Urjit Patel, the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has a hard act to follow. His predecessor and former boss at the central bank, Raghuram Rajan, was eminent at home and abroad, and set a high standard for talking truth to power — which could explain why he won’t be serving a second three-year term. Patel, Rajan’s quiet …

  Brazil may have pulled off the Olympics, but its economy is still in doldrums. And the political chaos is adding to the economic misery. The country is grappling with the worst recession in more than a century as the economy shrinks sharply. Brazil’s GDP has fallen by 5.4 % year-on-year. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) slashed …

  Yangon is suddenly a city of phablets. Nowhere in Asia, let alone Europe, have I seen so many supersized smartphones in public spaces, and with such egalitarian appeal: Pavement vendors selling early 20th century British guides to English grammar seem as transfixed by them as Yangon’s smart set playing Pokemon Go. For many in an isolated country, a 4G …