Sakshi Abrol
Germany, India
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PhD@ UniBonn| St. Stephen's| Public Policy| Islander
Articles by Sakshi Abrol
Algorithmic transparency key to digital democracy
Digital protests empower citizens, but misinformation and absence of algorithmic transparency demand stronger accountability from platforms. Algorithmic transparency: Democracies have always debated who gets to speak. Increasingly, however, the more important question is who gets heard and how? As tents are folded at Jantar Mantar and barricades come down, the protests that began as anger over the leaked NEET paper throws up this fascinating question.
The India-UK CETA is finally in force—now it’s for businesses in both countries to make the most of it
There is a maxim in trade diplomacy that is worth dusting off today: the value of an agreement lies not in its signing, but in its living. The India–UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), signed in July 2025 after 14 rounds of negotiation— and inevitable bumps in the road—went into force this week. This is one of the most consequential bilateral trade deals for both sides. It is estimated to give a £25.5 billion annual boost to bilateral trade by 2040.
Lok Sabha expansion: Fixing the representation deficit
India’s MPs represent millions each, and the proposed Lok Sabha expansion is overdue correction, not excess. Lok Sabha expansion hits a wall: As the noise around last week’s parliamentary exchanges recedes, including a rare legislative setback for the Modi government, the core issue is clearer. Strip away delimitation anxieties, the north–south divide, and the question of whether women’s reservation can be accommodated within current capacity.
Public spending can’t do it alone. India needs private investment now
Summary India's economic growth stands out globally, yet private investment is not keeping pace. With public spending doing the heavy lifting, the big question is how to unlock the private capital and dynamism needed to boost India's economy. This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For a country slated to contribute about 20% to global growth (IMF), one would expect India to be abuzz with private enterprises placing bold bets on its future.
E-commerce boom has helped small vendors
Skipping developmental steps and leapfrogging have been uniquely Indian. We leapfrogged into services from agriculture, skipped the landline stage and moved to smart phones and the same holds true for retail as well. We’ve leapfrogged to online retail while malls remain largely restricted to the metros. But what does this mean for the retail markets in India?
Unorganised sector: The fineprint
Unorganised non-agriculture sector is crucial for Indian economy. This sector, referred as household sector, contributed 44.25 per cent of the total GVA at basic prices and provided employment to 74.3 per cent of total work force in the country in 2022-23. It also provides a crucial link in our domestic supply chain for goods and services to the formal economy. Given its sheer size, it is crucial to see how the informal sector fared in terms of value-creation and employment-generation.
‘Greening’ of Trade Laws or Gaming the Rules of Trade? Original
As S Jaishankar assumes charge as Minister of External Affairs for the second time in the South Block, he has newer challenges to negotiate. India faces a ‘green squeeze’ from Europe. Amidst the Raisina Dialogue in February, EAM Jaishankar made a grave yet insightful statement on the dire state of the global trading system, noting that “world trading rules have been gamed.” Despite its headline-worthy nature, this comment has largely slipped under the radar.
GDP growth: Can fiscal health keep up with rapid economic expansion
India’s GDP growth has consistently surpassed expectations, affirming the country’s trajectory of fast economic expansion. The sustained GDP growth, resilient in the face of global economic fluctuations, is backed by strong macroeconomic fundamentals. Among these, the fiscal health of the economy stands out as a critical element, which has surprised economists across the spectrum, including the sceptics.
India revs up trade engine with FTAs, monitoring, and quality standards
Trade has emerged as a pivotal element in India’s ascent towards becoming a $10 trillion economy. The government’s strategic initiatives to boost exports and seamlessly integrate India into the global economy are manifest in a series of recent policy reforms. These reforms encompass a comprehensive rationalisation of duties and taxes, implementation of concessional import duties, and a rejuvenated commitment to free trade agreements (FTAs).
Social security to gig workers
A big part of India’s unfolding growth story is the digitisation of commerce and service-provision that has resulted in platformisation; an eco-system made possible by gig economy workers. With a projected 23.5 million gig workers in India by 2030, it would not be an overstatement to term them the key economic players going-forward. However, lack of adequate social security for these workers — considered outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement — punctures these prospects.
E-commerce exports democratized to accomplish FTP targets
With a chapter on ‘cross border trade in the digital economy’, the latest Foreign Trade Policy takes a big step in this direction. Riding high on growing exports despite the pandemic-induced slowdown, the latest Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) adumbrates the grand plan for an export-led era of growth in India.
Many gaps in the PLI scheme Original
If there remains a sore spot in India’s growth story, it is manufacturing. The government has been attempting to spruce up the sector for a long time now. Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme is one such initiative under the flagship Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. With the objective of transforming domestic manufacturing by augmenting its capacity and competence, the scheme aims at creating more jobs, attracting greater investments, reducing imports and making India a global manufacturing hub.
5G will create a new urban India
Recently, many of us woke up to messages from our network providers declaring that our cities and SIMS are 5G-enabled. The message was loud and clear — the fifth generation of cellular network technology stands tall, knocking on our doors and is slated to make significant headway in 2023. Projections of technological advancements and commensurate economic growth propelled by 5G are copious and well-founded.
An EU green-cover policy that looks like a trade shield
Next, turn to the commodities listed as causing the greatest deforestation: cocoa, coffee, soya, timber, palm oil, rubber and their derivatives. A quick investigation reveals some trade patterns: One, a chunk of these products falls under extra-EU trade, especially with Asia and Africa. Two, many of these are trade-deficit commodities for Europe, especially palm oil, coffee and protein crops like soya. Three, the production of these commodities in Europe have been rising in the last few years.
An EU green-cover policy that looks like a trade shield
Agricultural protectionism is not new for the EU. Be it through its market-intervention measures like export refunds and intervention buying, or more recently through stiff regulations for exporters, the EU has always protected its farmers. While most countries practise some form of farm protectionism, the EU’s stands out for its veil of ethics, environmental activism being the latest.
Aarey decision maximises public good
Premising an entire narrative on fallacious claims, a powerful imagery of the ‘lungs of Mumbai’ being under attack was created. One of the first decisions taken by the newly instated Maharashtra Chief Minister was to veto Uddhav Thackarey’s decision on the Aarey shed plan.
How ONDC could play the great equalizer of Indian e-commerce Original
Come to think of it, what could be a better proxy for the economic growth of a country than commerce? The ONDC’s target of signing up 900 million digital buyers over the next five years can be seen as a hole-in-one. Simply put, the ONDC is a set of open specifications that will enable sellers on platform X to transact with buyers hosted on any other platform, say Y. The hypothesis is simple but with prodigious possibilities.
Road ahead for ONDC beyond democratising e-commerce
Open Network Digital Commerce provides a level-playing field to small businesses. New Delhi: The search for markets has since the days of yore made countries send merchants to other continents for trade. This quest has, over generations, shifted from ships to the internet, from voyages to search engine optimisation, and from trading posts to e-commerce sites.
India’s policy on cooperation is key to creating livelihoods for all
A two-day national conference on India’s Cooperation Policy inaugurated by the home and cooperation minister took place earlier this week. The programme was attended by several officials of the Centre and states along with other national institutes and cooperatives. Marked by characteristic incisiveness, the pith of the minister’s address was a call to usher-in a ‘movement for cooperation’.
De-colonising the functions of DoPT
Centre's proposition to amend Rule 6 of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules 1954 has erected a new flashpoint with several states. While DoPT's rationale for the proposed changes is to remedy a persistent shortfall in civil servants deputed to the Centre or in various Union Ministries by the states, the opposing states see it as a blow to federalism, unique position enjoyed by All India Services and the autonomy of IAS officers.
Recycling Assets To Transform The Face Of India’s Infrastructure
Representative image The announcement to synergise projects under a single masterplan to lower logistics cost, and promote last-mile connectivity under the PM Gati Shakti Plan has garnered support from all quarters. On October 25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked the civil aviation ministry to ‘substantially’ enhance its capital expenditure for FY23.
In Brief: The Case For A Separate Union Ministry Of Co-operation
A cooperative-based model of economic development allows individuals to come together, pool resources and meet their common economic, social and cultural needs through jointly-owned and democratically managed enterprises. Functionally, while in private companies-owners, decision-makers and users are three distinct categories; in co-operatives, there is no such distinction. Co-operatives offer a unique economic model where employees are the owners, reaping profits of their own labour.
What comes to your mind when I say VACATION?
Special Mention of repondents who helped provide data for the report To understand what vacation means for people in order to position Andaman & Nicobar as a tourist destination. An online survey was conducted using a small questionnaire with a combination of both open-ended and close-ended questions. In order to ensure a representative sample, 'age' and 'gender' as two demographic categories were also collected.
A 'swash' segued into the 2019 'Modi wave'
The high decibel media campaign in the run-up to and during the 2014 elections added a new word to our dictionaries; "Modi wave" (Chibber &Verma, 2014; Torri, 2015). Akin to the arguments made by numerous scholars, Modi wave was seen as a phenomenon driven by the personality of Mr. Modi being planked on leadership (Shastri & Syal, 2014) and development (Torri, 2015) that called the cards in the Indian electoral landscape for a fair amount of time.
Why is the EC right in restraining Modi biopic during the polling season?
Why is the EC right in restraining Modi biopic during the polling season? Two things play a pivotal role in ensuring that an entity transmogrifies into a 'brand': attention and trust. Attention comes first and if all goes well, is followed by trust or goodwill. Elections in India have increasingly become a fray between brands where each contestant tries to market himself.
When India Gave Citizenship To These Refugees In Arunachal, Then Why Not to Rohingyas?
Faced with questions of nationality and pluralism at the start, citizenship is confronted with the question of migration and territorial integrity today.
The NJAC Debate On Appointment Of Judges Continues
By Sakshi Abrol: Notwithstanding the swathe of arguments and rebuttals that ensued following the Supreme Court verdict abrogating the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act that had apparently seen a near-unanimous concurrence from the legislature, a rightful pillar of our democratic edifice; the proponents on either side of the spectrum would agree on at least two premises: That the Collegium system of judicial appointments is riddled with a number of inefficiencies like...
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