Sreedev Krishnakumar

@sreedevkkumar.bsky.social

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Data journalist from India. Works at Hindustan Times. Previously with Moneycontrol. Other bylines: The Hindu, The Print, The Citizen and LiveWire https://sreedev98.github.io/

More flags than ever, but the same football factories By Sreedev Krishnakumar The first part of this two-part series explored whether the expansion of the FIFA World Cup has improved the representation of teams beyond the traditional footballing powers—it has, but only in the tournament’s early stages. This part examines the geographical diversity within World Cup squads as the number of foreign-born players has surged, and what this reveals about the movement of the footballing talent pool beyond the pitch. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the HT news app)
India and US@250: A friendship in America’s winter? By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar Would India be better off than today if it had chosen the American camp at the time of its independence? This is one of the most animated counterfactuals often posed in India. Counterfactuals and those who pose them have the luxury of ignoring Marx’s famous dictum. “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past,” he wrote. India, in the immediate aftermath of its independence was trying to do pretty much what Marx described. Historian Srinath Raghavan’s tour de force of a book, The Most Dangerous Place: A History of the United States in South Asia, is a must read for the interested reader to understand this. History aside, the present requires asking a more pertinent question. What does India stand to gain from its recent embrace of the US as a strategic ally? (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the free HT news app)
US@250: Fighting a cold civil war By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar America, almost everybody agrees, is a bitterly divided country today. History tells us that polarisation is not new to the American people. Just short of its centenary, the country fought a civil war in 1861, which was mainly about the abolition of slavery. Almost a century after the civil war, civil rights movements in the US had to fight for ensuring not just freedom but also dignity for the African American people in the country. Violence has often accompanied such political disagreements. That the US is one of the most gun-wielding societies does not help. Having said all this, there is a case to be made that the fissures in US@250 are very different from what they have been in the past. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the free HT news app)
US@250: Leveraged at the top By Roshan Kishore, Abhishek Jha and Sreedev Krishnakumar On July 4, 1776, 56 delegates signed the Declaration of Independence at what is now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia. July 4 has since been celebrated as Independence Day in the US. July 4, 2026 marks 250 years of the US. To paraphrase Hagrid from the first Harry Potter film, it is not every day that a global super power turns 250 and is still a super power. The only other country which can claim to have had a global influence like the US is its erstwhile coloniser Great Britain. The latter started losing its global influence by the time the First World War ended. What is the US like, to the world, its people and India, at its 250th? This is what this three-part series will try to answer with numbers. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
UK continues to count its economic losses, and PMs By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Roshan Kishore On 23 June 2016, the UK shocked itself by voting in favour of an exit from the European Union in a referendum. Since then, the country has seen the wrong kind of numbers increase . The UK’s economy has stagnated and its politics has mutated. With Keir Starmer becoming the seventh consecutive prime minister to quit office without completing a full term, 10 years since that day—six of the seven quit post-Brexit—the UK faces a reality check like none other in its history. Here are three charts that put things in perspective. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app.)
How good are major states in raising taxes? By Shreya Khandelwal and Sreedev Krishnakumar Two states-- Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- that elected new governments in the latest election cycle have presented White Papers on their fiscal health, or lack thereof. State finances have increasingly emerged as a critical nerve of India’s overall fiscal health. States have lost some fiscal autonomy after the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and they are also rolling out more and more populist schemes to win elections. This has made states’ ability to mobilise revenue more important than ever. HT analysed the revenue mobilisation performance of India’s major states using a recently released report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which provides fiscal data from 2015-16 to 2024-25. Here are three key takeaways from the analysis. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Is there such a thing as Chinese FDI gravy train? By Sreedev Krishnakumar India needs more capital flows now more than ever. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important component of this imperative. Can being more liberal towards Chinese FDI solve this challenge? India’s partial easing of Press Note 3 (PN3) regulations earlier this year has reopened this debate. Is Chinese capital a risk to be kept out, or a tool that can reduce dependence on Chinese goods and kill two birds with the same stone: higher capital flows and lower trade deficit? Here is what the data shows. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the HT news app for free)
Unraveling the good, bad and ugly of rupee’s recent slump By Sreedev Krishnakumar With the rupee at the cusp of hitting 100 against a dollar, everybody is interested in, and has, a view on the exchange rate right now. Views and predictions aside, how does the situation look like, historically speaking? HT has looked at the numbers to distil the good (there is), the bad and the ugly of the current churn in the foreign exchange markets right now. Let us look at them one by one. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the free HT news app)
India's equity market story could have been worse By Sreedev Krishnakumar India’s benchmark equity market index, BSE Sensex is down nearly 12% on a year-to-date basis. The bearish sentiment is not just a reflection of the ongoing geo-economic turbulence because of the ongoing war in West Asia. And an HT analysis shows that things would have much worse if not for the domestic savings being channelised into the markets as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continue to sell. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
The Sino-US dynamic: Trade, war, possible peace By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar US President Donald Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday for what is perhaps the most important visit of his second presidency. Trump last visited China in 2017 and this is the first in-person bilateral between the top leaders of the US and China. Trump’s rhetoric on protectionism to revive the US economy has not changed since his first term, but this meeting is happening in a very different economic and geo-political context. Here’s why: (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
India’s reckoning with the war’s economic cost begins By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar When Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked people to use petrol-diesel judiciously and not buy gold or undertake foreign trips on Sunday, he was conveying a clear message: the economic pain of the ongoing war in West Asia is not going away anytime soon and the economy will have to make adjustments to cope with the fallout. Now that the state election cycle is over, this mitigation is likely to be top priority for the government. How has India fared so far in dealing with the war’s economic costs? How does it compare with other countries? What about the challenges that lie ahead? Will the adjustments and mitigation strategy bring economic pain? Here is what the data shows. (Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Labour staring at the end of the road in UK? By Sreedev Krishnakumar The 2026 local elections were the first large-scale test of Keir Starmer’s Labour government, and the verdict was brutal. Across 136 English councils where elections took place, Labour was left controlling just 28. Reforms won 14 councils, the Liberal Democrats 15, the Conservatives 9 and the Greens 5, while most councils ended up with no overall control. The wider picture was no kinder to Labour: it suffered heavy losses in England, was routed in Wales and lost ground in Scotland. Here’s a closer look at what these results mean for politics in the UK. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Number of suicides in ’24 22.7% higher than in 2019 By Sreedev Krishnakumar For every 100 people who died in accidents in India in 2024, 36.5 died by suicide. This ratio is lower than 38.6 in 2023 and the Covid-era peak of more than 40 in 2020 and 2021. The latest decline, however, does not mean India’s suicide burden has returned to its pre-pandemic level. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the last post in the thread to read it on HT news app or website)
Younger candidates led Vijay's political coup By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Abhishek Jha Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has delivered a political earthquake in Tamil Nadu by breaking the Dravidian duopoly of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) over the state’s politics. With 108 MLAs in an assembly of 234, TVK is certainly at the cusp of government formation. What really worked for TVK and its founder, a superstar in movies but a political novice? In hindsight, it might have been the demography: a party represented by a leader and candidate who was closer to the age-profile of the state’s voters than a much older lot from the establishment DMK and AIADMK alliances. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on Hindustan Times news website or app)
Numbers behind TN's political earthquake By Roshan Kishore, Sreedev Krishnakumar and Abhishek Jha The most shocking election result in this cycle has come from Tamil Nadu, the largest state in south India and the fifth largest in terms of number of Lok Sabha MPs among states. The political debutant Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) formed by the film star Vijay has finished first in the state with XXX MLAs leaving behind the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) led alliances. To be sure, the TVK has still fallen short of the halfway mark in the assembly of 234 and government formation will take some post-poll understanding. How does one explain this result? Here are four key data points which matter. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the HT app or website)
UDF's big gains came in minority dominated districts By Sreedev Krishnakumar The Congress-led-UDF’s sweep in Kerala was especially visible in the state’s regions with significant minority populations. The UDF had a vote share of 51.9% and 50.2% in constituencies in districts having significant Muslim and Christian populations in the state respectively, compared to 42.1% in the rest of the state. Since constituency-wise religious data is not available, this analysis uses district-level Census 2011 data as a proxy, taking seats in districts where Muslims or Christians account for more than 30% of the population. This is an imperfect measure of voter demography, but it helps test whether the UDF’s gains were also concentrated in places where Kerala’s two largest minority communities are demographically important. Muslims account for 26.6% of Kerala’s population and Christians for 18.4%, according to Census 2011. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link the post to read it on the HT app or website)
Not just a swing: Scale sets Kerala poll verdict apart By Sreedev Krishnakumar The Congress-led-United Democratic Front (UDF) has returned to power in Kerala with a decisive mandate, winning 102 of the 140 Assembly seats. Meanwhile, the incumbent CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has been reduced to 35 seats, its worst performance in the state. The BJP-led NDA, meanwhile, has won three seats, its best-ever tally in Kerala. What explains the results? (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link the post to read it on the HT app or website)
A crude shock By Sreedev Krishnaumar The United Arab Emirates' exit from OPEC comes at a moment when the war in West Asia has already pushed oil markets into crisis and made the Strait of Hormuz the main driver of prices. That is why the immediate market reaction has been muted. The longer-term question is different: what happens to a cartel whose share of world crude production has been falling, and which has now lost one of the few members with the capacity and incentive to pump more? (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Tamil Nadu's economic rise and the discontent beaneath By Sreedev Krishnakumar Tamil Nadu is one of India’s richest states. It is also a state which has seen a remarkable economic turnaround in the past couple of decades. This growth has improved quality of life and allowed successive governments to offer more economic support. But it has also created a situation where reality sometimes falls short of economic aspirations. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Fertiliser output falls to five-year low in March By Sreedev Krishnakumar Mumbai: Fertiliser production in India fell to a five year low in March, reflecting input shortages triggered by the ongoing war in West Asia, even as the combined index of eight core industries (popularly called core sector index) contracted by 0.4% on an annual basis, the weakest reading since August 2024 when it shrank 1.5%. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the post to read it on the HT website or app)
The building fiscal stress in the Kerala Model By Sreedev Krishnakumar Kerala will vote to elect a new government tomorrow. The campaign has seen competing promises on welfare and government jobs. For a state, which has taken pride in carving out a governance exceptionalism often portrayed as the Kerala Model, these promises entail an embrace of the nation-wide populism. But such promises will require a reckoning with the state’s fiscal problems. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Kerala polls are facing a western (Asia) disturbance By Sreedev Krishnakumar Kerala will vote to elect a new government on April 9. Politics in what is an extremely politicized state is competing with the intense heat in the weather. But the state’s body politic is also dealing with an intense ‘western disturbance’: the ongoing war in West Asia and its impact on millions of Malayalis who are directly or indirectly invested in the region. Here are three charts which explain the argument in detail. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
How markets have fared in 18 days of war By Sreedev Krishnakumar It has been more than two weeks since the US and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and starting a new war in West Asia. Iran shutting down Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important shipping routes which is crucial in global oil trade, has sent crude prices soaring past the $100 per barrel mark. How have the Indian and global markets fared during this period? The charts below explore this in detail. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the HT news app for free)
The latest oil shock is different from the previous ones By Roshan Kishore, Abhishek Jha, Sreedev Krishnakumar The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its monthly Oil Market Report on Thursday. The opening line of the report states the gravity of the current energy crisis in unequivocal terms. “The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”, it says. Statements from the political leadership of Iran and US – the two countries which matter the most as far as ending the conflict is concerned – does not help optimism on the current disruption. Bloomberg reported US President Donald Trump saying “stopping Iran is greater interest to me than price of oil” and “US makes a lot of money when oil prices go up”, while Iran’s military spokesperson has threatened that price of crude oil will reach $200 per barrel. Between the energy market outlook and the politics around the conflict, the current oil shock could end up being the most painful for the world. Here is how. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
The most important lesson from the Strait of Hormuz oil shock By Roshan Kishore, Abhishek Jha and Sreedev Krishnakumar As the war in West Asia continues, the global economy is getting as badly hit as people in the war zone. The biggest reason for this is energy shipments from the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz coming to a virtual halt because of the ongoing hostilities. To be sure, not everyone is, or more importantly, will suffer equally if the conflict is prolonged. This is because the Strait of Hormuz is a more important chokepoint for energy supplies to Asia than to North America or Europe. Major Asian countries had no say whatsoever in starting the war. This asymmetry is perhaps the most important lesson from the ongoing oil shock. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the HT news app for free)
The great (military) purges of China By Sreedev Krishnakumar When China’s president Xi Jinping purged General Zhang Youxia on January 19—among other things Zhang was accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the US—China’s military purge reached a level never seen before under Xi. Not only was Zhang the highest military leader as the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, he had also known Xi from school. The latter, in fact, referred to Zhang as his “elder brother.” Purges, whether political or military—and the two do not necessarily have a Chinese wall between them—are not entirely unheard of in post-revolution China. However, the latest round under Xi’s leadership is definitely different in terms of its momentum and reach in China’s more recent past. On Thursday, Chinese state news agency reported that the country’s top legislature updated its list of deputies from the PLA, removing nine military officials. A new dataset prepared by Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington DC-based think tank, which tracks active duty and retired generals and lieutenant generals purged or potentially purged from January 2022 to February 2026 allows us to quantify this process. Here is a quick summary. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in this thread to read it on the free HT news app)
The small club of AI giants By Sreedev Krishnakumar Artificial Intelligence (AI) will change the world economy as we know it. Who owns the technology though? What does it take to “produce” AI? Are there differences across firms leading the AI charge? A Bank of International Settlements (BIS) bulletin by economists Joe Frost, Kumar Rishabh and Vatsala Shreeti gives a useful summary of these questions. Here are three charts which describe its basic findings. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the free HT news app)
The importance of IT sector in India’s labour market By Sreedev Krishnakumar Those outside India’s IT industry believe it faces a moment of reckoning, with fears that many jobs in the sector will simply disappear as AI takes over. India’s IT czars, however, continue to maintain that such fears are unfounded and the industry will adapt without too much pain. The debate will resolve one way or the other sooner rather than later. In the meantime, the question worth asking is what is at stake for India in this debate. HT parsed various databases to answer this question. Here is what the numbers show. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
The good, bad and ugly of AI for India By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar India held its biggest ever Artificial Intelligence (AI) gathering this week. As of today, AI promises huge benefits to the global economy and perhaps even humankind , even as it sparks legitimate fears. What it will finally entail is something best left to the future. What we do know is that the future will not be unchanged, both in capital and labour markets. What will AI mean for the Indian economy? (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
Elections are only the first of Sanae Takaichi’s challenges By Sreedev Krishnakumar Election results released on Sunday vindicated Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s gamble to have snap polls in Japan. With a 75.7% seat share for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led alliance in the House of Representatives, her government will now have the biggest majority in Japan since the end of the second world war. The import of the victory notwithstanding, Takaichi’s government and Japan face tough policy choices. The charts below summarise this. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
An annotated version of India-US joint statement published in today's Hindustan Times. The full text with annotations is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the replies to read it on HT app.
Is focus on agri in US deal missing the woods for the tree(nut)s? By Sreedev Krishnakumar The details of the Indo-US trade deal are not known but expected soon. A lot of the political reactions in India have been about the potentially harmful impact of the deal on our farmers. This makes it worthwhile to look at the Indo-US trade in agriculture before the deal happened. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT app.)
Amid global churn, Budget faces 'external' challenge By Sreedev Krishnakumar If the 2026-27 Union Budget were not being presented in an external environment of unprecedented turbulence, the economic situation would have been very different. Today, the erstwhile hegemon of the rules-based-order is hell bent on destroying it -- and at a time when the world is bracing for a generational leap in technology thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) which, at least for now, seems to have taken financial markets beyond the realm of rational intelligence. As an economy which runs a current account deficit and is, therefore, dependent on capital flows and is looking to attract more FDI to boost manufacturing, economic policy making in India has no choice but to account for these challenges. Here is a brief description of what they are.
Davos, amid threat of Trump avalanche, AI earthquake B Sreedev Krishnakumar and Roshan Kishore The World Economic Forum (WEF) is one of the most influential gatherings as far as global capitalism is concerned. The high and mighty of business and policy meet with each other in the backdrop of snow-covered Alps and often discuss what the future can hold. WEF’s glory days have been associated with the rise of globalisations and free markets. In fact, what is today the WEF used to be just a European gathering before the end of the Cold War. This year’s WEF meeting, however, is taking place in an environment which embodies anything but optimism and confidence. The biggest threat to the Davos sentiment, ironic as it sounds, comes from one of the biggest delegations this time, namely, US President Donald Trump's. What makes things even worse is that Trump is not the only instability as far as the global economy is concerned. Here are three charts which capture how the world has changed for the worse from the last Davos gathering. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app.)
Can ‘Donroe' be a geopolitical doctrine? By Sreedev Krishnakumar What the world saw as a callous act in the US abducting Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro, Donald Trump’s administration has tried to sell as the proof of a doctrine which will resurrect the US’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s supporters have popularised it as the “Donroe” doctrine which tries to marry Trump’s name with the 1823 Munroe Doctrine, which proclaimed US’s pre-eminence in the western hemisphere against what was then a stronger and dominant Europe. How credible are such claims? Here is what numbers tell us. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
BJP cements its Maharashtra dominance By Abhishek Jha and Sreedev Krishnakumar The results of municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra have underlined the message which emerged from the 2024 assembly elections in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the clear political leader in the state and this holds even if it decides to sometimes be a little tough with its alliance partners . The Congress, on the other hand, appears to be headed on a path of implosion and political irrelevance in the state’s politics. Here are three charts which explain this argument in detail. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
What's at stake for the US in Federal Reserve vs Trump? By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar The latest (hitherto unimaginable) headline from Donald Trump’s America is the head of the US central bank coming on camera to say that he has been threatened with a criminal investigation for refusing to compromise what has often been considered a bulwark of US’s economic leadership in the world – an autonomous central bank setting monetary policy (read interest rates). “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,”, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a video statement on Sunday. While Trump has made no secret of his liking for a lower intertest rate or a more pliable central bank leadership, what could have possibly driven the latest precipitation and what are the possible implications of a confrontation between the US government and monetary policy? Here are three things which offer some idea. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click the link on the next post in the thread to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
World’s billionaire and millionaire cities By Sreedev Krishnakumar New York mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to tax the city’s super-rich to fund his promises. The mecca of capitalism isn’t the only global metropolis caught in the debate around taxes and the super-rich. The Labour government’s tax policies ave triggered similar debates in London. Do some cities have more super-rich people than others? Are low taxes key to attracting the super-rich? Here is a brief summary. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
Bitter harvest: The rise of bad loans in the agriculture sector By Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar New Delhi : The RBI released its biannual Financial Stability Report (FSR) on December 31. Data on bad loans, or non-performing assets (NPA), shows that bank balance sheets are healthier than they have ever been in the last decade, with gross NPAs as a share of total advances falling to just 2.2% in September 2025. However, there is one statistic in the FSR which should set off alarm bells for policy observers. Agriculture accounts for the highest share of bad loans and this share has been rising for quite some time now. A further examination also shows that agriculture’s share in bad loans is disproportionately larger than its overall share in bank credit in the country. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post to read it in full)
What will the markets bring in 2026 for India? By Sreedev Krishnakumar Global equity markets ended 2025 on a strong note, but the rally was uneven and driven by a narrow set of themes. India, despite solid economic growth and robust domestic participation, was one of the weakest performers among major markets. As 2026 begins, the question is whether easing global headwinds and improving earnings will help Indian equities regain lost ground. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it in full from the HT news app)
The rise of AI: Boom, bubble or neither? By Sreedev Krishnakumar ‘Artificial Intelligence’ became an everyday phrase in 2025, with generative AI tools spreading rapidly across offices, classrooms and consumer products. That pace of adoption has been matched by extraordinary investor enthusiasm, driving funding, valuations and markets across the globe. The question now is whether this reflects the early stages of a durable technological shift, or a bout of exuberance running ahead of fundamentals. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read the full story on the free HT news app)
Part 2: The new risks in global energy security By Sreedev Krishnakumar The first part of this two-part series showed that not only is energy demand growing, energy is also increasingly electric and comes from renewable sources. This is changing the nature of energy security. While supply of primary energy is still important – a drought can affect generation from hydropower, for example – more renewable use and electricity use has added another kind of risk to energy security. These sources of energy require minerals, whose reserves and refining is concentrated, which creates another set of risks apart from fuel supply. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT news app)
The new risks in global energy security – I By Abhishek Jha and Sreedev Krishnakumar The world’s energy consumption has been growing over time, not just because of population growth – which is expected to continue up to 2061 – but also because of increased access and consumption. In most of history up to now, the risk in meeting this demand came from the risk to fuel supply. However, this two-part data series shows that the nature of this risk is changing now. This first part shows that apart from increased energy consumption, the world is also diversifying its energy consumption matrix, a process projected to continue in the future. The second part will show that this changing matrix has generated a new risk: from disruptions to the supply of minerals critical to today’s energy consumption matrix. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
Red retreat: Is LDF on its way out in Kerala? By Sreedev Krishnakumar Results for Kerala’s local body polls were declared over the weekend. These polls come months before the 2026 assembly elections and have historically been a bellwether for the assembly polls. The writing on the wall, from the results, suggests that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has its back against the wall. Here’s a detailed explanation of the argument. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
US Prez's India rice rant lacks a grain of truth By Sreedev Krishnakumar US President Donald Trump is now upset about India “dumping” its rice in the US. “India, tell me about India. Why is India allowed to do that? They have to pay tariffs. Do they have an exemption on rice? They shouldn’t be dumping. I mean, I heard that, I heard that from others. You can’t do that”, he said on Monday and suggested possible tariffs over and above the 50% which exists currently. There is good reason to believe that Trump’s latest rant against India is devoid of facts, hypocritical and possibly diversionary tactics to save himself from problems of US farmers which have been created by him, not India. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free Hindustan Times news app)
War, peace and democracy in Europe — Part 2 By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Roshan Kishore The first part of this series compared the costs of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict for both countries and how the US is trying to put pressure on both of them to end the hostilities. Irrespective of how the conflict ends, the rest of Europe faces difficult policy choices which are linked but not confined to the fate of Russia and Ukraine. Here are four charts which describe this situation. (The full text it too long to be posted here. Click on the link in the post to read it from the free HT news app)
War, peace and democracy in Europe By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Roshan Kishore The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict in Europe, when it started in February 2022 – some see Russian annexation of Crimea in 2018 as its beginning – was seen as a battle for preserving the post-Cold War liberal order by many commentators. Almost four years later, and more importantly, a year since Donald Trump came back as the US President, opinions on what is at stake in the conflict are now very different. Trump wants the war to end on very different terms than his European peers. Its ultimate resolution remains a matter of speculation and negotiation. The larger questions from this conflict, however, go beyond what the war itself has done to Russia and Ukraine. This two-part series will weigh on some of these issues. The first part will look at what the war has meant for Russia and Ukraine and the second part will deal with larger questions Europe is having to confront in the aftermath of the war. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it fully from the free HT news app)
The A that made America great By Sreedev Krishnakumar From tariffs to curbs on H-1B visas, the US under Donald Trump has been closing its doors to movement of goods and people. All of this, Trump and his supporters claim, is towards the goal of Making America Great Again or MAGA. While the ill-effects of tariffs on the US economy have been highlighted by many economists and institutions, a recent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper by @econgaurav shows that the American skilled work force has gained a lot from Asian immigrants and this process is inseparable from the American growth story as well as positive spill-overs in countries which sent such migrants. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT app)
Diwali and significance of Muhurat trading By Sreedev Krishnakumar Every year, on Diwali evening, India’s stock exchanges open for a special hour of trading known as Muhurat trading, a ritual that marks the start of the new financial year (or "Samvat") for many trading communities. This year's Muhurat trading session will take place on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. Considered an auspicious time to invest by many, it draws both seasoned investors and first-time traders who believe it heralds prosperity for the year ahead. How have the markets actually performed on Muhurat trading sessions in the past? Does the optimism of Diwali sustain itself in the weeks and months that follow? The charts below explore these in detail. (The full text is too long to be posted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on HT app)
Inside the surge: Gold's record rally explained By Sreedev Krishnakumar Gold is in the middle of an extraordinary run, crossing the $4,000 an ounce mark earlier this month in the international markets, while its domestic price has doubled in recent years. The rally has outpaced many equity benchmarks, raising the question how gold compares with stock market returns both globally and in India. At the same time, the surge has tested the resilience of Indian demand. The charts below explores gold’s record run in detail. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the post to read it on HT app)
Biharis are poor, but bullish on sentiment By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Roshan Kishore That Bihar is among the poorest states in India and Biharis among the poorest people is well known. However, what is also remarkable about the state is that there have been no large-scale protests or even a change in government for a long time in the state. The incumbent chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has now been in office for almost 20 consecutive years. What explains this apparent contradiction? The translation between economics and politics is never as straight as some assume it to be. However, at least one set of statistics published by the Reserve Bank of India could throw some light on the issue: consumer sentiment in Bihar is quite high when compared to its poor income and consumption levels. Here is what the numbers show. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here, please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on HT app)
Prohibition’s hangover in Bihar By Roshan Kishore, Abhishek Jha and Sreedev Krishnakumar It is now almost 10 years since Nitish Kumar imposed prohibition in Bihar. Its stated objectives were to prevent crime, abuse of women by alcoholic male family members, and divert money spent on alcohol towards more useful purposes. Nitish Kumar was in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) when he imposed prohibition and has changed sides thrice since, allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017, jumping ship to join hands with the RJD in 2022, and going back to the BJP again in 2024. The fact that prohibition has continued through these flip flops, suggests that it has the support of all three major parties in the state, namely, the Janata Dal (United), the RJD, and the BJP. As Bihar heads into its second assembly elections after imposing prohibition, it is a good occasion to ask how effective the policy has been in the state. Here is what the data shows. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in this thread to read it on the HT app)
Non-metro cities take off in India's aviation boom By Sreedev Krishnakumar That India’s post-reform growth story has been an unequal one is a well-accepted and commented upon fact. However, this inequality does not mean that growth has been the preserve of just a handful of places. In fact, there are enough signs that even as inequality persists, opulence is also spreading across India’s geography. Among the most important proofs of this is the growing share of non-metro towns in India’s aviation map, albeit with the caveat that air travel is no longer seen as the luxury it once was. The numbers speak for themselves. (The full text is too long to be pasted here. Please click on the link in the app to read it on the free HT app.)
The rich are not buying expensive art like before By Sreedev Krishnakumar At some point of time in the history of capitalism, acquiring art also became an act of investment for some people. This market seems to have entered a bear phase at the moment. Sales growth has been stagnant for the biggest auction houses for years now. Global auction giant Sotheby’s saw its losses double to $248 million in 2024, FT reported earlier in September. Christie’s, the other global giant, saw its sales fall 8% in 2024. What is happening? Here is what the numbers tell us. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it on the free HT app)
Developing country to export superpower: China’s journey By Sreedev Krishhnakumar China has announced that it will no longer seek for itself the special and differential treatment provisions reserved for developing countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The move reflects not only an acknowledgement of its growing economic weight, but is also an effort to present itself as a constructive force in multilateral reform. The charts below trace China’s rise into a global exporting powerhouse since joining the WTO and examine how its trade dominance contrasts with its still modest income levels. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the link in the next post in the thread to read it for free from the HT app)
Is economic sentiment real or imagined? By Sreedev Krishnakumar and Auhona Mukherjee Consumer sentiment is often a key metric to ascertain the state of the economy. There are private and institutional estimates of the measure across countries. In India none other than the RBI conducts the survey. How objective are such measures? More and more data, including one released recently for the UK shows that people’s reporting of consumer sentiment might have to do more with their political partisanship than objectively determined. A comparison of data for the UK, USA and India shows that the confirmation bias in the Indian survey might be lower than in other two countries. (The full text is too long to be copied and pasted here. Please click on the next link in this thread to read it on HT app for free)
Four charts which explain US’s national debt By Sreedev Krishnakumar US national debt surged past the $37 trillion mark in August, years ahead of the Congressional Budget Office’s 2020 estimate which had not expected the milestone to be reached until the next decade. Who owns the debt of the US? How soon will it mature? And how does the US compare on these parameters against other countries?
Using art to narrate history, with help from AI By Sreedev Krishnakumar The real aesthete can spend hours in front of a painting in an art gallery and wax eloquent on the intended message and context. What if somebody trained a computer programme to look at 630,000 paintings from 1400 onwards and told a story of what influenced the artists and their art when they were produced? A June 2025 research paper by economists (and perhaps also aesthetes) Clément Gorin, Stephan Heblich and Yanos Zylberberg has done exactly that. It classifies art works by eight different emotions; four uplifting (awe, contentment, amusement and excitement) and four dark (fear, sadness, anger and disgust), and then tries to find a larger relationship between art and social, political, economic and even ecological circumstances of the day. The results are pretty understandable even for philistines.
The trade matrix between India and China By Sreedev Krishnakumar China is the world’s largest exporter. It is also the largest source of imports for India. Beyond these two well known facts, what does the India-China trade matrix look like? Here are the numbers that matter. (The full text is too long to be posted here. Please click on the link in the next post in this thread to read it on the free HT android/iOS app)