Among many things that impressed us in China, the high-speed rail stood out – 50,000km of network all built over the last 15 years where train speeds go north of 350kmph routinely. Japan’s historically famous high-speed rail or the Shinkansen network (~3,000km) might now pale in comparison. Leaving aside the scale given the sheer difference […]
The article is based on an interview conducted by IndiaSpend with Tamoghna Halder, co-author of the “State of Working India report 2026” (SWI). Halder has a PhD from the University of California, Davis and teaches economics at Azim Premji University. Dr Halder’s view as summarised by us below are based on the remarkable SWI report […]
Inspite of the current hype around AI, most people we meet seem to misunderstand AI (often viewing LLMs and AI or machine learning and AI interchangeably). Sebastian Mallaby’s book (coming in the wake of his outstanding books on Alan Greenspan and VC investing) not only gives the reader a deep dive into the remarkable mind […]
Some of us with kids going to college this year may have experienced this with our kids or their friends in the past few months as decisions from universities started pouring in. Whilst most got what they aspired for; there were disappointments even amongst the best students as they faced rejections from elite universities. Ted […]
One of the big challenges that India has faced while formulating economic policies over the last several years is that high quality economists simply refuse to live in and work in India. At best, they are willing to fly in and out of the country whilst residing in higher income countries. A notable exception to […]
The key to good mental health in the final two or three decades of your life lies in your 40s and 50s. That’s our big learning from this fascinating piece. Ariana Eunjung Cha informs us that “…dementia prevention may hinge on what people do in their mid-30s to their 60s is rapidly reshaping the field. […]
One of the perplexing aspects of the Indian economy over the past few years has been the lack of investments from the Indian private sector, despite seemingly favourable conditions – access to cheap equity capital with retail SIPs pouring into mutual funds, low corporate leverage, a banking system in reasonable shape to support credit growth, […]
Last week, we featured a piece on how China’s success is underpinned by the social reforms and the unleashing of its human potential the hard way. This piece shows another aspect of Chinese human capital that isn’t as much about its competence as it is about its adaptability and resilience, built through its painful period […]
Rosa Abraham is an associate professor of economics at Azim Premji University and she is the star economist who has published the pathbreaking and much needed ‘State of Working India 2026’ report. This seminal piece of research traces four decades of data on youth employment and education in India and highlights how grim the current […]
Investors consistently earn less than the funds they invest in — NOT because fund managers underperform, but because investors put more money in after strong runs and pull back after weak ones, a behaviour directly visible in the data across most equity categories. This “timing penalty”, which our analysis suggests would be approximately 1% point per […]
The 150-year-old concept of the nation state is steadily being altered by: a) the growing complexity for such states to tax economic activity; b) the fact that barring USA & China, every state has reduced control of the critical technologies which underpin modern economies; and c) the migration of gainful employment away from salaried jobs (which are easy to tax) and […]
Quality investing lagged for five consecutive years (2021-25) as the twin post-Covid booms – Consumption and Govt capex – lifted all boats and investors moved away from expensive Quality names (trading at 50x earnings) to less expensive Value names (trading at 20x). FY26 was the high-water mark of that distortion: the Value factor returned 14% […]
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