Author: R Suryamurthy

India’s map of foreign-student inflows is shifting faster than policymakers care to admit. A new NITI Aayog working paper shows that Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are rapidly emerging as the country’s strongest magnets for international students, while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, once the pillars of India’s inbound ecosystem, are watching their dominance crumble. Karnataka’s slump is the clearest measure of this churn. In 2012-13, the state enrolled 13,182 foreign students. By 2021–22, that number had collapsed to 5,954, a staggering 55 per cent fall for what was once India’s default destination for engineering and management aspirants. Tamil…

India’s long-delayed data protection regime finally came into force on Friday with the notification of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025 and the operationalisation of the Data Protection Board of India (DPBI). But even as the government set an 18-month countdown for full compliance, lawyers, policy analysts and digital rights groups warned that the heart of the privacy framework remains compromised by sweeping state exemptions and unresolved structural gaps. On paper, the rules deepen requirements around consent, data notices, grievance timelines and safeguards for children. In practice, experts say, the government still retains the power to exempt any…

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has thrown a stark spotlight on the global failure to recover criminal wealth, exposing how only US$12 billion in illicit assets is confiscated each year, barely 1% of the estimated US$2.7 trillion generated through crime. Behind the numbers lies a deeper indictment: decades of anti-money laundering laws have done little to claw back what criminals have stolen. The FATF’s new “Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices”, its first major reform in three decades, seeks to turn asset recovery from a bureaucratic afterthought into a central test of enforcement credibility. The report lays out sharper…

Bihar is heading into yet another election that looks less like a contest of ideas and more like an auction of promises. This time, the bidders are chasing the state’s most decisive constituency: its women. In recent years, women in Bihar have quietly altered the state’s political arithmetic. They vote in greater numbers than men, carry the memory of state-backed self-help groups, and weigh the price of everyday essentials far more seriously than the slogans that fill the airwaves. Every major political alliance knows it. The result is an election narrative built almost entirely around the language of subsidies, cash…

Gold is no longer just glittering; it is speaking — and what it says is unsettling for the U.S. dollar. The yellow metal’s record-breaking surge in 2025 has gone far beyond the logic of safe-haven buying. Beneath the rally lies a quieter revolution — a deliberate, methodical rebalancing of the global financial system away from a single-currency anchor. New data from the World Gold Council (WGC) and a parallel analysis by CareEdge Global suggest that the world is witnessing not merely a “gold rush,” but a strategic dedollarisation. In the words of one senior Asian economist, “We are entering a…

There were two bandits in India’s sandalwood story. One carried a rifle in the forests of Sathyamangalam; the other wielded red tape in the corridors of power. Veerappan may have smuggled sandalwood out by the truckload, but the real looter was the system that turned the world’s most prized tree into a bureaucratic hostage. A latest Niti Aayog document, “Sandalwood Development Committee Report” has exposed what every forester already knew and every policymaker ignored: India’s sacred tree has been bled dry not by smugglers alone, but by the state’s own suffocating embrace.The document is nothing short of an autopsy of…

Bihar’s 2025 Assembly election, slated for November 6 and 11, is no ordinary contest. It’s a test of whether India’s politically combustible heartland will continue to reward continuity under Nitish Kumar’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or gamble on change through Tejashwi Yadav’s Mahagathbandhan. With over 7.4 crore voters and multiple crosscurrents—from youth job angst to voter-roll controversies—the outcome may hinge less on caste arithmetic and more on who best channels a new kind of Bihar fatigue: a state tired of slogans, hungry for results. Youth and Jobs: The Defining Fault Line If any single issue can upend Bihar’s entrenched caste…

India’s states closed FY23 with public debt equivalent to nearly 23% of their combined economic output, with several breaching prudential limits set by the Finance Commission, raising concerns over fiscal sustainability. According to the State Finances 2022–23 report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the 28 states together carried a public debt burden of ₹59.6 trillion, equal to 22.96% of their combined GSDP, up more than threefold from FY14. When public account liabilities such as provident funds and deposits are included, total state liabilities rose to ₹72.7 trillion, or 28% of GSDP. Eight states had public debt exceeding 30%…

Hours after US President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods took effect on Wednesday, New Delhi unveiled an ambitious 40-country diversification plan to shield its textiles sector from the American market shock. The counter-move coincided with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s blunt remarks that India’s negotiating stance was “performative,” even as he insisted ties between the two democracies would ultimately endure. The twin signals — India’s pivot toward Europe and Asia, and Washington’s attempt to keep diplomacy on track despite escalating tariffs — underline how the dispute has widened into a geopolitical contest of pressure and resilience. Trump’s order,…

India’s plan to streamline its Goods and Services Tax (GST) into a simpler two-rate structure is being hailed in New Delhi as a boost to consumption and a curb on inflation. But economists warn the move could turn into a fiscal gamble, with states expected to absorb a disproportionate share of the potential revenue loss. The proposed “GST 2.0” would collapse the current four main slabs into two: a 5 per cent rate for essentials and an 18 per cent standard rate for most goods and services. The controversial 28 per cent “luxury” bracket would largely disappear, with nine-tenths of…