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Topic · 7 essays

Political Economy

Essays on the money: fiscal federalism, devolution, tariffs, enterprise and the economics that decide what the state can afford to do.

Politics is the promise. Governance is the delivery.

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7 essays in this category

Listed newest first. Each takes one architecture at a time and closes on a prescriptive view written for a practitioner, not a commentator.

NEWEST FIRST

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The span of the record

This category runs from 5 FEBRUARY 2026 → 2 JULY 2026. Where an argument rests on a dated series, the essay carries a data-vintage note under its dek.

5 FEBRUARY 2026 → 2 JULY 2026

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Part of a series

1 of these essays belongs to a numbered series, where one architecture needed more than one essay to describe it.

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The essays

Every essay in Political Economy, newest first.

All essaysInstitutions & ReformPolitical EconomyWork & LivelihoodsState CapacityFederalism & the NortheastGovernance & DeliveryResources & ClimateJustice & LibertyHealth & Human DevelopmentNational SecurityEducation & SkillsThe Fiscal SettlementThe Degree Settlement
01Political Economy · SeriesThe Forty-One Percent Illusion — State Finances After the Sixteenth CommissionThe 16th Finance Commission held devolution at 41% and discontinued revenue deficit grants. Why a headline of continuity conceals the tightest state fiscal settlement in a decade.2 JULY 202602Political EconomyThe Campus Economy — India's Quietest Special Economic ZonesRoughly 37% of notified SEZ land is in use. Meanwhile four university gates have built the concentrated capital, talent and IP pools that SEZ policy spent twenty years trying to engineer.18 JUNE 202603Political EconomyIndia's Demographic Clock — The Deadline Beneath Every Other DebateA median age of 28 in an ageing world is India's greatest advantage and its deadline. The working-age share peaks in the 2040s; everything else is a question of what gets delivered before then.11 JUNE 202604Political EconomyThe Tariff That Was Never Lawful — What India Conceded, and What It Should LearnIndia negotiated relief from a 50% US tariff in February 2026. Three weeks later the US Supreme Court held the instrument behind it was never authorised. A lesson in negotiating against legal durability.14 MAY 202605Political EconomyThe Missing Middle of Indian EnterpriseOnly 14% of India's MSMEs have formal credit, against a gap estimated between ₹25 and ₹30 lakh crore. Indian firms stay small because staying small is the rational response to the system around them.9 APRIL 202606Political EconomyThe Title Is the Asset — Why Indian Land Cannot Be Used as CapitalIndia's land records are presumptive, not conclusive. A landholding you cannot prove you own is a landholding you cannot borrow against, sell cleanly, or defend in court.26 FEBRUARY 202607Political EconomyThe Capex Budget and the Capacity to Spend It₹12.22 lakh crore of capital expenditure against a 4.3% deficit. The Union Budget 2026-27 makes a coherent bet — and hands the binding constraint to the states.5 FEBRUARY 2026