Home delivery should be treated as an essential service April 19, 2021, 11:15 PM IST
Quick takes, analyses and macro-level views on all contemporary economic, financial and political events.
The Maharashtra government wants ecommerce companies to deliver only essential goods; non-essential goods are barred. That prefix ‘non’, followed by a hyphen, spells a universe of arbitrary decisions, the capacity to harass, extort and delay normal business and a blight on both the economy and the exchequer.
We urge the government of Maharashtra, and all other state governments that seek to limit the pandemic spread by partial lockdowns, to classify home delivery, whether by ecommerce companies or by brick-and-mortar stores, as an essential service, without getting inside the package that is delivered, whether it contains condiments, drill bits, alcohol, acrylic paint, foodstuff, widgets or gadgets.
Expanding Covid vaccination program a sound thinking on the move but some policy tweaks needed April 19, 2021, 11:18 PM IST
Quick takes, analyses and macro-level views on all contemporary economic, financial and political events.
It is welcome that the government is moving fast and flexible on the vaccination programme. The latest announcement states that vaccine-makers will be able to sell, at a pre-declared price, half their output to state governments and private entities, hospitals and enterprises seeking to inoculate their own employees, or anyone over 18, even as they sell half their output to GoI, for it to continue with its vaccination programme.
The prime minister has given a call to mobilise all national resources to increase the supply of vaccines. This is welcome. Indian pharmaceutical companies that can produce vaccines and their ingredients should be identified, and.
Uncommon readiness for normal monsoon April 18, 2021, 11:55 PM IST
Quick takes, analyses and macro-level views on all contemporary economic, financial and political events.
It’s significant that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast “normal” rains during the upcoming monsoon season, with precipitation “most likely to be” 96-104% of the long period average. A normal monsoon would dampen inflationary expectations, boost agricultural production and step up rural demand, in the backdrop of pandemic-induced constraints on economic output. But the variation in rainfall patterns has gone up and the frequency of major floods seems to have increased, which, in turn, calls for a series of preparatory measures nationally.
Afghanistan after US Troop Withdrawal April 16, 2021, 11:43 PM IST
Quick takes, analyses and macro-level views on all contemporary economic, financial and political events.
A complete withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan by the US and its Nato allies, scheduled to take place by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks of 2001, will concretise America’s shift of policy focus from West Asia to the Indo-Pacific, strengthen the Taliban and proportionately weaken both the Ghani government and the process of building democracy in a country at home with tribal custom, gladden the hearts of Pakistani generals and their Chinese patrons while creating new headaches for New Delhi and Tehran. The US has sacrificed many lives and much treasure to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a launchpad for terror as it had been under the Taliban before the US ousted them. It has decided to cut its losses and leave, with no guarantee that the original aim