Opinion

For a long time, US-based internet giants entertained the idea of finally accessing the world’s biggest market and tapping into a base of more than 1.3 billion potential consumers. Now, just as the door to China appears firmly shut, the next giant market is opening up. Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai is ready to realise India’s potential with the one ...

The coronavirus that has upended the world’s economic and social life is turning out to be a mediocre election campaigner. The lesson of recent contests in Asia is that pre-existing conditions haven’t gone away and will likely be decisive, even in the bitterly fought US campaign. Singapore’s general election, among the first of the Covid-19 era, saw a big swing ...

When the strongest players pull back from a market, that looks like a bad omen for the weaker peers left behind. But in UK retail, there are silver linings for the stragglers. The iconic John Lewis Partnership Plc said it would close eight shops including two big department stores, with the loss of up to 1,300 jobs. Walgreens Boots Alliance ...

Judging by the performance of emerging markets, you’d hardly know the world was suffering from a deadly pandemic. After a horrible March, according to the Institute for International Finance, non-resident portfolio flows into emerging markets increased tenfold to $32.9 billion in June. MSCI’s EM currency index hit a one-month high last week. Even currencies as weak as the South African ...

China is building tens of thousands of 5G base stations every week. Whether it wins technological dominance or not, domestic supply chains may be revived and allow the country to maintain — and advance — its position as the factory floor of the world, even as Covid-19 forces a rethink in how globalisation is done. By the end of this ...

The world will not be rid of Covid-19 until we have a safe and effective vaccine available to everyone. We will not recover from the far-reaching economic impact of the pandemic without a new social compact between governments and citizens based on transparent, accountable and trustworthy governance. Every day that the crisis continues, the value of more open government becomes ...

Few aerospace companies have been left unscarred by Covid-19, but those that were struggling even before the pandemic are experiencing a unique kind of hell. Boeing Co was already up against it after grounding its 737 Max jets and it’s expected to burn through as much as $16 billion of cash this year. Among suppliers, few were as vulnerable going ...

Adversity presents opportunities, even in a pandemic. In a changed world, prices that used to be non-negotiable are suddenly open for bargaining. Financial hardship or uncertainty gives some Americans new leverage to negotiate the costs of some of their biggest expenditures. For others, an expectation of lower-quality products or diminished services opens doors to price reductions or concessions. Buyer’s markets ...

Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has just released a major industrial policy plan for reviving US manufacturing. The proposal is the first in a four-part series called Build Back Better, which will also address economic recovery, infrastructure, clean energy, racial equity, and modernisation of healthcare, child care and elder care. Biden’s plan should immediately make one thing ...

India quite literally needs to put a roof over its China dream. It took a pandemic and a lockdown to highlight the precarious existence of the country’s blue-collar workers. Left without jobs and shelter, an estimated 30 million — roughly a fifth of the urban labour force — have gone back to their villages, with many completing long, hazardous journeys ...