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The Missing Connect
The Weekend Playlist
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Good morning.
Growth is often discussed as a question of investment. Less often, it is about connections.
Small businesses need policies that help them scale rather than simply survive, discussed by Jay Gullish and Ashish Fafadia. Factories need colleges that understand industry, as observed by Sudhir Gera. Both conversations ask what it takes to prepare, not just people or businesses but the systems around them for the next phase of the economy.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Surjit Bhalla’s Warning On FDI, Policy And The Rupee
ICYMI: Revisiting an episode where financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj spoke with Surjit Bhalla, ex-IMF economist and author, about oil prices, West Asia tensions and global uncertainty.
In this episode, Bhalla points out that these may have intensified the pressure on Indian Rupee, but they did not create the underlying weakness and the sharp decline in net FDI as the clearest warning sign. FDI matters not just because it brings money, but because it brings technology, supply chains and global market access. India, he argues, began assuming around 2015 that foreign investors needed India more than India needed them. Bilateral investment treaty changes, retrospective taxation fears, quality control orders and weak ease of doing business have all added to investor hesitation.
This is also why India has not fully captured the China Plus One opportunity. While Vietnam and Bangladesh benefited from supply chain shifts, India kept talking about raising manufacturing’s share of GDP without creating the policy architecture to make it happen.
Key Insight
India cannot win the China Plus One race on infrastructure alone; it also needs predictable rules, investor trust and easier exits.
EYE ON RETAIL
India’s E-Commerce Rules Need A Reset
What happens when policies designed to protect small businesses begin to limit their ability to grow?
In this episode of Eye On Retail, Govindraj Ethiraj speaks with Jay Gullish, Senior Director at the US-India Business Council, and Ashish Fafadia of Blume Ventures, about why India's next phase of e-commerce growth depends less on consumer demand and more on policy design. As online retail expands and digital infrastructure matures, they suggest that regulations written for an emerging industry may need to evolve to reflect a far larger and more sophisticated market.
Rather than framing the debate as platforms versus kirana stores, the conversation shifts to the conditions that help small businesses become more competitive. Stable regulation, easier access to credit, lower logistics costs, stronger digital adoption and better integration with global markets could help MSMEs scale without removing safeguards that policymakers consider important.
The discussion also explores how India's digital public infrastructure has laid the groundwork for a more efficient retail ecosystem, but argues that the next gains will come from consistent policy and institutional coordination rather than infrastructure alone.
Key Insight
Sustainable growth in India’s e-commerce sector will depend on how effectively policy can balance innovation with inclusion.
THE CORE QUIZ
Which AI platform did OpenAI say its autonomous agent breached during a controlled test? |
HOW INDIA’S ECONOMY WORKS
India’s Manufacturing Push Has A Skills Problem
What if India's manufacturing challenge begins long before a factory is built?
In this episode of How India’s Economy Works, Pooja Mehra speaks with Sudhir Gera of Sudhir Power Projects, about why India's manufacturing ambitions are running into an overlooked constraint: engineers who graduate with degrees but are not ready for the realities of the shop floor. While India produces nearly 1.5 million engineers each year, Gera says the issue is not a lack of talent but a lack of industry readiness, especially for MSMEs that cannot afford the extensive training budgets common in IT.
Gera proposes linking schools within engineering colleges, where local companies help design courses, practitioners teach applied skills and students gain sustained exposure to shop floors. The model would shift technical education away from placement packages, published papers and formal qualifications towards the capabilities regional industries actually need.
Why This Matters
India’s skills policy will remain incomplete until colleges are judged by what their graduates can build, and not simply by how many receive degrees.
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