Gold Chain

 INDIA AUSTRALIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP  India - Australia bilateral relations have been evolving over the years and bilateral ties reached to a Comprehensive Strategic partnership (CSP) in June 2020 marking Strategic deepening of relations driven by factors including shared democratic values and a vision for a free open and prosperous Indo Pacific. The partnership has further strengthened  rapidly by recent developments including Defence Minister's Dialogue in October 2025 and recent  Declaration on Defence and Security   Cooperation signed in July 2025.The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed has increasingly expanded our trade and investment horizons. The third India-Australia summit held on 9th July 2026 in Melbourne not only reaffirmed the commitment to strengthening cooperation across India and Australia on defence trade, critical minerals ,clean energy ,education,Emerging technologies and most importantly Indo- Pacific security.  Both ...

 MEANING OF GEOECONOMICS  Geoeconomics refers to the interrelationship  between economics, geography and politics.It uses economic tools like trade policies, investments, and financial  sanctions to achieve geopolitical goals.Geoeconomics uses the analytical framework to assess the strategic and spatial properties of of national economies .Analysts expected that the end of cold war would lead to more peaceful age of international relations when most nations professed to follow agreed rules in a positive-sum game designed to benefit all.But Ironically as things stand today such a vision is under grave threat as Governments increasingly turn to usage of tarrifs, sanctions, and other trade control measures. Moreover across the globe the line between economic and national security is becoming opaque. According to Jean- Marc Natal  raw materials that rule and control of commodities shaped the world economy in the past and could decide it's future. In one  sense ...

INDIA'S EXTERNAL SECTOR  The geo political conflicts and trade disruptions have been impacting much awaited resilience of global economy. Extended supply side pressures have led to persistent increase in commodity prices and consequentlly rising inflationary pressures till early June 2026. In this context World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospects  projected the global growth to slow down to 3.4 %.Expectations varied between major Advanced Economies (AE) and Emerging Markets and developing Economies (EMDES).Such variations are  attributed to volatile capital flows,energy prices and shifting global trade patterns and dynamics. India's external sector is also facing unprecedented problems. In India energy vulnerability is primarily due to heavy import dependence of nearly 85% of India's crude oil requirements making it highly vulnerable to global price fluctuations. Usually rising oil prices  are also followed by geopolitical tensions (as in West Asia) which consequ...

Kerala  Chief  Minister VD Satheesan's maiden budget envisages an ambitious 5 year growth plan, attracting private investment in key sectors with major policy shift from remittances to the investment economy. The state Government is looking beyond traditional diaspora contributions to chart its next phase of economic growth. Eventhough remittances has been supporting the state's  economy for deades  future requires a shift  beyond dependence on remittances towards an investment driven economic model. Budget 2026-27 envisages total Revenue expenditure of ₹205001•67 crores ,Revenue reciepts of ₹169646•37 crores .Other disturbing features are a staggering 77 % of total Revenue expenditure on salaries, pensions and interest payments. The capital expenditure has plummeted to mere 1.3% of Gross State Domestic Product of Kerala one of the lowest in the country. The state's Own Tax Revenue (SOTR) also fell from 6.94% in 2015-16 to 6.41% in 2025-26 against national avera...

 The White Paper on Fiscal strength of Kerala placed in the state legislature on June 4th 2026 prepared by  an expert  team chaired by former cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar  revealed that on the fiscal front Kerala currently faces a large burden of outstanding liabilities of ₹ 5.07 lakh crores estimated to be 35.5%" of Gross State Domestic Product,In contrast to the national all  state average is 29.2% .Most importantly Kerala's  committed expenditure on salaries, wages,and pensions estimated to take a lions share of 77.6% of revenue reciepts in 2025-26 as  against all state's average of 46.4% for the country. Accordingly an estimated 1.3% of GSDP is  only available for essential capital  expenditure. The Paper recommended to Revamp the KIIFBI Act 2016 and suggested to be brought under the Budgetary control of the administrative departments concerned and the Finance Department. The transition of KIIFBI should be restructured The Kerala in...

MONETARY POLICY JUNE 2026:  Monetary policy Committee (MPC) meeting held from June 3rd to June 5 2026  unanimously decided to retain policy rates and  the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 % and continue a neutral policy  stance. Accordingly Cash Reserve ratio ( CRR) remained at 3%,SDF  rate  at 5.00%,MSF rate at 5.50 % ,and bank rate at 5.50%.This decision was taken due to factors like heightened globail uncertainties, particularly the ongoing and uncertain conflict in West  Asia which in turn elevated energy prices and inflicted supply chain disruptions.  In the existing scenario RBI lowered its GDP growth projections for  Fy 2026-27 to 6.6 % from earlier 6.9 % level.Quarterly projections of GDP indicated that during Q1 fall in growth projections would be from 6.8 % to 6.6%, in Q2 from 6.7% to 6.3%, in Q3 from 7% to 6.5% and in Q4 from 7.2 % to 6.8 %.It may be noted here that the Provisional GDP estimates released by the Ministry of Statistics an...