China in the trade war; Pumped storage; Transparency at RBI; Bhavin Patel; episodes
The Chinese economy in the trade war
In an ideal scenario, the US will rapidly back down in the trade war. Even if this comes about, the difficulties of April come in the context of difficult conditions in China. They exacerbate the onerous problems of Chinese economics. Yesterday, Renuka Sane and I wrote We need to talk about China in the Business Standard. We also think about the optimal pathways for Indian policy making in this environment.
Pumped storage
In the new world of renewables, one of the most important questions is the nature of the energy storage industry [EiE Ep40 The brave new future of electricity]. Upasa Borah, Chitrakshi Jain and Renuka Sane have a new paper Pumped storage plants in India: Assessing policies and progress. they find important difficulties in going from an `announced’ plant to reaching completion. They have an unveiling article on The Leap Blog.
Improving legal transparency at the RBI
Like some other regulators in India, there is a deviation from Separation of Powers at the RBI whereby it is able to exercise judicial functions. On 25 April, Amol Kulkarni and Renuka Sane have an article on The Leap Blog, titled Improving legal transparency at the RBI, which examines the limitations of transparency in orders issued by RBI and how this can be improved.
Bhavin Patel
Bhavin Patel of Trustbridge Rule of Law Foundation got an author page at The Leap Blog.
Episodes
Everything is Everything with Amit Varma, has episodes 95 (18 April) and 96 (25 April) on fundamentals of globalisation and on the difficulties of the international trade system.