it in post offices sometime over the next several weeks.

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