Articles written by
k raveendran

By K Raveendran This week was momentous for democracy, freedom, liberty and corporate governance in the Supreme Court, a week that saw a number of landmark decisions that made democracy more meaningful being squeezed into the relatively short period. The first and foremost was of course the decision to change the procedure for the appointment […]

The post Momentous Week For Indian Democracy As Supreme Court Orders Course Correction first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Western nations, led by the US, slapped economic sanctions against Russia, targeting its financial system, oil and gas exports, and thousands of oligarchs in the hope that Moscow will be brought down to knees for having invaded Ukraine. In fact, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and […]

The post Gallup Survey Shows Russian Economic Outlook Better Than Pre-Ukraine Scenario first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Notwithstanding the symbolism of President Joe Biden’s unannounced visit to Ukraine, the fact remains that America’s claim to be the world policeman has suffered serious drubbing as the world marks the first anniversary of Russia’s Ukraine war this week. Ukraine has put to test the US resolve, raising fundamental questions about its […]

The post Russia Emerges Relatively Unscathed From Embargo As Ukraine War Completes One Year first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The Supreme Court this week pronounced a few home truths about the state of our nation. The ‘confession’ came by way of oral remarks in a petition seeking to debar persons against whom charges have been framed in serious offences from contesting elections. But the court’s observations, though making distressing reading, cannot […]

The post Supreme Court Laments Loss Of Values, Morals As Major Failing Of Nation first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The global electric vehicles (EV) industry is facing a slow down after two years of vigorous growth. The trend is also getting reflected in the Indian industry. Globally, this is forcing manufacturers to cut prices and India does not seem to be an exception. According to Rystad Energy EV specialists, from the […]

The post Dip In Demand, Tax Changes Prompt Price Cuts By Global EV Industry first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget has played truant with the gold trade, which is in the throes of a crisis for what the finance minister has not done rather than any act of commission in her last full-fledged budget of her current tenure. The gold trade had been looking for a cut in the […]

The post Budget Shock Tricks Gold Trade, Imports Plunge To 32-Month Low first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran It is no joke that under Indian laws anyone can be hauled up at any time, anywhere, because there are some laws that can be slapped against anyone who the authorities are not well-disposed towards. In fact, these laws have become a tool of repression and reprisal at the hands of the […]

The post IT Department Must Be Taken To Task For Ignoring BBC Violations All These Years first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran In a desperate bid to defend Adani, an orchestrated attempt is being made to present shorting as something undesirable and even abominable. Adani himself has tried to pretend that the action by US investment firm Hindenburg in exposing the irregularities in his group’s accounting practices as an attack against India and the […]

The post Shorting Being Made Scapegoat For Adani Group’s Woes Due To Malpractices first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Further hikes in steel prices are in the offing as upside risks in the global markets have strengthened in recent weeks. Faced with a decline in global production, manufacturers across the world are raising their prices. Indian steel mills have already effected a 3-5 percent increase in prices across the board, with […]

The post Reversal Of Fortunes For Steel Industry As Price Increase Picks Up Momentum first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran With China slowly reopening after it abandoned the zero-Covid policy, global markets are bracing up for an industrial inflation, denoting higher industrial material prices. Already signs of importers of Chinese goods and materials having to dish out more for their requirements are visible, according to analysts. China’s zero-Covid policy has been central […]

The post China Reopening Changing Market Dynamics Impacting Importers first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Increased tax collections in view of a post-Covid pickup in the economy, easing of commodity prices as part of a global trend and lower subsidies on account of a reduction in food and fertilizer subsidy, apart from the withdrawal of Covid-related reliefs have given finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman a lot of elbow […]

The post Relatively Favourable Conditions Help Finance Minister Go For A Capex Boost first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran ‘Insha Allah’ is a term used extensively by Arabs and Muslims across the world to mean ‘god willing’. But according to Arabic linguists, Insha Allah means ‘only if god willing’. There is a subtle difference between the two usages, the former denoting a lot more optimism than what may be warranted. This […]

The post God Can’t Save Pakistan From Its Present Predicament, Only IMF Can first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A new advance in AI technology, leading to the development of OpenAI-created ChatGPT, is threatening to become the nemesis of data entry jobs, entry-level copywriting, customer care and support centres, and even entry-level software developers. ChatGPT promises to be a great tool for marketeers as it can produce highly effective pitches on […]

The post New AI Technology Threatens Thousands Of More Entry-Level Jobs first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Thanks to more crude imports by India, Russia has managed to beat the European Union embargo and the G-7 price cap on the Russian crude. In fact, there has been a strong increase in Russian seaborne crude exports, mainly from ports in the country’s west, according to industry sources. More crude is […]

The post Indian Imports Help Russia Ride Out EU-Enforced Price Cap On Crude Exports first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Finance minister’s ‘confession’ that she understands the pressures of the middle class as she herself belongs to that class of people and that she would continue to work for their welfare leaves hints to the direction in the Modi government’s last full-fledged budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The finance minister […]

The post Another Middle-Class Focussed Budget Would Mean Raw Deal To Vulnerable Sections first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Vice-president Jagdeep Dhankar and law minister Kiren Rijiju are decidedly waging a proxy war on behalf of the Narendra Modi government. The Collegium happens to be just a prop and the real target is the Constitution, which the ruling party considers as a hindrance to the pursuit of its isolationist agendas. While […]

The post Constitution Faces Its Most Vicious Attack Yet From Modi Government, BJP first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran There is one thing common among the Indian CEOs of global IT giants: all of them completed their higher education from a leading foreign university. Such exposure decidedly put them into the big league and the corollary is that the lack of a foreign degree is as good as a disqualification for […]

The post Indian Universities Need To Break Out Of Text Book Education first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran 2023 may well be a year of gold. This is because despite several negatives the yellow metal has outperformed everything else. And with the New Year expected to unravel all that traditionally has worked in favour of gold, this asset class appears to be non-stoppable right now. IMF has warned that a […]

The post Gold Appears To Be Non-Stoppable In Its March Towards A Historical High first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The government has been shifting the goal posts of demonetization from black money elimination to greater tax realization and finally digitization to suit its arguments from time to time for justifying the mindless decision, whose parentage is being disowned by every party involved. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had at one stage […]

The post Black Money Continues To Pour Into Real Estate Despite Demonetisation ‘Success’ first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran   The Supreme Court has by a 4-1 majority ruled that the demonetisation decision by the Modi government was technically valid, but apart from the concerns raised in the dissenting voice recorded by Justice Nagarathna, the verdict has failed to acknowledge the huge human cost of the draconian decision. After declaring during […]

The post SC’s Demonetisation Verdict Fails To Consider Human Cost Of Ill-Fated Decision first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran India is the world’s second largest steel producer after China. But in terms of per capita consumption of steel, India’s number is only about one-tenth of China’s. Steel consumption is considered a highly reliable index for a country’s development status. Yet, India is emerging as a source of hope for the global […]

The post World Steel Industry Gets Trapped In An Existential Crisis first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Judicial academicians will do well to bring out the correlation, if any, between the tenure of Supreme Court chief justices and the quality of decisions pronounced during their respective tenures. The year 2022 would be a rich resource for any such study as it saw three different CJIs at the helm and […]

The post Three CJIs In One Year Make Consistency Quotient Anybody’s Guess first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran India’s 2022 began with hopes of a rebound from covid-induced downturn, which materialized to a large extent as the year progressed, but is winding down to a close with dark clouds beginning to appear on the horizon over threats of a return to the pandemic environment. The government hasn’t yet enforced covid […]

The post 2022 That Began On Optimistic Note Ends With Ominous Signal Due To New Covid first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A relatively disappointing year-end and a possible less dramatic interplay between inflation and central bank intervention globally have India’s domestic gold trade keeping its fingers crossed over what could happen in 2023. November-December months have been less than reassuring for the domestic trade, with soft retail demand forcing discounting of prices, which […]

The post After A Disappointing Season Gold Trade Hopes For Better Luck Next Year first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran After taking on the Supreme Court for the impasse on Collegium, which he described as ‘alien’ to the Constitution, Law Minster Kiren Rijiju has played another bite from His Master’s Voice – prime minister Narendra Modi’s favourite simultaneous elections. Rijiju said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha the other day […]

The post Modi Govt May Be Dusting Out Its Plan For One-Nation, One-Poll By 2024 first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran A global survey of companies has revealed a serious shortage of tech talent when it comes to artificial intelligence, which is threatening to slow down the shift towards the new productivity tool. A majority of respondents in the survey, carried out by management consultancy McKinsey, have reported difficulty in hiring for each […]

The post India’s Next I-T Boom May Be In Artificial Intelligence, Related Sciences first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Inflation is showing signs of softening, providing much-needed relief to the government as well as the managers of the economy, not to speak of the common man, whose household budgets have been under a squeeze in view of skyrocketing prices. The improvement is reflected in the latest rate hike by the Reserve […]

The post No Extra Credits For India As Easing Of Inflation Threat A Global Phenomenon first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran India is leading a global recovery in gold jewellery. This is despite the fact that gold prices have hit a five-month high. The demand engine is driven by urban consumers, encouraged by a return to pre-covid levels of economic activity. Rural consumers were more cautious as their inflation outpaced that of their […]

The post India Leads World Gold Jewellery Demand Recovery After Covid Blues first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran The price cap of $60 for Russian crude is coming into force full steam, with EU countries joining the G-7 and American punitive measure aimed at squeezing out Moscow’s financial resources so as to force it abandon the Ukraine war. A few countries, such as Poland, had initially refused to toe the […]

The post EU Price Cap Of $60 For Russian Oil Takes Hold, Advantage For India first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By K Raveendran Deductive logic has gone for a toss when it comes to forecasting international oil price behaviour. Defying all expectations of a spike, crude prices have hovered just about the same level as last year this time, which means the commodity is trading in the $70s range. This is quite a turnaround, given […]

The post Oil Price Behaviour Surprises With A Turnaround Despite Bullish Undertones first appeared on IPA Newspack.