Populism

Best of BS Opinion: RBI has done well to maintain status quo on repo rate

Today's pieces examine the RBI's decision on the policy rate, what it might do on the issue of Tata Sons' listing, 100 years of the RSS, and the question of rising populism globally as well as India

Thousands protest in Serbia over crackdown on anti-lithium activists

Several thousand people rallied Sunday in the Serbian capital, accusing the populist government of cracking down on environmental activists opposed to a large European Union-backed lithium excavation project planned in the Balkan country. The protest outside the headquarters of the state RTS television station in central Belgrade comes after tens of thousands rallied in recent weeks against the opening of the lithium mine in western Serbia. The state-controlled TV station is accused of ignoring the detentions of anti-lithium excavation activists. Environmental organizations reported detentions of dozens of their activists after a big rally last month in Belgrade and elsewhere in Serbia, saying their homes were searched, laptops and phones confiscated while many faced threats on social media. Activist Nina Stojanovic told the crowd on Sunday that a total of 30 to 60 people have been detained or questioned in the past two months throughout Serbia. We are here to protect everyone, to

Treading 'welfarism' path: BJP-backed state govts unveil populist schemes

Several BJP-backed state govts, over the past month, have unveiled a number of schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers, and students, following setback in the Lok Sabha polls

A bold initiative or madcap idea?

As studies in Finland, Ireland and Kenya have shown, Congress' promise of Rs 1 lakh to below poverty line women may not just be an experiment in populism

Nato marks 75th birthday as Ukraine war, rising populism gnaw at its unity

NATO will celebrate on Thursday 75 years of collective defense across Europe and North America as Russia's war on Ukraine enters its third year and sorely tests the allies' resolve while rising populism gnaws at their unity. At a cake-cutting ceremony in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts will mark the moment the alliance's founding treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, in Washington. A bigger celebration is planned when NATO leaders meet in Washington from July 9 to 11. Sweden's foreign minister, Tobias Billstrm, is taking part in the first ministerial-level meeting since his country became NATO's 32nd ally last month. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 drove Sweden and its Nordic neighbor Finland into NATO's arms. The alliance's ranks have almost tripled over more than seven decades from its 12 founding members, but Finland and Sweden joined in record time to shelter under NATO's collective security guarantee, after coming und

Best of BS Opinion: Waiting for the states, Bengaluru warning & more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Why populism prospers

Today's populist leaders, unlike the strong authoritarians of history, maintain political durability by keeping the masses in a state of consensual mediocrity and low self-esteem

Portugal election wields no winner amid support for surging populist party

Portugal's political future is hanging in the balance after a general election Sunday, with two moderate mainstream parties closely contesting the race and set to wait weeks for a decision on the winner after an unprecedented surge in support for a populist party that finished third. The center-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 79 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal's Parliament, after all votes cast in Portugal were counted. The center-left Socialist Party, in power the past eight years, got 77 seats. The deciding votes will come from voters abroad to distrubte the final four parliamentary seats after an election night full of suspense. That count could take more than two weeks. The hard-right Chega (Enough) party came in third with 48 seats, a milestone result that presented an unprecedented challenge to politics-as-usual, underscoring a drift to the right in the European Union. Smaller parties took the rest of the vote in an election that saw turno

Interim Budget 2024-25: Fiscally responsible, not populist

It is conservative in its arithmetic and will help lower interest rates

Populism, not politics, missing in Budget

Read this Budget, therefore, as a declaration of victory a month before the Lok Sabha elections are announced

Increasing populism

The trend will elevate macroeconomic risks

Must inform voters about financial implications of freebies: Ashima Goyal

Freebies are never 'free' and when political parties offer such schemes, they must be required to make the financing and trade-offs clear to voters, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Sunday, adding this would reduce the temptation towards "competitive populism". Goyal further said a cost is imposed somewhere when governments provide freebies, but this is worth incurring for public goods and services that build capacity. "Freebies are never free... specially harmful are subsidies that distort prices," she told PTI in an interview. Noting that this hurts production and resource allocation and imposes large indirect costs, such as the water table falling in Punjab due to free electricity, Goyal said such freebies come at the cost of low quality health, education, air and water that hurt poor the most. "When parties offer schemes they must be required to make the financing and such trade-offs clear to voters. This would reduce the temptation towards ...

In celebrated bastions of democracy, an unlikely club of 'dissimilar' leaders

T N Ninan reads from another commentator's notes on one prime minister and observes how eerily similar they sound to the description of some others

Why the poor are leaning right

How support for left and right-leaning parties is changing in social composition

How the republic falls

If you want to understand today's politics, read novels about the fall of Rome. Populism is democracy's oldest and most enduring disease

The ideology of social scientists: A complex balance

The conflict between liberty and equality is often central to ideological differences among social scientists

Does Trump's defeat in US elections signal the start of populism's decline?

Populist leaders may have lost their most prominent champion, but their economic, social and political grievances remain potent

The many faces of populism

Book review of I Am the People

India likely to see rise in populism; trend poses risk to economy: JPMorgan

Populism is linked with weaker economic growth in the long-term, which could weigh on India's rich equity valuations, says bank.

Ahead of UP budget, Adityanath govt looks to balance populism, development

The economic slowdown has taken a toll on the state's industrial growth and consequently the collection of taxes, which is further putting a strain on its finances