Policy Circle

Kerala migration history and patterns should make it wary of treating workers from other states as outsiders. Kerala migration debate: Kerala’s 2026 election campaign turned migration into a fiscal grievance. The Congress-led UDF returned to power, and VD Satheesan took office as Chief Minister after the May 2026 assembly results. Migration soon entered the new government’s economic vocabulary through one word: remittance. Gulf migration was treated as income.

The yen crash shows why reserves can slow currency pressure but cannot replace coherent monetary and fiscal policy. Japan has offered other economies an expensive lesson in the price of policy ambiguity during the current yen crash. The yen has fallen to levels last seen in the mid-1980s, touching around 162.8 to the dollar even after Tokyo spent a record ¥11.7 trillion in April and May to defend it.

GST reforms have widened compliance and lifted revenue, but fuel, electricity and classification disputes keep the agenda incomplete. GST reforms: The goods and services tax completes nine years on July 1 and enters its tenth. That is long enough to separate launch-day claims from institutional achievement. GST has done three things well. It replaced a fragmented indirect tax regime, improved the movement of goods across states, and pushed compliance onto a common digital platform.

Social registries can target income support, but they weaken schemes meant to recognise women’s unpaid care work. Should social registries be used to decide who receives cash transfers for women? The answer depends on the purpose of the transfer. If the scheme is income support, a registry can help identify eligible households. If the transfer is meant to recognise unpaid domestic and care work, or strengthen women’s control over money, household poverty filters weaken the case for the scheme.

IMD’s weak monsoon forecast has turned rural demand into an FY27 earnings risk for autos, tractors and FMCG firms. Weak monsoon may hurt India Inc earnings: El Niño has moved from a forecast risk to a live weather variable. The IRI’s June 2026 update said Pacific conditions had transitioned into El Niño, with the Niño 3.4 index rising to +1.7°C in the week centred on June 17. The old caveat still holds. El Niño does not guarantee drought in India.

China’s new white paper turns old positions into a bid to shape global governance, technology rules, and international diplomacy. China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper on global governance on 17 June 2026, setting out Beijing’s positions on the United Nations, development, security, technology, trade, and the Global South. The document does not mark a sudden turn. Its importance lies in consolidation.

PSU disinvestment can ease FY27 fiscal arithmetic; it cannot fix subsidy pressure or weak tax buoyancy. The Centre’s FY27 disinvestment number has the look of an old budget habit returning under fiscal pressure. The government has set a ₹80,000 crore target from disinvestment and asset monetisation, against ₹33,837 crore in the revised estimate for FY26 and ₹17,202 crore collected in FY25. The arithmetic is attractive. Share sales raise money without an immediate tax increase or extra borrowing.

India has policy papers on palliative care, but patients still face pain, paperwork and hospital deaths. Palliative care reduces pain, distress and family burden across the course of serious illness. In India, it is still too often pushed to the last days of life. That delay leaves patients with hospital procedures after curative treatment has stopped helping, while families absorb bills, care work and avoidable suffering. India’s international standing is poor.

Seniority still decides too many R&D leadership roles in Indian labs, weakening teams and collaboration. India’s R&D leadership: Modern research is a team enterprise. The lone scientist still matters, but less than the institution that lets specialists argue, share evidence and work across disciplines. A 2024 meta-analysis by Bonini and colleagues found a significant positive relationship between leadership and adaptive performance.

e-Shram data: At 5 am, 29-year-old Rajni begins with housework before leaving her one-room home to work in three or four homes. She cleans utensils, mops floors and cooks breakfast. By afternoon, she is back home to cook lunch and help her children with schoolwork. Some evenings, she takes extra work. For years, Rajni, who lives in Rohtak, Haryana, described her occupation as gharo me kaam (house help). The families she worked for called her a maid, not a worker.