Showing 1 - 10 of 52
The biometric threat
Asia focus, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 02/03/2020
» Around the world, governments are succumbing to the allure of biometric identification systems. To some extent, this may be inevitable, given the burden of demands and expectations placed on modern states. But no one should underestimate the risks these technologies pose.
The Covid-19 debt deluge
Asia focus, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 06/04/2020
» Pandemics like Covid-19, alarming and destructive as they are, can serve a useful purpose if they remind everyone of the critical importance of public health. When a contagious disease strikes, even a society's most protected elites must worry about the health of neglected populations.
Farmers vs the Indian state
Asia focus, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 21/12/2020
» India's capital is under siege from more than 2 million farmers, who are currently gathered at the city's border in a massive protest that started three weeks ago. Old and young men, women, and even children from farming families are camping on open roads in the bitter cold of a Delhi winter. They have abandoned their concerns about viral infection and come prepared for the long haul, bringing enough food to last for several months.
The real problem with free trade
News, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 14/09/2018
» For most critics of globalisation, trade is the villain, responsible for deepening inequality and rising economic insecurity among workers. This is the logic driving support for US President Donald Trump's escalating tariffs. Why, then, does the message resonate far beyond the United States, and even the advanced economies, to include workers in many of the developing countries that are typically portrayed as globalisation's main beneficiaries?
Asia's affair with autocratic rulers
News, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 11/10/2018
» US President Donald Trump grabs the most headlines, but the cult of the strongman leader is most developed in Asia. The continent abounds with rulers -- including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the strongest of them all, Chinese President Xi Jinping -- who make a virtue of centralising power.
Global South will pay for trade war
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 22/04/2025
» US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs have unleashed economic chaos, roiling stock and bond markets and triggering panic around the world, especially in lower-income countries that rely heavily on exports to the United States. The result could be an entirely manufactured global recession, with the developing world bearing the brunt.
Can financing for development talks succeed?
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 17/06/2025
» It is easy to be pessimistic about multilateralism nowadays. Recent international gatherings have yielded only unfulfilled promises. At a time when US President Donald Trump is abandoning America's international commitments, rejecting multilateral initiatives, and sowing chaos and confusion in global trade, can the Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) at the end of this month go any better?
Donor funding crisis goes global
News, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 21/05/2025
» Towards the end of the ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata, Krishna's Yadava clan self-destructs. Many dark omens presage their downfall: nature behaves erratically and pests multiply. Sin, deception, and violence proliferate, eroding trust and solidarity. Clan members humiliate and insult wise elders. When Krishna's extended family goes on a picnic, the men get drunk, argue, and attack each other, until eventually all of them are dead.
Inequality and the exploitation time bomb
Asia focus, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 26/08/2019
» Ever since reducing inequality became an official goal of the international community, income disparities have widened. This trend, typically blamed on trade liberalisation and technological advances that have weakened the bargaining power of labour relative to capital, has generated a political backlash in many countries, with voters blaming their economic plight on "others" rather than on national policies. Such sentiments of course merely aggravate social tensions without addressing the root causes of worsening inequality.
Time to decommodify electricity
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 05/02/2025
» The international community has long recognised the urgent need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy, and in recent years many governments have pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions, albeit over extremely long timeframes. But they will never get there so long as they treat electricity, which is central to the clean-energy transition, like any other market good.