Analysis

Published on May 31, 2022 01:01 PM IST

Here are three charts that explain India's trading partners in the years 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22:

In 2019-20 India US trade topped at $88.9 billion while China came number two at $81.9 billion. (Reuters)

ByRajeev Jayaswal

Numbers Matter | The growing booster challenge for India

Six weeks since the vaccine drive started, it is becoming apparent that the road ahead for booster coverage is going to be different in terms of pushing for coverage. Here's what we know:

For the first time since India’s inoculation drive started, the challenge ahead is not one of supply, but that of demand. (PTI)

Published on May 17, 2022 02:49 PM IST

Digital transformation of the social impact sector for a sustainable tomorrow

When done right, digital transformation can help social sector organisations drive down costs, higher efficiency, service deliver, increase transparency and accountability.

India’s mid-day meal programme is an excellent example of how industrial engineering and enterprise tech can work in tandem in the endeavour to not only eradicate malnutrition in children but also ensure their education.(Representational image.)

Published on May 16, 2022 05:04 PM IST

ByRamadass Selvaraj

4 cities power India's start-up rush, but emerging hubs may be key to the future

A record 44 start-ups turned into unicorns in India in 2021, when India overtook the United Kingdom as home to the third highest number of unicorns after the United States and China.

By January 14 of this year we had 83 unicorns. Now we have 100.(HT File Photo)

Published on May 07, 2022 01:49 PM IST

BySaloni Sachdeva

Numbers Matter | The expansion of India's booster programme

Despite the sheer size of the expansion plan, it does not appear to be an unsurmountable task for the government, especially going by past data. Let's see why.

Updated on Apr 13, 2022 03:38 PM IST

Explainer: Interpreting S Jaishankar’s speech and Indian position on Ukraine

In both what the foreign minister said, and what he did not say, lies the story of India’s strengths, constraints, calculations and aspirations and the larger strategy that is an outcome of these variables.

India’s foreign minister told Parliament on Wednesday that India’s position was guided by its national beliefs and values, national interests and national strategy. (ANI)

Published on Apr 07, 2022 12:07 PM IST

Punjab election: How candidates and parties used social media

In what was considered largely a digital affair due to restrictions on campaigning, candidates and parties took to Twitter and Facebook. Here is how they used these platforms to connect with voters:

As we begin to learn more about the use of social media by political parties and candidates, we cannot afford to rush to conclusions on how social media affects voters. (Mint)

Published on Mar 22, 2022 02:30 PM IST

ByNeelesh Agrawal, Shivam Gangwani

Numbers Matter | The figures behind the booster expansion debate

Protection against severe Covid starts fading fast after 4-6 months. This is why, the sooner the issue of wider booster coverage is dealt with (and boosters are made available), the better for India, and the world.

Published on Mar 22, 2022 01:17 PM IST

How sanctions on Russia will strain India’s defence

The sanctions could pose a unique set of challenges for the India-Russia defence relationship and put India’s military preparedness to the test

Russia, India’s top supplier of arms, accounted for 46% of the country’s imports during the last five years even though India made fewer purchases from that country over the last decade. (AFP)

Published on Mar 17, 2022 02:00 PM IST

ByRahul Singh

The poor record of assemblies in nominating and electing women

While women's representation across the five states has increased inchmeal — from an average of 4.6% in 2002 to 10% in 2022 — in real terms, the difference between the two is only 36 legislators.

All three women MLAs elected in 2022 are married to politicians. Delilah Michael Lobo is the wife of Michael Lobo (both in photo), former MLA from Calangute. (ANI)

Published on Mar 16, 2022 02:52 PM IST

ByGilles Verniers, Ishika Sharan, Maleeha Fatima

Numbers Matter | Why the current outbreak in Hong Kong is unlike any other

With the average daily deaths much higher than ever seen since the beginning of the pandemic, there are lessons for countries on their approach to fighting the virus

When seen against Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million, Tuesday’s statistics mean 30.4 deaths per million, while Monday’s 249 deaths come out to a whopping 33 deaths for every million residents. (Bloomberg)

Published on Mar 16, 2022 12:52 PM IST

Explainer: A history of police reforms in India

There have been hits and misses over the years — with a shortage crisis and a lackadaisical approach to implementing various recommendations on training and mindsets having plagued the force.

Apart from poor work-life balance, cops also have to work with limited resources at their disposal. (HT File Photo)

Published on Mar 15, 2022 09:01 PM IST

ByNeeraj Chauhan

What does the UP assembly verdict mean for Muslim political representation?

The polls saw a polarised verdict, with 83% of Muslim voters picking the SP. Here are the trends in party nomination and representation of Muslims to understand voter behaviour

Contrary to speculations, the AIMIM did not have much impact in purely electoral terms. (HT Photo)

Published on Mar 15, 2022 04:59 PM IST

ByGilles Verniers, SV Sai Vikas

A near-peer competitor: How US intelligence views China

A report prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, titled the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, was made public on March 8. HT's deep dive into the fine print of the report:

In the nuclear realm, the US has concluded that Beijing is set to continue the “largest ever nuclear force expansion and arsenal diversification in its history”. (REUTERS)

Published on Mar 15, 2022 01:57 PM IST

Is Punjab another Delhi now for the AAP and Congress

For the nationally enfeebled Congress, the loss of face in Punjab over Aam Aadmi Party huge win is way bigger and self-inflicted after the head-start it had with Charanjeet Singh Channi’s elevation as the state’s first Dalit chief minister.

Punjab election result: Aam Aadmi Party’s presumptive chief minister in Punjab Bhagwant Mann (REUTERS File Photo)

Updated on Mar 10, 2022 05:04 PM IST

By Vinod Sharma

This election season, India's dismal score on women's representation

While women have been at the core of parties' campaigns, every party — barring the Congress — has done little to actually include them. Here are four charts that explain this:

The Congress’ shock announcement at the beginning of the campaign clearly did not inspire other parties to make more space for women contestants. (Burhaan Kinu/HT)

uttar pradesh assembly election

Updated on Mar 09, 2022 04:28 PM IST

ByGilles Verniers

The micro narratives that shaped the poll agenda in Uttar Pradesh

UP election: There is a significant dip in religious polarisation in Purvanchal as we move from western Uttar Pradesh. And eastern UP doesn’t have either an urban agglomeration or agricultural surplus like the NCR in western UP to boost the region’s economy.

Updated on Mar 07, 2022 05:09 PM IST

ByBhanu Joshi, Ashish Ranjan and Neelanjan Sircar

Russian brinkmanship in Ukraine and echoes of the Cold War

As per US intelligence, February 16 was the date given by President Joe Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A local resident reacts as a house is on fire after heavy shelling on the only escape route used by locals to leave the town of Irpin, while Russian troops advance toward the capital, 24km from Kyiv, Ukraine.(REUTERS)

Published on Mar 06, 2022 04:11 PM IST

ByPrerna Chahar

Numbers Matter | Two years, three waves, four lessons

Here we take a look at the lessons that two years of the pandemic have taught us, and how they may serve us in possible future waves.

But the second anniversary comes at one of the better times of the pandemic. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Published on Mar 03, 2022 02:46 PM IST

Is China the sole beneficiary of Sino-US economic ties?

Did the US make a strategic blunder by facilitating China’s economic rise? Part of the Indian strategic establishment seems to think so. But the reality is more complicated.

It is perfectly plausible that American capital which relocated to China did not lose its profits from selling to domestic consumers in the US economy. (AP File Photo)

Published on Mar 01, 2022 05:18 PM IST

ByRoshan Kishore

UNSC fiddles while Kyiv burns

The trappings of a sacrosanct ritual were all there. Before entering the Security Council chambers, European diplomats and the Ukrainian Representative stood with the Ukrainian flag in front of Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, a tapestry about the Spanish Civil War.

Russian missiles attack an apartment building in Ukraine.

Updated on Feb 26, 2022 06:35 PM IST

BySyed Akbaruddin

UNSC: Forum of little diplomacy and more grandstanding

Exclusive: The Security Council was not conceived to be platform for great power conflict solutions. With great power competition now in play, the Council’s inadequacies are on display. The Ukraine resolution will be moved in the UNSC this evening

Ukrainian soldiers take positions against invading Russians on a bridge in Kyviv

Updated on Feb 25, 2022 08:23 PM IST

BySyed Akbaruddin

In Uttar Pradesh, does caste politics trump human development?

The evidence is clear. Caste politics — of which the SP and BSP are accused — did not undermine human development indicators, as seen in the data from NHFS 3 and 4

National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data on human development since 2004 states that UP fared as well, if not better, than its neighbours(Representative Image/AP)

Updated on Feb 25, 2022 04:14 PM IST

ByIndrajit Roy

Premium Conversations | Decoding India-US relations with Atul Keshap

Keshap, president of USIBC, spoke about the evolution of the India-US relationship, the economic opportunities and challenges, the geo-economics of the Indo-Pacific, and his vision of bilateral ties

Atul Keshap played a key role in the US’s enhanced engagement with Indo-Pacific. (Twitter)

Updated on Feb 21, 2022 12:44 PM IST

The outsourcing shoe is on the other foot in India now

Technological innovation has, once again, laid the ground for outsourcing. However, this will be within India, in its service sector. Those at the helm of these disruptive technologies will be the clear winners, but the losers will outnumber them

Whether it is the government relying on TV channels instead of recruiting thousands of teachers or Ed-tech companies replacing hundreds of thousands of private tutors, the disruptions can be felt everywhere. (Mint/Representative Image)

Updated on Feb 18, 2022 12:01 PM IST

ByRoshan Kishore

A health check-up for the Union Budget

Much of economics has grappled with these trade-offs between well-being and prosperity, as do governments. And in this context, the Union Budget 2022 stands out

Adjusted for inflation, the cut to the health sector, even as a pandemic is on, is the unkindest of all. (PTI File)

Published on Feb 16, 2022 11:53 AM IST

ByZia Haq

In UP, what the BJP’s campaign seems to be lacking this time

Here are four charts that look at the BJP’s 2017 performance and extrapolate the situation to make sense of the 2022 contest.

What is even more interesting is the fact that the share of respondents who reported satisfaction from the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre and the Akhilesh Yadav led SP government was not very different. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

Published on Feb 16, 2022 11:12 AM IST

ByRoshan Kishore

Numbers Matter | Decoding the world’s Omicron wave peaks

As cases drop and the global Omicron wave recedes, a look into the trajectory of infections and deaths of all three waves

This favourable deviation in deaths can be explained by three factors — vaccination, the lethality of Omicron, and expertise. (Reuters)

Published on Feb 16, 2022 11:03 AM IST

The two divergent economic faces of Uttarakhand

The first is a formal-non formal sector divide. The second is an urban-rural divide

One sphere where employment pains get reflected is the demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. (Reuters)

Updated on Feb 14, 2022 02:33 PM IST

ByVaidik Dalal

Premium Conversations | The India-US economic relationship with Mukesh Aghi

President and CEO, USISPF, Mukesh Aghi on the current bilateral partnership, the challenges faced by US businesses, and the reformist steps and policy gaps in India.

I would like to see trade reach $500 billion. That is important because it creates jobs on both sides. (HT Photo)

Published on Feb 10, 2022 11:34 AM IST