Category Public Finances and Macroeconomics

AT1

Reconsidering the Impact: Why the Swiss Court’s AT1 Ruling Has Limited Relevance for the YES Bank Case

A ruling by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court on October 14, holding as illegal the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority’s decision to write down Credit Suisse’s Additional Tier 1 bonds, as part of the state-directed merger of troubled Credit Suisse into rival banking giant UBS, has revived hopes in India for those pursuing a case in the Supreme Court against the similar writing down of AT1 bonds issued by Yes Bank, as part of its salvage operation. Their optimism is misplaced.

Bihar elections 2025

The Uncounted Loss: How Bihar’s Fate Was Sealed Before Polling Day

The Bihar results were out even before polling began: Bihar has lost, whoever the victor in the Assembly elections. With well over one crore women being paid Rs 10,000 crore by the incumbent government, supposedly for self-employment ventures, and promises of future fiscal support for such enterprises, the political economy of state handouts had been entrenched before polling began.

Bihar Election

The Economy of Influence: Grand Bribery and the Bihar Election Results

The Bihar results are astounding, with National Democratic Alliance (NDA) sweeping an unprecedented 202 seats (83%) out of 243. Political analysts and correspondents covering the elections have proved to be utterly wrong. Most of them expected it to be a close fight.

Xi

Why Xi Jinping Is Purging His Military Loyalists

On October 17, 2025, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expelled nine of its most senior military leaders, including members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), former defence ministers, and theatre commanders, from party membership. While the expulsions were not unexpected, given that most had been detained in recent months, the sheer scale of this purge, surpassing even those under Mao Zedong, startled China watchers.

Cooperation

India and Australia: A Fresh Curve in Cooperation

India’s recent defence engagement with Australia reached a new milestone during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Canberra and Sydney earlier this month for the inaugural Australia-India Defence Ministers’ Dialogue. The visit, the first by an Indian Defence Minister to Australia in over a decade, produced key defence agreements that upgrade the relationship from declaratory strategic convergence toward greater operational cooperation. The discussions included a Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap to advance maritime cooperation, as well as renewing and strengthening the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation.

Rare

Mining Power: China, the US, and the Fight for Rare Earth Dominance

Beijing’s new export curbs on rare earths and other tech materials mark a new phase in its bid to weaponize its supply dominance. As Xi tightens control over inputs critical to the US and Trump threatens China with a 100% extra tariff, who will blink first?

Beijing is tightening its clamps on components that are integral to technology supply chains. Lithium batteries and related material, artificial diamonds that have industrial uses and rare earths like holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium have been put on China’s export-control list.

LIC

Why LIC’s Bet on Adani Has Sparked Public Anger

It was excellent journalism on the part of Pranshu Verma and Ravi Nair to do the Washington Post story on the government having persuaded LIC to invest in Adani at a time when global investors were hesitant in the wake of an American case against Adani for having bribed officials in India and for having raised funds from American investors on false pretences. Kudos to the two, and to WaPo for publishing the story that Indian publications would have been reluctant to.

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