By Brian Webster, Alan Gelb, and Anit Mukherjee
Shifting the payment of social transfers from cash to direct deposit via bank or mobile money accounts can directly improve efficiency for governments and convenience for beneficiaries. It may also produce positive spillovers such as boosting financial inclusion and empowering women. But do these spillovers materialize, and under what circumstances?
By Udaibir Das
The Trevor Manuel G20 Africa Expert Panel Report reframes Africa’s constraints as a single system of mispricing, debt compression and governance asymmetry. Its proposals for refinancing, collective bargaining and International Monetary Fund quota reform mark the first coordinated attempt to shift power within the international financial architecture.
By Udaibir Das
Ubuntu economics does not invoke moral claims. It advances a structural argument: Africa’s demographic momentum, mineral endowments and ecological assets are central to global prosperity, and instability in the region imposes system-wide costs. The reform frameworks are now primarily in place. The question is whether the political and institutional conditions of 2026 permit their implementation.
By Piyush Verma and Telmen Altanshagai
Mongolia is not just a customer or supplier—but a co-partner in building new regional supply-chains, new corridors and new resource-alliances. It speaks to a future where India is not simply plugged into global energy markets, but co-creating them.
By Udaibir Das
While stability prevails in institutional titles, resilience prevails in policy content. This shift influences the oversight and allocation of approximately $470tn in global financial assets. This has structural implications and affects public accountability.
By Sadiq Amini
These days, Afghan democrats need a champion, and India, under Modi’s leadership, could be that champion – if New Delhi can correct course on its Afghanistan policy.
By Sadiq Amini
A choice hasn’t been made, but non-Taliban stakeholders are eager for a policy change.
By Sadiq Amini
By spearheading the restoration of democracy in Afghanistan, Taiwan could eventually forge a strong alliance with a democratic Afghanistan.
By Sadiq Amini
In a way, the situation in Afghanistan serves as a microcosm of the status of the wider world.
By Sadiq Amini
Despite the deal’s deep flaws, the Biden administration should still insist that the remaining parts of the deal be implemented; namely, intra-Afghan negotiations and the termination of support for foreign terrorist groups.
By Sadiq Amini
If China’s Afghanistan policy is anything to go by, it is clear that it is not yet ready to wear the title of regional power, much less global power.
By Sadiq Amini
Pakistan is clearly worried, and rightly so. Hence, unlike the 1990s, Islamabad has not recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
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