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2 weeks ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |C.S. Venkiteswaran |Vaishna Roy
When Mary Mapes Dodge, the American author of children’s books, wrote a collection of stories in 1865, the one that went on to live in popular memory was the story about a little Dutch boy and how he saved Haarlem from flooding by putting his finger in a dyke that was about to break. But there were two important details that did not travel as far as the story did. The first: that dykes do not leak, they weaken until whole sections are washed away.
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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Gowhar Geelani |Vaishna Roy
One of the most dangerous qualities of a wildfire is that its uncontrolled flames can start with any number of triggers—a natural event like a lightning strike or extreme heat or even a human-made spark, leaving a campfire burning or a carelessly discarded cigarette. What can often change the intensity and fury of a wildfire is the weather conditions. And sometimes the wildfire can smoulder for a long time, even an entire season.
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2 months ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Meena Kandasamy |Vaishna Roy
Do you get déjà vu? In the course of under a decade the human race has witnessed two unprecedented events. First, a global pandemic, COVID-19, which was among the deadliest disease outbreaks in recorded history; and second, what looks like a collapse of global economic trade as we have known it. In a short and intense span of a few days, financial markets have witnessed what can only be described as a bloodbath.
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Feb 22, 2025 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Vaishna Roy
In the last many weeks, several leaders have called the times we live in “the end of an era”. They are pointing to the shape and form geopolitics took from the end of the Cold War until roughly the global financial crisis of 2008, characterised by a high level of global cooperation, economic integration, and the flourishing of multilateral institutions like the UN. All this was actively encouraged and fostered by the US, which had two clear economic and strategic rivals: China and Russia.
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Feb 1, 2025 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Soni Mishra |Vaishna Roy
No matter where in the world a baby is born, a universally favourite game is playing “peekaboo.” Babies are surprised when they see things come back after being out of sight and the game is structured around the time-tested method of creating a joke; the setup, the build-up and the punchline.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Vaishna Roy
Reams of news space were occupied this week by the analysis of the growth snafu that India has hit. The first set of advance estimates for FY25 has pegged India’s real GDP growth at 6.4 per cent. It is of course a marked slowdown compared to the 8.2 per cent growth reading of the previous year. It is also lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s current projection of 6.6 per cent. Large-sized knocks are foreseen in manufacturing.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Karan Madhok |Vaishna Roy
In a proverbial “when it rains, it pours” moment, the Adani Group is having a rather disastrous close to the year. French oil major TotalEnergies won’t make any more investments in the Adani Group, saying it was not informed of the US bribery charges against Gautam Adani. Kenya has canceled a procurement process worth more than $2 billion that was expected to give the Adani Group control of its main airport.
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Mujibur Rehman |Vaishna Roy
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Men are ruled by toys.” As the cursed favourite toy, the State of Maharashtra has seen more than its fair share of attention from the country’s central leadership. After five years of a revolving door of leadership, Maharashtra will now enter a phase of more stable leadership—or so one hopes. The maximum metropolis Mumbai has always been a conurbation of contrasts: tall skyscrapers looking out at a sea of flat blue tin roofs and slum clusters.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Talmiz Ahmad |Vaishna Roy
In a recent tweet, a staunch supporter of the BJP government wrote about the Indian rupee’s strength versus the Turkish lira pointing to the lira’s staggering 92 per cent drop against the Indian rupee in 11 years. This, he believed, reflected significant economic instability in Turkey: the subtext of course, was India’s comparative strength. He may have inadvertently picked a telling pairing.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Mitali Mukherjee |Vivek Katju |Vaishna Roy
At its most recent monetary policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it would keep key rates unchanged and that both growth and inflation forecasts remained stable and robust. The inflation horse has been brought to the stable within the tolerance band, explained RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, and the Central Bank would need to be to be careful about opening the gate. It is a war against inflation and in wars, elephants and horses are used historically, he went to say.
