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Showing posts from April, 2025

Takeaways from the Latest Kerala Budget 2026

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The budget speech was held on 19th June by the Finance Minister and the current Chief Minister of Kerala, VD Satheesan, in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. Former  Finance Minister of Kerala,  K N Balagopal,  presented the Interim budget on January 29th as a full budget.  This is the first Budget of VD Satheesan after taking over as Kerala’s Chief Minister and Finance Minister, and will be the first budget of UDF 2.0 after their exemplary victory in the Kerala elections 2026.  The financial White Paper report was tabled in the Assembly on the 4th, based on their campaign promise. This is a revised budget that will replace the old budget passed earlier.  CM said that the budget came in the greater context of debt burden, global inflation, and growing youth unemployment.  Major Announcements from the Budget Speech  GSDP- ₹ 6,85,28,316  crore Public Debt- ₹5.07 lakh crore. Revenue Deficit- ₹35,355.3 crore  Annual Expenditure- ₹2,39,907...

Free-Trade is (not) just about economics

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The Trump Administration's new tariff policy has been in discussion for some time now. Starting from his campaign season, he has been harshly talking about imposing reciprocal tariffs with the US's major trading partners. Well, everything that Trump has been talking about tariffs only since last year, right? Not so. Trump made tariffs a central policy even in his 2016 election campaign, and the US entered a trade war with China, which lasted even during the Biden Administration. To our shock, Biden didn't remove most of the tariffs that were imposed by the Trump administration. In addition, Biden continued to keep them as well as continue to impose tariffs on aluminium, steel and 200% on Chinese EVs. Now, you can see there is a small affinity for tariffs not only in the US but around the world.  Let us not deny the fact that we are all beneficiaries of free trade. We are taught pure economics in school but not international political economy. Hence, our understanding of eco...

News Capsule For The Month of March 2025

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  Following are the top news for the month.   If you wish to follow and get notifications of future articles, you can sign up using the email on the left sidebar.  Article of the month Kerala  Kerala state budget presented in the state assembly.  CPIM's state meeting ends in Kollam with a strict change of ideology.  An elephant goes on a rampage in a temple festival.  CASA says it will enter electoral politics in Kerala.  Six were arrested in an Aluva drug bust. Kochi Metro has yet to fix the Kaloor Stadium glitch. A Kerala cop was caught red-handed while taking a bribe for passport verification.  Rites Ltd emerges as the sole bidder for Phase III Kochi metro line.  Director of Empuraan film 📽 Prithviraj says he'll be making 17 voluntary edits to the film after the backlash.  BJP has nominated former minister and technocrat Rajeev Chandrashekhar for the post of State President ahead of local elections this year and State elect...