TK Arun

TK Arun

TK Arun is a Senior Journalist and Columnist based in Delhi.
  • Articles: 0

GST Exemptions and NIL Rates: Policy Gains Versus Consumer Realities

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Health insurance for individuals has been made exempt from Goods and Services Tax. GST has been removed from life insurance premium payments for individuals, as well. Both used to be charged GST at 18%. So, this represents major relief for individuals, this lowering of the cost of buying insurance by nearly a fifth, right?  That magnitude of reduction in the cost of either life or health insurance is merely an illusion. The cost of insurance might come down somewhat, but definitely not by 18%.

Embracing Opportunity with Caution: India’s Strategic Engagement with America

embracing the ties

India embraces its need for American intelligence and weapons to keep China at bay. At the same time, India does not want to be obliged to the US so much that it comes under its thumb. India is better off with a multipolar world, with multiple power centres.

India’s Health Crisis: Beyond Individual Responsibility

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India’s wellness industry is booming, with PWC estimating its size at ₹490 billion, growing at a compound growth rate of around 16%. Fitness centres, yoga studios, Zumba dance classes, personal trainers, health food, and athleisure clothing proliferate. A section of the population is really taking their health and fitness into their own earnest hands, even as another section is feasting on newfound prosperity and growing obese.

From Labubu to Luxury: What a Plush Toy Reveals About China’s Consumer Transformation

Copy of Insights 4

Singer Madonna recently celebrated her 67th birthday, and her birthday cake came in the form of a giant Labubu toy. This signals, if anyone had anymore doubts on the score, the arrival of this stuffed toy from China as an icon of contemporary popular culture. And that, in turn, attests to a structural change in the Chinese economy, bringing it in the league of rich world economies, even if China’s per capita income is still that of a middle-income economy, albeit towards the upper end of that income range.

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