Category: international trade
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India’s External Sector: Playing the Long Game in a Fragmenting World
India’s external sector in 2025–26 stands at a moment where history, geopolitics, and technology intersect. The world economy is moving away from hyper-globalisation toward fragmented blocs, supply-chain realignments, industrial subsidies and weaponised trade policy. Chapter 4 of the Indian Economic Survey 2025-26, titled External Sector: Playing the Long Game, captures…
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The Final EU–India FTA: A Historic Breakthrough and Its Deep Impact on India’s MSMEs
When India and the European Union formally announced the conclusion of their Free Trade Agreement at the 16th India-EU Summit in New Delhi, the moment marked the end of a negotiation marathon that began almost two decades ago. Now widely described as the “mother of all deals,” the pact connects…
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The EU–India FTA: Why the “Mother of All Deals” Could Redraw Global Trade Geography
When Ursula von der Leyen called the upcoming EU–India Free Trade Agreement the “mother of all deals” at Davos, it was not diplomatic exaggeration. It was a recognition that this potential agreement—linking nearly two billion people and close to one-fourth of global GDP—could structurally shift the direction of global trade,…
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Mindset Shift: Resilience Before Growth
The global business landscape is undergoing a quiet but profound reset. Across sectors—from small manufacturers and trader networks to tech-enabled micro-enterprises and service providers—the dominant sentiment is no longer “How fast can we grow?” but “How long can we survive shocks?” This shift is not temporary; it is structural. Firms…
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Europe’s Economic Bazooka: A New Kind of Power in Global Negotiations
In the long evolution of global economic tools, few instruments represent a sharper shift than the European Union’s emerging “economic bazooka.” Unlike traditional tariff-based measures, this mechanism is designed for a digital, service-driven global economy—one where platforms, data, and cloud infrastructure matter more than shipping containers or commodity flows. The…
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Beyond Tariffs: Why India and Canada Are Natural Partners in the Next Global Trade Cycle
A Canada–India Free Trade Agreement could become one of the most strategically important economic steps for both countries in the coming decade, provided it is crafted with precision, long-term vision, and sector-specific priorities. Unlike other FTAs where competitive interests dominate, Canada and India are complementary economies, with Canada endowed with…
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Buyer Behaviour Turns Tougher: When Power Moves Down the Supply Chain
For much of industrial history, demand was the dominant uncertainty and producers structured their systems to manage volatility at the consumer end. From mass production in the post-war decades to the lean manufacturing revolution of the 1980s and 1990s, efficiency gains largely benefited large buyers—retailers, OEMs, and global brands—who could…
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