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A New Year’s Reform Wishlist
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Good Morning, and a very happy New Year to all our readers from The Core team. As we step into the new year, India sits on a bunch of half-baked reforms and unfinished business. From clean power storage to agriculture and trade policy, the pieces already exist, but they need political will and a massive policy push. In a rapidly changing world order and geopolitical uncertainties, we have a new year’s wish list for policy reform.
Indian equity indices ended the last session of the year on a high note after consecutive lows. The BSE Sensex was up 545.52 points or 0.64%, closing at 85,220.6. The NSE Nifty50 was up 190.75 points or 0.74%, closing at 26,129.6.
In other news, gig workers are striking back. Meanwhile, Indians are buying gold differently.
Programming Note: There will be no edition of The Core newsletter on Friday, January 2. We will be back in your inboxes on Saturday, January 3.
Clean Power To Agriculture: A New Year’s Reform Wish List For India
Here is a wish list of policy reforms that India desperately needs, and will give coherence to what has already been implemented.
Some have been promised by the government but have not been delivered. Some merely need to leverage existing policy infrastructure and institutions. Some, admittedly, call for political courage, a virtue that dares approach Indian politicians only when it manages to hitch a ride with a crisis. But hey, this is the new year, let us policy beggars ride!
The Storage Question
One is a storage policy for renewable power. For such a policy to make comprehensive sense, it must embrace transmission and new technology, including for carbon capture and storage.
India has repeatedly asked renewable power producers to cut back generation, as the grid is not able to absorb the power generated. Adani has gone in for battery energy storage systems, whose supply chains negate the emissions mitigation renewable energy kicks in, and, worse, makes India’s energy infrastructure dependent on Chinese benevolence — China is the world leader in battery materials, battery technology and mass production of batteries.
Some battery storage is inevitable, to keep the grid stable, even in the presence of an hour-ahead market for power.
Political Courage For Reforming Agriculture
Reforming agriculture calls for political courage more than technical nous. Today India grows water-guzzling sugarcane in the arid Deccan, on the strength of subsidised power and water, subsidised fertilisers and artificial cane prices that make Indian sugar exportable only with an export subsidy.
India grows more wheat and rice than it needs, and allows expensively procured and stored grain to be used as feedstock for fermenting into ethanol. As much as 56% of ethanol is produced from grain. Diversion of maize for ethanol is making chicken feed, and therefore, eggs and poultry, expensive, as well as taking away land from soybean for maize. That results in higher imports of edible oil.
Will the government find the courage to accept that the ethanol blending policy is pure rot, and replace it with a transport policy that prioritises mobility and public transport?
Low Import Duty
Let the import policy promote generalised efficiency, rather than selective protection. For that, India needs a low, uniform rate of import duty.
A political economy has taken hold, in which funds are transferred to citizens to win their electoral support, emaciating state capacity for both governance and essential investment. India collects just about 18% of GDP as tax, runs up a combined, centre plus states, fiscal deficit of 7-8% of GDP, and has non-tax revenues, like user charges and licence fees, amounting to less than 3% of GDP.
From sectarian politics to artificial intelligence and R&D, India’s toughest reform battles are still ahead.
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ONGC Says Oil, Gas Still Core As India Chases Energy Security
As India seeks to reduce its dependence on imports and secure its energy future, ONGC, India’s largest state-owned oil and gas explorer, has maintained its focus on finding new sources.
“So far ONGC and the oil industry are concerned, we should continue to focus on oil and gas and if 20% of the resources we have extra, then we can focus on solar too, because it gives a not very high return, but a healthy return,” said Arun Kumar Singh, chairman and CEO of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), speaking to The Core as part of the Indian Energy Week.
ONGC has been carrying out explorations across the country from Saurashtra in Gujarat to the Andamans.
“Andaman, you know, we have focused on three wells in the last 15-16 months. So, Andaman is one place where we think that there should be something big,” Singh said.
Tech At Play
Technology is also playing a significant role in how companies like ONGC carry out their oil exploration. Singh said the accuracy of artificial intelligence has surprised the company with some “aha” moments.
“When AI-driven well location drilling was 98.5% accurate, it was a great feeling, that you can predict something, and we can come so accurately. So, this is something that should become more and more annoying, you see. And, but last year, two-three AI use cases were aha. We can say aha. But it has to go up, and for that, the best talent has to sit on data and also put a layer of experience into it,” Singh said.
This series is brought to you in partnership with India Energy Week 2026. Get your delegate passes here.
Rs 9.76 lakh crore
That's how much India’s fiscal deficit widened to at the end of November, or 62.3% of the full-year target for FY26, up from 52.5% in the same period last year.
Setting: The Centre has budgeted the fiscal deficit at 4.4% of gross domestic product for FY26, equivalent to Rs 15.69 lakh crore, as it balances higher spending with efforts to contain the deficit.
Context: Data from the Controller General of Accounts showed that total receipts reached Rs 19.49 lakh crore during April–November, accounting for 55.7% of the annual Budget estimate. The higher deficit reflects front-loaded expenditure and softer revenue growth in the early part of the fiscal year, even as the government maintains its full-year consolidation target.
Airfare Turns Uneven
Air India Express’s latest PayDay Sale highlights the growing fragmentation in India’s aviation pricing, where sharp discounts during lean periods increasingly coexist with extreme fare spikes during peak demand. While airlines are using sales to lock in early bookings and manage capacity, the broader fare environment remains volatile rather than uniformly cheaper.
Pivot: Discounted headline fares often apply only in quieter travel windows, with the final cost rising sharply once add-ons such as baggage and seat selection are included. At the other end of the spectrum, festive seasons and disruptions like the IndiGo crisis have exposed how quickly prices can surge when capacity tightens.
Flashpoint: Industry executives remain divided on whether fares are stabilising or structurally rising in a concentrated market. With capacity constraints, operational disruptions and uneven competition, India’s airfare landscape is increasingly defined by timing rather than affordability.
Gig Workers Strike Back
Gig worker unions have called a nationwide strike on New Year’s Eve, raising the risk of disruptions to food delivery and quick-commerce services during one of the year’s peak demand periods. Groups including the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers and the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union say delivery workers have pledged to log off, protesting falling payouts, unsafe delivery pressures and lack of dialogue with platforms.
Overview: The strike could affect operations at Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto. Unions said the action follows an earlier walkout on December 25, which they claim failed to elicit concrete responses from companies.
Setup: To cushion the impact, Zomato and Swiggy have reportedly rolled out higher incentives for delivery partners.
Immigrants Stay Put
About three in ten immigrants in the US, including green card holders and H-1B visa holders, avoided domestic or international travel this year due to fears of immigration scrutiny, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and The New York Times survey.
Fast Facts: The nationally representative poll of roughly 1,800 adults found that concerns about data-sharing between agencies, airport checks and paperwork errors altered behaviour, even among legally present immigrants.
Background: The findings come amid the Trump administration’s increased deportations of undocumented immigrants and tighter scrutiny of visa programmes, including a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications.
More Bars, Less Necklaces
As gold prices hit record highs in 2025, Indian buyers shifted away from jewellery and towards bars, coins and investment products to avoid steep making charges, according to a Reuters report.
By The Numbers: Jewellery consumption fell by 26%, while investment demand rose by 13%, data from the World Gold Council shows.
Pivot: Young investors we spoke to at The Signal Brief reiterated this. They said they prefer ETFs and digital gold to buying physical jewellery, as they increasingly view gold less as an adornment and more as a safe haven financial asset that fits modern portfolios.
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