There was a time when France mattered a hell of a lot to India. It was the dissident member of the Western world that India could count on to resist the imposition of sanctions (after nuclear tests) and cast the odd veto (when Kashmir would come up). Read more

The eurocrisis is going strong, in a bad sense, and much of the debate about what should be done is defined by whether you think austerity is good or bad. Read more

I recently gave the Jean Monnet lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Europe and Asia. That’s a topic only slightly smaller than the Eurasian land mass so I largely focused on the European Union and its policies toward China, India and Asian regionalism. Read more

What ails the world economy? Please take a look at the Economist’s debt clock to understand what’s the problem. The world governments’ debt is $ 40 trillion and, as the clock ticks away before your eyes, is increasing rapidly. Read more

Japan is on the nuclear brink, the jasmine revolution is withering and the Indian parliament is in an uproar over a Wikileak document about how money was used to buy votes in favour of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Having immersed myself all day in these issues, I will write about something completely different. Read more

During the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in 2004, the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke of the possibility of South Asian economies integrating enough to create a common currency. Read more

Why Holbrooke is a model for diplomats of an aspiring power.
What, I am occasionally asked, is so great about Richard Holbrooke? Read more

I am one who believes that we are entering the last few chapters of the present Greek economic drama. But the larger issue of the eurozone’s prospects, forget about Greece’s, is another thing altogether. That could take several years to sort out. Read more

The fight over Cadbury, by coincidence, brings together contrasting chocolate cultures from around the world.

A chunk of my childhood was spent in Birmingham. Read more