Amit's Blog

India's CPI Overhaul: Navigating the Shift to a 2024 Base Year Amid Economic Evolution and Policy Reckoning   In February 2026, India unveiled a revamped Consumer Price Index (CPI) with a 2024 base year, marking a seismic shift from the outdated 2012 framework. This update, driven by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), aims to mirror the spending habits of a rapidly modernizing populace—where streaming subscriptions trump staple grains in budgetary relevance. Yet, this isn't just statistical housekeeping; it's a candid acknowledgment that the old index was a relic, prone to wild swings from onion prices while ignoring gym fees or rural rents. The inaugural January 2026 reading clocked in at 2.75%, a jump from the prior 1.3% under the old series, sparking debates on whether this signals hotter inflation or merely a recalibrated lens. As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) grapples with policy implications, this overhaul exposes contradictions: ap...

From Salvation Anxiety to Sovereign Funds: Unraveling the Protestant Work Ethic and Its Global Echoes   Prelude: Echoes of a Divine Grind In the early dawn of the 20th century, amid the smoke of emerging factories and the hum of newfound prosperity, a German scholar named Max Weber peered into the soul of modern capitalism. What he saw was not merely greed or ambition, but a profound spiritual force: the Protestant Work Ethic. Born from the fires of the Reformation, this ethic transformed labor into a divine calling, frugality into a moral imperative, and worldly success into a sign of heavenly favor. Calvinists, haunted by the doctrine of predestination, worked tirelessly not to earn salvation—which was already decided—but to quell their anxiety through signs of grace in disciplined prosperity. Weber's thesis, penned in 1905, suggested that this religious fervor unwittingly birthed the 'spirit of capitalism,' a rational, relentless pursuit of profit reinvested endl...