Praktical Economics

This Diwali, I was in Bangalore at my sister’s place. Post-dinner conversations revolved around personal finance and wealth building. A year of muted equity market returns has pushed people back toward hard assets. Naturally, the hunt for the next “real-estate multibagger” dominated the table. Stories floated around about those who entered early into infra-led corridors like Dwarka Expressway or North Bangalore. These micro markets have clearly outpaced the rest. Which led to the larger question: which city still feels early? That's when Vizag came up. Google has announced a USD 15 billion full stack AI and data centre investment - its largest outside the US. Chandrababu Naidu is back - the same chief minister who once helped turn Hyderabad into Cyberabad. A new international airport is already under construction. Vizag is a natural deep-water port city with existing strategic relevance. The eastern coastline currently lacks a breakout urban-tech anchor after Kolkata’s stagnation. ...

  Took me 3 hours to get from Noida to Gurgaon today. Diwali traffic is wild this time and so are the markets. Auto sales are up 34%, retail trade and e-commerce are seeing their best festive season in years, and gold silver buying is surging. IMF has predicted 6.6% growth for 2025. Yet CPI inflation is just 1.54% (September 2025). An eight-year low. That’s developed-world inflation with emerging-world growth. It shows how much stronger India’s supply chains, logistics and market structures have become. But there is one problem that remains. And no, it’s not the crumbling civic infrastructure in Gurgaon or Bangalore. It’s the ₹13 lakh crore (≈ $150 billion) sitting idle in India Inc’s coffers. Private capital formation has lagged for years.. meaning corporates aren’t investing enough. The government has built infrastructure and reduced taxes; the people have responded with resilient consumption. Now it's India Inc's turn. Corporate India MUST channel this liquidity into capa...

License Raj is back. Not in India, but in China this time. The OG communists. Let me explain: China has restricted exports of rare earths - the elements behind every modern technology: EV motors, wind turbines, smartphones, chips, and AI servers. China controls almost 90% of global refining of rare earth elements and now they won't allow countries to use these without its permission. What does it mean? It could slow the world’s AI and semiconductor growth, at least for a while. China might be doing this to buy time to catch up in deep tech while the west scrambles for new supply chains. Would be interesting to see how US retaliates. Trump has already posted quite a long rant on Truth Social. As Deng Xiaoping once said “The Middle East has oil; China has rare earths.” Rare earths are the new oil. And Beijing just found its OPEC moment. Whether this becomes a short-term supply shock or a long-term realignment will depend on how quickly the West builds alternative refining capacity - ...

  The US-India Alliance is Fracturing. It’s Not Sudden; It’s the Cost of 5 Years of Indian Defiance. We keep calling the US and India “strategic allies,” but what’s happening now isn’t a temporary hiccup. It’s a structural collision. The signs have been brewing for years, each one underscoring India’s ironclad commitment to Strategic Autonomy. Remember vaccine nationalism? New Delhi’s stance on American COVID vaccines was the first instance when India openly prioritized self-reliance over alliance expectations. That was the first nail. Fast forward 5 years and India is now defying Washington across every major arena where core interests collide; be it Energy, Defence or Trade. The next battlefield? Big Tech. Data localization, digital sovereignty, and homegrown platforms will inevitably clash with Silicon Valley’s dominance. The question remains if India has played it's hand too early or the global geopolitical dynamic forced our hand. Whatever be the case, the relationship will l...