The European Union is hoping that the long-awaited free trade agreement with India is completed before New Delhi is consumed by the coming general elections. “A lot hinges on the FTA. These are coming to a moment of decision,” says the EU ambassador to India, Joao Cravinho. Read more

There are many arguments made in favour of subsidies, especailly energy subsidies. In a country like India, the most obvious argument is that they give a leg up to a huge mass of poor people who would otherwise find cooking, transportation and whatnot cripplingly expensive. Read more

1 . Los Cabos, translated as “the capes” in English, is the tip of Baja California, a long dangling peninsula that hugs the western side of Mexico. It is an arid scrubland for the most part, but some excellent planning and careful regulation have made it a major tourist site. 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

Standard and Poor’s changed the outlook on India’s credit rating to negative, but kept the rating at BBB. This is just above junk, but the highest India’s been in a while. Read more

Recently in conversation with the chief executive of Pakistan’s Trade Development Authority and discussing what India and Pakistan could together on the economic front, he proposed the two countries once again seek a common geographical indication of basmati rice. Read more

Indian agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, earlier this month declared the Indian government had no plans to buy farmland abroad or even help private firms do so. Read more

Flying back from a desultory summit meeting in Moscow last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was asked by the media about the state of the economy. He mumbled a few things but noted that investment was riding at 36 per cent of the GDP and so he was confident. Read more

There is a curious divide between the popular Indian view of the relationship between New Delhi and Tehran — and how it is perceived within official circles in New Delhi. Read more

What’s interesting about the present political problem in Pakistan is the role of the army. Old hat, you may say. The army trying to destabilize a civlian government is a hoary story in Pakistan. But what is different is the difficulty the miltary is having in getting their way. Read more