Category: international trade
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India–Canada Trade Reset and the Illusion of Easy Globalisation
The renewed attempt by India and Canada to conclude a trade agreement before the end of the year reflects far more than a normal Free Trade Agreement negotiation. It reflects the changing psychology of the global economy itself. Countries are no longer entering trade partnerships merely for tariff reduction. They…
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Currency Wars and the New Geopolitical Economy
For decades, currencies were treated largely as economic instruments linked to trade balances, inflation control, and monetary stability. Today, currencies are slowly transforming into geopolitical weapons. Exchange rates are no longer merely numbers decided by markets or central banks. They are becoming instruments of strategic influence, economic pressure, export competitiveness,…
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India–UAE Economic Partnership: Opportunity or Strategic Dependency? The India–United Arab Emirates economic relationship is entering a new phase where trade is no longer only about oil, gold, or remittances. It is now moving toward strategic investments, logistics corridors, ports, digital infrastructure, food systems, energy transition, and sovereign wealth participation. At…
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Platforms, Power and the Invisible Control of Everyday Life
The history of economic power has always moved through different centres of control. In earlier centuries, landowners controlled agriculture, industrialists controlled factories, and banks controlled finance. Today, a new form of power is emerging through consumer technology platforms that increasingly shape how people buy, travel, communicate, learn, entertain themselves, and…
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Cheap Labour or Ecosystem: What Is Really Driving the Shift of IT Majors from China to India
For nearly three decades, the global business community looked at India mainly as a destination for low-cost talent. The image was simple. Cheap engineers, English-speaking graduates, back-office support, call centres, coding support, and outsourced software maintenance. China, meanwhile, became the world’s factory with unmatched infrastructure, manufacturing ecosystems, and execution speed.…
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The Long Arc of Commerce: From Bazaar Efficiency to Platform Excess
Commerce has historically been a game of margins disciplined by proximity. From traditional Indian mandis to medieval trade routes, profitability was anchored in localized demand, low customer acquisition costs, and relatively predictable logistics. The physical constraints of geography ensured that supply chains were short, trust-based, and cost-efficient. Even early retail…
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From Tariff Arbitrage to Conditional Access: Bangladesh’s Apparel Advantage and Its Structural Limits
Historical Context: How Bangladesh Built a Tariff-Led Export Model The rise of Bangladesh as a global apparel powerhouse is not accidental; it is deeply rooted in a historical combination of preferential trade access, low-cost labor, and policy clarity. Since the 1990s, Bangladesh leveraged its Least Developed Country (LDC) status to…
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The Illusion of Efficiency: When Cost Minimization Becomes a Strategic Trap
There was a time, particularly during the early industrial era and later under the influence of Taylorism and mass production systems, when cost minimization was seen as the ultimate expression of managerial efficiency. Firms that could produce cheaper were believed to dominate markets, and economies that could compress costs were…
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Reshoring, Rewiring, and the Shrinking Export Window
The global economy is quietly undergoing one of its most consequential transformations since the era of hyper-globalization began in the late 20th century. The very model that enabled emerging economies—particularly countries like China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India—to integrate into global value chains is now being re-evaluated by developed economies. The…
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Shifting Threads of Global Apparel Trade: From Cost Arbitrage to Strategic Integration
From Quota-Driven Trade to Networked Globalization: A Historical Rewiring The global apparel trade has quietly undergone one of the most profound structural transformations since the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement in 2005. What began as a cost-arbitrage game—where low wages dictated export dominance—has now evolved into a deeply networked ecosystem…
