India Business
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India’s New Labour Codes – 2: Wage & Benefit Uniformity
When “wages” finally mean wages — and everyone gets counted Last week, we discussed how the simplification of labour laws benefits employers. But simplification is not a one-sided gift. Employees, too, stand to gain — and in some cases, quite substantially. Overlapping definitions and rules not only increased compliance costs, but employees often did not Continue reading
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India’s New Labour Codes: A Once-in-three-Generations Cleanup
From 29 tangled laws to 4 clear codes — why simplification matters India’s new labour codes were finally (finally!) made effective, only six years after being enacted. Some are touting this as the biggest reform since GST, maybe even bigger. Like GST, it impacts every enterprise or business; but it also directly impacts every employee. Continue reading
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The curious case of India’s quality control orders
How India’s QCO spree became a master-class in shooting ourselves in the foot Several years ago, a group of important policy makers and officials sat down to discuss how to boost domestic production and curtail imports. Some bright spark provided a (seemingly) magic solution – the use of “Quality Control Orders” (QCOs). Under a QCO, Continue reading
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Rare Earths and India: Trying to run with one leg tied
Rare Earths and India: Trying to run with one leg tied In recent months, the term “rare earths” has entered drawing-room conversations, fueled by continuous media coverage. The immediate cause for this is China’s blockade of these (and other critical) minerals and their derivative products, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs. Suddenly, we learnt that India Continue reading
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Diwali Fireworks and FDI
While complaining to a friend about writer’s block (side effect of an overdose of Diwali sweets?), he suggested I look at the recent Emirates NBD acquisition of RBL Bank. This deal is significant for several reasons. It’s the first time we’re seeing a majority stake sale in a listed Indian bank. The investment amount is Continue reading
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When Twenty-Somethings Build Unicorns and Rockets: The New India
When I finished college in 1983, start-up was not even a word! There were no VCs and no angels. The few brave entrepreneurs were suppressed, heavily taxed, lacked access to capital and were viewed suspiciously by our socialist leaders. The Babus decided who could make what, where and in what quantity – and who they Continue reading
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Is the distribution moat drying up?
Investing history has it that Warren Buffet popularised the usage of the word “moat” to simplify or explain the idea of a company’s competitive advantage. The width or impregnability of the moat is what makes businesses more durable. And in today’s investing literature, “moat” is almost de rigueur. Every broker, analyst or their cousin trying Continue reading
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Ease of Doing Tourism
Tourism is never long out of the news. But this news coverage seems to be stuck in a loop – at least for the last 40-odd years since I started reading business news. The loop consists of the following elements: And if it’s not advertising, then poor infrastructure (airports and hotels) is blamed. And much Continue reading
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Trump’s gift to Indian education
Policy reforms opened the door to foreign universities in India. Trump may have provided the push that finally gets them through it. According to official estimates, around 1.33 million Indians were studying abroad in 2024. That’s a pretty large number, but not at all surprising. The bulk of these were in Anglophone countries – Canada, Continue reading
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