Make India Competitive Again (Private)

2024 was a record-breaking year for mergers and acquisitions in India, and the government seems to want to speed up the frenzy. One of the proposals put forward by the finance minister was an overhaul of M&A regulations. She wants to introduce fast-track mergers for a range of companies, including unlisted firms and fellow subsidiaries.  But lethargy isn’t really the biggest problem afflicting...

Wi-fi is a miracle. Not because it lets you go online wherever it’s offered, but because there’s no bureaucratic headache whenever users connect to a network. This is only possible because of what’s called “unlicensed spectrum” that governments leave open. In India, more is about to be added to it. Call it the first real systemic reform for wi-fi in the country. The plan is hardly new. It’s rooted...

A cursory look at the way India’s workforce has changed in recent years suggests that “women are striding into economic activity”, as Mint reported in mid-May. In fact, by FY24, three in four working women were self-employed. Women generally have a growing share in India’s workforce—a development that public officials persistently tout. But look closely and you’ll find that the details paint a dif...

There are plenty of reasons for India’s semiconductor companies to win. The US is seeking to dial back its reliance on China’s tech providers, shaking up global supply chains. Since one-fifth of global semiconductor-design talent is located in India, the country should be coming out on top. But that isn’t how the shakeup is unfolding. Some projects like those of Murugappa Group, Micromax, and Tata...

India wants a sovereign AI model. It’s a big goal, and success means stringing together contributions from a range of entities, including Big Tech firms and domestic AI developers of all scales. The ideal version of this plan was meant to lead to plenty of competition—no preordained winners. The latest development, however, is one that runs against that framework. Sarvam has been tapped to build I...

India had as estimated 101 million diabetics in 2023, with another 136 million people in pre-diabetic state. Among them, 11 million people are on insulin therapy.  It’s a market worth nearly Rs 5,000 crore with Novo Nordisk as the leader, controlling 60%. Two other MNCs—Sanofi and Eli Lilly—control another 25%.  All three companies are phasing out their insulin products in the country. One pair of...

Despite low yields, debt, and climate change, India should be an agricultural powerhouse. In some ways, the country is on its way to attain that status. One figure tells this story: in the five years leading up to 2022, the number of Indians who couldn’t afford a healthy diet—that’s an intake of 2,330 kilocalories from six different food groups a day—went down by 16%, outpacing the global decline....

You’ve seen the news: US President Donald Trump is playing roulette with the global trade order. Then, there’s the massive Rs 23,000 crore performance-linked incentive scheme that the Indian cabinet approved for electronics makers at around the same time. For companies in the manufacturing sector, it’s been a mad, hectic April. They know it’s necessary to strike new alliances—or renew old ones—if...

One of the first reactions to Donald Trump’s tariffs in the Indian media was: let’s have more of “Make in India”. On the surface, the rationale for stepping up domestic manufacturing is clear. The US is inflicting pain on China, and that’s supposed to work to India’s advantage, given the wide gulf in tariffs on the two Asia giants. But “Make in India” has been around for more than a decade, and ma...