Morning thought: Every time I watch a World Cup football match, I ask myself: will I live to see the day when India is part of the spectacle, not just a spectator? Seventy-nine years after Independence, we are yet to play in a single World Cup in the ultimate global team sport (we almost did once in 1950). A billion dreams. One unanswered sporting question. (Not to forget a football association in this country that is trapped in politics and a fandom that is obsessed with just one sport). 🙏

Be brutally honest: Are you deeply outraged that, while hundreds of millions of Americans and I are struggling financially, @elonmusk has just now become the world's first trillionaire, with more wealth than he could spend in 1,000 lifetimes? Yes or no?

INTERESTING: So @narendramodi ji completes 12 years in power today, a rare feat in today's uncertain times. Tomorrow he completes 4399 days in power consecutively which is the longest unbroken tenure of an elected Indian PM if you discount Nehru's 1947-52 period as an 'interim' government. Since this govt is obsessed with Jawaharlal's legacy, this is one record they will be especially proud of. NOTE: it is wrong to say that Nehru lacked an electoral mandate before 1952 because his government derived its legitimacy from the Constituent Assembly that was constituted in 1946. So maybe to settle the debate conclusively Mr Modi will have to stay on as PM till 2031 at least!🙏🏻😉

Cricket Gyaan: (revised tweet) Next time anyone tells you about terrible Indian pitches that turn square before lunch, ask them to see the Lords pitch in the #EngvNZ game. A seaming wicket with uneven bounce from day 1 and where a 3 day finish with no Sunday cricket looms. Am now told that @nassercricket and @Athersmike have strongly criticised the pitch. Good 👍. Indian commentators need to be just as blunt: pitches like these make batting a lottery just as flat wickets make bowling a chore. Challenge is to find the right balance. Else test cricket with an eye on WTC points will see more and more 3 day games.

𝗚𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿? On May 27, the anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru’s passing, I found myself wondering what India’s first Prime Minister would make of the world today. Imagine Nehru appearing unexpectedly at the dinner table. He would surely marvel at India’s transformation: a major economy, a nuclear and space power, a digital innovator, and an increasingly influential voice on the world stage. But after listening patiently to our account of India’s rise, he might ask a simple question: “During the ongoing Iran crisis, where exactly is India?” This question is worthy of thought. The conflict is not some distant regional war. It touches directly upon India’s interests: energy security, shipping through Hormuz, inflation, supply chains, connectivity through Iran, and the welfare of millions of Indians in the Gulf. Yet India has appeared more observer than participant in the diplomatic conversation surrounding the crisis. This is not a call for reckless activism or nostalgia for another era. The world of 2026 is vastly more complex than the world Nehru inhabited. Strategic autonomy requires prudence and restraint. But there is a difference between restraint and reticence. Nehru understood something that remains relevant today: influence derives not only from power, but also from presence. India of the 1950s possessed far less economic and military power than India does today. Yet it sought to shape international conversations on Korea, Suez, Indochina and Congo. It did not always determine outcomes. But it was rarely absent. The Iran crisis also reveals another reality. We often speak of a “multipolar world”, but what we increasingly see is a world of intermediaries. Countries such as Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and others have acquired diplomatic relevance because they possess channels of communication that others lack. Influence flows not merely from military strength, but from connectivity. This is where India should excel. We engage the United States and Europe, maintain ties with Russia, have deep interests in West Asia, participate in BRICS and the Quad, and retain credibility across much of the Global South. Strategic autonomy should not become strategic silence. The challenge before India is not whether it should mediate every conflict. It is whether a country of India’s scale and aspirations can afford to be absent from conversations that directly affect its interests. Nehru would not have asked us to return to the diplomacy of the 1950s. But as he leaves the dinner. he might ask whether a stronger India has become too cautious about using its voice. Today we possess unprecedented weight. The question is whether we’re prepared to exercise an equally confident voice. The future will not be shaped by great powers alone. It will also be shaped by those capable of connecting worlds that no longer trust one another. We have the power to be one of those. Good night, Mr. Nehru. #India #Nehru #Iran #Diplomacy #ForeignPolicy #StrategicAutonomy #GlobalSouth #WestAsia #Geopolitics #InternationalRelations

I am watching the test match from Lords. Beautiful visuals @SkyCricket. Isn't it incredible that the laws of the game are the same but cricket is unrecognisably different from what we have been watching. The bowlers have teeth and the batters are being hunted!!

In our report "The Missing Half: Women and India's growth challenge" we show that raising women's labour force participation rate is not just a social necessity but an economic imperative. The growth acceleration necessary for 'Viksit Bharat' may not be possible without a substantial rise in female labour force participation rates (FLFPR). To understand both the opportunity and the limits of policy, we place India within a longer global arc. India is currently near the bottom of the ‘U’ seen when countries are mapped on FLFPR vs. average incomes. India is climbing out of the bottom but not fast enough. We studied trends in advanced economies, where, over the past century, women have moved from the economic periphery to the core. Given the paucity of primary research on FLFPR in India, we also conducted a proprietary survey of around 11,000 college educated women across 42 Indian cities. In developed countries, demand for women's labour was addressed by shifts in demand (more services, removal of legal barriers and reduction in cultural bias) as well as its supply (household automation, education, out-of-home safety and reproductive control) . These would not have occurred without shifts in cultural norms, which were accelerated by war-time mobilization in WW2. Even high-income economies though continue to see gender gaps in pay later in careers, mostly attributable to the ‘motherhood penalty’. This structural lens helps understand India’s challenges. There has been substantial progress on the supply-side, like inputs that reduce time spent on household work: pucca houses, dense energy access (electrification, cooking gas) and piped water. Higher-education enrolment ratios for women, necessary to reduce the ‘marriage penalty’, are rising and are now mostly at par with men in most states. However, there are demand side constraints like too few accessible non-farm jobs (for men and women), fewer jobs in sectors that are globally women-dominated, and several remaining supply-side constraints like unpaid care, safety concerns, and social norms that suppress participation. For the cohort we surveyed (white-collar, English-speaking: at the top of the social pyramid), the survey reveals a clear transition to “Career AND Family”, and a shift in aspirations to viewing paid work as a career and as central to their identity, not merely a source of income. In this #opendialogue episode, @sameershetty29 and I discuss the key findings. youtu.be/RS4Wh6EkKmA (link to the report: research.axiscapital.co.in/R…)

Respectfully, I love your work and share many of your constructive critiques, but I'm not sure Indonesia is a good model for India when Prabowo is pursuing bone-headed economic nationalist ideas right now economist.com/asia/2026/05/2…

Indian businesses face 1,500 laws, 69,000 compliance protocols & 6,600 filing mandates. Economists call this “regulatory cholesterol”. Dissolving this cholesterol is essential for India to build a modern economy. My @openthemag column openthemagazine.com/columns/…

@surjitbhalla Sir this is wrt your recent article on economy and BJP political success. This is from today's TOI and is about FDI which you had discussed on length with @sardesairajdeep.