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At a workshop on responsible corporate governance at Observer Research Foundation, it was noted that corporate governance and business responsibility are no longer add-ons to markets; they are integral to them.

India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index is 134. Ease of doing business has ease of settling commercial disputes at its centre. With the Arbitration and Conciliation (amendment) Bill coming in place, India could play a greater role in shaping the way forward.

Out of the 660,000 habitations in India with a population of 100 or more, only 33,000 have a commercial bank branch. That's approximately one branch for every 20 habitations.

The new undercurrent is targeting the notion of big business itself. India is angry, and rightfully so. But is there any problem being solved by targeting large corporates for accumulating wealth? It is not solving the investment drought or the fiscal deficit. It is also not solving the critical challenge of making Indian MSMEs globally competitive, or of creating jobs for the 12 million youth entering the workforce every year.

Though domestic politics will continue to pose challenges to Dr Manmohan Singh's image, his firm commitment to Indo-Pak engagement has put both countries on course for at least a manageable relationship, if not a cordial one, based on mutual interests rather than vicissitudes and emotions.

To sequence Indian priorities on the FDI question is fairly simple. Consumer-centrism is paramount. Competitive SME sector growth, which will lead to job creation as well as value addition, is a strategic economic priority, which in turn can be aided by a strong e-commerce industry as has been witnessed in China.

Central business districts (CBDs) dominate economic activity in large cities. In India’s capital, New Delhi, for example, Connaught Place is a CBD. Firms relocate to CBDs due to the ease of doing business in such areas owing to retail agglomeration, functional grouping, labour pooling, and the ability to attract talent. However, recent phenomenon such as an increase in remote working, the rise in real estate costs, and the expansion of city lim

The absence of scientific data and meaningful analyses only compounds the river issues between India and Bangladesh.

Sustainable development goals (SDG) can be a major enabler of business competitiveness, creating conducive business conditions.

Until the early 1990s, India’s urban local bodies (ULBs) were under the complete control of the states, having little functional, financial and administrative autonomy. The 74th Amendment Act of 1992 sought to make ULBs self-governing institutions. Many salutary provisions were made in the Act and there have been certain positive outcomes since it came into effect in April 1993. However, many key issues have remained unresolved and at present,

Much in the manner that the Sino-American dﾂtente transformed the Asian balance of power in the 1970s, the construction of a strong strategic partnership between India and America is bound to change the Asian geopolitical order and rejig the regional alignments.

An increasing number of businessmen in BRICS' countries favour arbitration over overburdened litigation systems in resolving domestic disputes.

The ruckus at WCIT is all about the cosy relationship between governments, big businesses and commerce and not about Internet freedom.

Ensuring contestability and fairness in India’s digital market—one of the world’s most prominent—is critical to ensuring consumer welfare. This paper outlines a legal and regulatory framework that can ensure contestability and fairness in the Indian digital market.  The paper identifies the following elements of this toolkit: (i) competition law; (ii) ex-ante regulation for digital gatekeepers; (iii) laws for increased transparen

The Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting is beginning in New Delhi from Tuesday. Around 70 senior decision-makers from politics, business, media and civil society from India, as well as the Euro-Atlantic, Asian and the Middle East region will discuss key issues of international security policy.

A new social contract between citizens, consumers, employees, the state, and enterprise is needed to delineate a new understanding around rights, responsibilities and entitlements. Digital  transformations  are  rapidly  altering  the  nature  of  work,  models  of employment,    contracts,    regulations    and    protections.    Increasingly,    the responsibilities  of the state are becoming the obligations  of,�

Some of the best performing countries of Africa -- Nigeria, South Africa and Botswana -- have GDP growth rates comparable with the fastest developing countries of the world. Their GDPs are the least volatile in Africa. Rwanda was declared the best reformer by the World Bank for encouraging business in the country.

Bond issuers from any country can never have a credit rating higher than their country’s rating.

India-US defence ties are driven not only by business and commercial interests, but by the logic of geopolitics. Sustained bipartisan support in favour of burgeoning India-US ties is necessary.

India must bolster its weight in the digital marketplace, commensurate with the number of current and potential netizens. This would be possible only by creating capabilities and an environment where private businesses, SMEs and individuals can access and exploit this medium gainfully.

When it comes to Asean, the challenge for India is to scale up trade and investment. While ease of doing business is improving and projections by the IMF are all positive, there is long way to go to tackle corruption, energise the bureaucracy and cut through bureaucratic red tape that deters business and trade

Will the government’s ambitious mission, ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)’ eventually prove to be a missed opportunity? Earmarking funds worth 10 percent of India’s GDP, the mission not only aims to respond to the devastating blow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to serve as a long-term roadmap to growth. It is largely hinged on business-as-usual practices, including providing a push to the coal sector, which may be under

The Modi government must now attempt to transition India's economic engagements towards a more deliberate, durable and definitional framework. Well-administered LoCs offer a great avenue to do this -- and therefore must be given commensurate strategic priority and attention.

Cherry-pick the BRI and look for business opportunities that can be fruitfully exploited

Blue economy’ is the integration of ocean economy development with values of social inclusion and environmental sustainability, along with dynamic and innovative business models. For India, however, blue economy extends beyond being merely an economic and environmental proposition. It presents India with an unprecedented opportunity to meet its national objectives, strengthen connectivity with neighbours, and exert influence in the surrounding

As India's online footprint has increased, so has the role of e-commerce. The industry is expected to cross $6 billion in revenues by 2015, not including ticketing and travel, according to Gartner Research. It must then follow that e-commerce should be encouraged to play a key role in building requisite supply chain efficiencies across India.

The Modi Government's first real annual Budget is perhaps its most important test after flunking the Delhi Assembly examination. While businessmen will be watching it to gauge the intentions and determination of the Government to create a pro-business atmosphere, it will be equally eagerly watched by the armed forces community for its modernisation targets.

The post-pandemic Indian economy could resurrect itself by prioritising Sustainable Development – as the SDGs not only embody various capitals, but also hold immense potential for business opportunities. This needs to be realised through global partnerships and more private sector involvement in the domestic economy.

In light of Africa's increasing dependency on and trouble with Chinese actors, African leaders are beginning to look beyond China in an attempt to diversify. India and the long-standing presence of Indian businesses in the continent can help Africa deal with the losses from China.

China’s growing military profile in Africa is following its economic footprint in the continent as exemplified by the Chinese “logistics support base” in Djibouti. It is moving towards an ever more expansive definition of its global interests, as its business in Africa pushes it to create new mechanisms for securing those interests, including its own growing military footprint abroad. This brief examines the changing nature of China’s inv

In October 2019, China’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Mauritius opened the Chinese market to Mauritian exporters and investors. Not long after, concerns arose that Mauritius might be lacking in the capacity to benefit significantly from the agreement and thus lose in terms of a trade imbalance that clearly favours China. This brief revisits China’s motivations for the FTA, and finds economic and geopolitical goals. Given Mauritius’s smal

The message — no business if you are on the wrong side of issues like Xinjiang

There had always been a nexus between the Congress party and big business. After all, Mahatma Gandhi?s Ashram at Sevagram was financed by Jamnalal Bajaj; Gandhiji was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi.

The COVID-19 pandemic can serve as an opportunity for India to redefine its approach to economic growth. The policy objective should be that once the threat of the current pandemic subsides, the country will not return to business-as-usual mode and rather build an economy for the future. The Indian government has declared that it is considering measures towards distress mitigation, relief disbursement, and a revival of growth. At the same time, h

Immersive technology is a key part of the emerging Web 3.0. A prominent aspect of this evolution of the World Wide Web is the Metaverse, which aims to build a fully immersive and self-sustaining virtual shared space for humans to use as they would the physical world in all aspects of life. Existing concerns and debates on privacy, user protection, and the ethics of monetising platforms also extend to the Metaverse. This brief discusses the three

This paper dissects the causes behind Pakistan’s ongoing economic crisis. The causes include dwindling forex reserves, the phenomenon of ‘galloping inflation’, a falling Pakistani Rupee, uncompetitive and undiversified export basket, burgeoning external debt, lack of fiscal prudence, debt distress, and a worsening business environment—all cascading to a balance of payment crisis. While austerity measures, appeals for loan rollover to debt

India, like much of the rest of the world, is faced with the twin but opposing conditions of economic potential and social concerns that need to be negotiated to realise the digital dividends from artificial intelligence (AI) and achieve sustainable and balanced growth. AI systems involve layers of technological dependencies that necessitate and enable social and institutional interdependency between stakeholders, enabling conditions, and resourc