Category Economy and Infrastructure

Labour

The Pro-Business Pivot: How Modern Labour Codes Prioritize Industry Over Protection

That Labour Codes will create a divide between workers and businesses was a given. The former have opposed them since 2019 when the Code on Wages was passed by parliament followed by the other three in 2020 – the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. Businesses have been pressing for their implementation since then because they know they will benefit from them. The government presents these Codes as beneficial to labour since they are supposed to simplify a very complex and outdated system. 

Copy of Insights

Interpreting the Rupee’s Decline: Trade Strategy and Export Incentives

The government's chief economic advisor, V Anantha Nageswaran, says he is not losing sleep over the falling rupee. We wish him long nights of peaceful rest and restoration. While the government and the RBl rest, the rupee will be hard at work, to give some respite to our exporters hit hard by Trumpian tariffs.

Legacy

When Legacy Becomes a Commercial Externality, Who Pays to Preserve It?

TK Arun As Annapurna Bhandar of Chandini Chowk faces closure, can Indian cities take a cue from Paris or San Francisco to protect legacy shops? When a sudden rent increase forces a thriving commercial establishment — that has a century-old…

Oman

PM Modi in Oman: Advancing a Historic Maritime Relationship

Anil Trigunayat Trade and economic cooperation have been the fulcrum of the relationship, with bilateral trade already exceeding $10 billion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the Sultanate of Oman at the invitation of HM Sultan Haitham bin Tarik from…

SIM

SIM-Binding: A Tool for Security That Demands a Foundation of Trust

There has been a sharp pushback against the government’s directive to all mobile phone makers and importers to preload, within 90 days, the government app, Sanchar Sathi, on phones freshly sold in the country. In the case of another related security-oriented mandate that seeks all messaging and communications apps to stay bound all the time to a particular SIM issued to the user, the response has been more mixed: while cellular operators think this is a good idea, the Broadband India Forum, which represents the interests of stakeholders in cyber business, has sought more time and consultations.

India–Brazil: Biofuels and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Cooperation

India–Brazil: Biofuels and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Cooperation

India and Brazil are natural partners in the low-carbon bioenergy transition. Brazil has decades of experience in large-scale biofuel deployment, most famously its sugarcane-based ethanol program and a mature flex-fuel vehicle market, while India has moved aggressively in recent years to scale ethanol blending and to develop policy frameworks for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The two countries formalized energy and biofuel cooperation through a series of memoranda and joint statements: New Delhi's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and its Brazilian counterparts highlighted SAF and biofuel collaboration in a joint statement on 21 September 2024, and broader bioenergy MOUs and bilateral instruments between India and Brazil date back several years and were reiterated during high-level exchanges in 2024–2025.

Tourism

India–Maldives: Sustainable Tourism Cooperation (2025)

The Republic of Maldives, located on the Indian subcontinent, consists of 1,190 coral islands grouped into 26 natural atolls. Following the Maldives' independence in 1965, India was one of the first countries to recognise and establish diplomatic relations with them. India and the Maldives have had long-standing ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and economic links. Physical proximity, cultural links, and development collaboration have all contributed to the two countries' close, friendly, and diverse relationship.

In Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Maldives, where tourism is the principal source of foreign exchange profits and government revenue, the business is growing.

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