Opinion: Aakash Dev. Thozhi Hostels deliver high-quality housing solutions for working women, overcoming migration challenges in urban areas. In recent years, India has seen a remarkable increase in female labour force participation, from 25 per cent in 2017-18 to 40 per cent in 2022-23, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey. This surge reflects growing...   Read More

Opinion: Amit Mitra and Souryabrata Mohapatra. As COP29 concludes in Baku, the world stands at a critical juncture in addressing the escalating climate crisis. Activist Greta Thunberg’s sharp critique-branding the summit’s draft text as “a complete disaster”-highlights the frustration over unmet promises and insufficient ambition. The Global South’s urgent demand for $1.3 trillion annually by...   Read More

Opinion: Barry Eichengreen. Had Joe Biden withdrawn from the US presidential race earlier, there might have been a good chance that his successor would maintain many of his economic-policy initiatives. Now we will see how many of those policies – if any at all – survive another four years of Donald Trump. The New York...   Read More

Opinion: Amit Mitra and Souryabrata Mohapatra. Donald Trump’s recent tariff threats – ranging from a 25% levy on imports from Canada and Mexico to a staggering 100% tariff on BRICS countries if they pursue creating new currency – have sparked global economic unease. For India, these developments pose a vital question: could these protectionist moves...   Read More

Opinion: Sovini Mondal and Sanjib Pohit. Trams, with their speed averaging 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, match the pace of most public transport in the city, including buses. When the West Bengal government decided to drastically scale back Kolkata’s 150-year-old tram service, leaving just a short heritage stretch from Maidan to Esplanade, i t...   Read More

Opinion: Anupama Sen and Amit Mitra. There is a need to reimagine agriculture with the twin crises of food and energy insecurity set to challenge global priorities. “Addressing food insecurity and energy poverty is central to achieving global stability, but tackling these issues independently is no longer sufficient,” warns the World Bank in its latest...   Read More

Opinion: Barry Eichengreen. There is a profound mismatch between Germany’s current economy and its institutional inheritance from the postwar period. If the current crisis prompts a wholesale rethink of that inheritance, the logjam blocking necessary reforms could finally be broken. Germany is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the European economy. GDP...   Read More

Opinion: Amit Mitra and Souryabrata Mohapatra. India’s research ecosystem stands on the cusp of a seismic shift with the impending rollout of the One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS) scheme, a Rs 6,000-crore initiative aimed at dismantling the long-standing barriers to accessing global academic resources. Boasting the promise of providing 13,000 international journals to over 6,300...   Read More

Opinion: Asrar Alam. Adopting legislative measures that raise the minimum age for consumption of tobacco products can help restrict adolescents and youth access to them. India’s pan, tobacco, and intoxicants industry remains robust, even as the government enforces measures to curb consumption. Tobacco continues to be a significant public health risk, contributing to rising noncommunicable...   Read More

Opinion: Barry Eichengreen. There is now a conventional narrative in the markets about the short- and medium-term prospects of the dollar. In the short run the dollar will continue to strengthen, as an unprecedented confluence of domestic and foreign forces push it up. Foreign exchange traders are focused on Donald Trump imposing tariffs on his...   Read More