Mihir Sharma

India's labour-intensive sectors such as leather, textiles and jewellery that face 50% duties from the US are concentrated in politically sensitive areas.

US tariffs are testing Modi’s fiscal frugality

Will the Indian prime minister leave businesses without enough support when Trump’s duties begin to bite?

Flags of the states which are Asean members. Asean will have to step up and give most of their trading partners, not just India and the US, a clearer view into their supply chains.
THE BOTTOM LINE

India and Asean are growing apart. Blame tariffs

Officials in New Delhi worry the bloc is drifting towards China

At the Brics meeting this week in Brazil, leaders jointly condemned the "indiscriminate rising of tariffs", in a swipe at US President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
THE BOTTOM LINE

The developing world’s G7 would like a word

The real lesson of the Rio Brics summit is that it isn’t meant to be a forum to be anti-American, but a place where countries bid to lead the Global South

How can decent, inclusive, supportive institutions be so important when it is Beijing's repressive state capitalism that has triumphed over the past two decades?

Beijing’s success is a conundrum for Nobel winners

Prize-winning economists thought they knew what made countries rich – then China emerged

People paying tribute to India's business leader Ratan Tata, who died aged 86 in Mumbai, on Oct 9.

Ratan Tata’s vision should still be India’s

A true corporate titan, he always benchmarked himself and his group’s products against the world’s best. So should the rest of the country.

Aiming for self-reliance does not make sense in a sector such as semiconductors, where even a giant like the US is just part of the global supply chain.
THE BOTTOM LINE

India has chip dreams. What it needs is a strategy

Aiming for self-reliance is a fool’s errand. The country should be looking to invest in areas where it has a comparative advantage

A memorial for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who was killed in Canada. Canada has accused India's government of sponsoring the murder.

India-Canada clash should be a wake-up call for countries that are home to diaspora communities

TO MOST of the world, the Indian government’s response to Canada’s charge that it may have sponsored the murder of a Sikh activist in British Columbia must be befuddling. India has strenuously denied ...

China's development story has been one of the world’s greatest economic miracles. Success comes with responsibilities, however.
THE BOTTOM LINE

Is China a developing nation? I don’t think so

It should be treated like the dominant economic power it now is

The Maiden Pharmaceuticals plant in Sonipat was sealed in 2022 following the deaths of more than 70 Gambian children from acute kidney injury that were linked to the company's cough syrups.
THE BOTTOM LINE

India needs to restore faith in the ‘world’s pharmacy’ 

The country will never be a true export power if customers cannot trust the safety and efficacy of its products

A Sept 2022 file photo of a nickel smelting facility in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi. Many of the materials critical for the green transition are currently produced in far fewer areas than oil and gas are.
PERSPECTIVE

Trafigura scandal should be a US$577 million wake-up call

If traders try to keep up business as usual even as the value of critical metals and minerals skyrockets, they are going to face many more attempts at fraud.