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The sharp note of disappointment sounded by Scott Bessent over the India–European Union free trade agreement says less about a single deal and more about a changing geometry of power in the global economy. At one level, Washington’s frustration reflects a familiar concern that sanctions and trade penalties are losing their bite in a world where alternatives are multiplying. At another, deeper level, the India–EU pact cuts across the logic of weaponised tariffs that has come to define the second presidency of Donald Trump. If countries can secure access to vast non-American markets on favourable terms, the threat of exclusion from the United States ceases to be the decisive lever it once was.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Economic Survey tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Thursday has praised Kerala’s Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP) and the Kochi Water Metro as models worth replicating.

Though Economic Surveys do not dictate exact budget numbers, it strongly influences the Union Budgets of India. If it is the case, the Economic Survey 2025-26 indicates the four keys priorities that we may see in the Union Budget 2026-27: A growth-supported fiscal stance anchored in stability; continued emphasis on structural reforms and competitiveness; balanced approach towards fiscal consolidation and social spending; and preparedness for external risks. All these four priorities are most likely to be seen in policy choices, including expenditure priorities, tax measures, and reform incentives.

At a time when the labour market in India is undergoing a significant structural change and the employment and skilling ecosystem is being reshaped by demographic shifts, technological changes, and evolving industry needs, including the expansion of gig and platform work, the Economic Survey 2025-26 bats for the “effective implementation of Labour Codes” and recommended development of a digital framework and industry-driven skilling to address the skills-job mismatch.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The budget presented by Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal undoubtedly, is a budget with a long-term vision of future Kerala - a judicious blend of welfarism and development agenda.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s sad demise in a plane crash on Wednesday, January 28 has created such a vacuum in Maharashtra politics that no single politician could fill in the near future. A prospect of political reconfiguration that was already indicated by the election of municipal corporations held on January 15 and its outcome, will soon be taking place, since nature abhors a vacuum, as the ancient principle suggests. Maharashtra will be undergoing a politics of new alliances, identities, and regional bargaining phase.

The Economic Survey 2025–26 presents itself as a document of sobriety in an age of global disorder. It raises India’s potential growth estimate to 7 per cent, underscores macroeconomic stability, and urges delayed gratification in the face of geopolitical and financial uncertainty. Yet when read closely—and when its own data are taken seriously—the Survey reveals tensions that its philosophical framing does not fully resolve.

From Plato’s Republic till today, republicanism has traversed a long journey. It has been enriched at junctures of the French Revolution and its clarion call for liberty, equality and fraternity. The journey has witnessed major ruptures with the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the advent of fascism as orchestrated by Mussolini and Hitler. The idea of republicanism achieved a new life with the defeat of fascism and the unfurling of the red flag atop the Reichstag. It is at the ruins of that anti-fascist war and, with the realignment of the global forces, that the world strived to reorganise itself by transforming the League of Nations to a more all-encompassing United Nations.

KOLKATA: With Assembly elections in West Bengal round the corner, Singur has taken centre stage. Once billed as the site of turnaround of industrialisation in the state, after the Tatas pulled out of its ambitious small car project, it is now the first mile post marking the decline and departure of 34 year Left Front regime.

2026-27 budget is unquiet positioned. Amidst global turmoil, Indian economy is sailing forth merrily. After all, it is not every year that a finance minister gets to prepare a budget when the economy is in a Goldilocks interlude.