Writings

Everything Akhilesh has written, in one stream. Filter by where it was published, what kind of piece it is, or what it is about.

Nine years of net gold buying equals nine years of current account deficit — and it has doubled in value

ThurroSep 21, 2026Investments, Macroeconomy

We combine customs trade data with daily spot gold to size what nine years of net gold imports cost India, and what the metal is worth now. Net gold outflow of $286.2bn over FY18 to FY26 sits within 1% of the cumulative…

The UPI MDR pool is about ₹1,000 crore a month, and two-thirds of it sits where nobody can see it

ThurroSep 17, 2026Industries and sectors

NPCI publishes UPI merchant payments by category every month, and the volumes reconcile exactly to the headline person-to-merchant totals — which means the merchant discount rate base can be sized before the first rupee…

India’s commodity trade is running on price, not volume

ThurroJun 25, 2026Macroeconomy

Customs value-and-quantity records let us split India’s trade into how much actually moved and what it cost — the question the headline value prints bury. We read it on the priceable commodity complex, where unit value…

India’s net FDI has all but vanished — even as foreign money keeps pouring in

ThurroJun 19, 2026Investments, Macroeconomy

Combining RBI balance-of-payments and DPIIT data, we can decompose India’s FDI into what arrives and in what form, what foreign investors take back out, and where Indian firms now invest abroad — a far richer read than…

Inflation targeting needs a reboot to align with current economic structure

moneycontrolOct 15, 2025Macroeconomy, Public policy

India’s next policy review offers a rare chance to recalibrate not just the measure of inflation but the level at which it is targeted. India’s monetary policy regime has served the country well in the decade since the…

Manifest a Better Bharat with Artificial Intelligence

IMC JournalAug 1, 2025Public policy

The dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) era has been compared to various game-changing innovations in human history, like fire, the wheel, electricity, and the internet. Imagine the excitement that human beings had…

Publicly funded data must be public

Financial ExpressMay 29, 2025Data, Public policy

Key takeaways India sits on a vast but underused trove of publicly funded data AI can unlock powerful insights if this data is accessible and structured Making public datasets open and machine-readable could drive…

India’s Growth Targets: Plan in INR

OriginalJan 22, 2025Government, India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

GDP targets set in terms of a foreign currency can lead to unintended consequences: India must consider setting growth goals in its own currency India has experienced robust economic growth in the aftermath of the…

The Power of Nowcasting

Financial ExpressJan 22, 2025Data, India, Investments

Knowing the recent present can be powerful for investors and policymakers – digital exhaust makes it possible In the face of an increasingly interconnected and volatile global economy, investors and policymakers are…

Urban growth takes a toll

OriginalDec 18, 2024India, Macroeconomy, Public policy, Urban

India’s urbanization is expanding the geographical footprint of cities. Tolling in what have become arterial roads in cities gets a pushback from citizens As India’s cities continue to grow, the urban landscape has…

IVCA GreenReturns Summit, 2024 – New Delhi

OriginalDec 2, 2024Climate, Government, India, Public policy

The inaugural two-day Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) GreenReturns Summit 2024 in Delhi on Dec 2-3 features a stellar set of speakers and panels. The event covers a wide breadth of topics on…

Green transition: Reducing the cost of capital

Financial ExpressOct 18, 2024Climate, Government, Macroeconomy, Public policy

The capital stack of green transition industries will continue to evolve as industries mature. Reducing the cost of capital requires smart financial engineering Green transition requires multiple trillions of dollars of…

Singham of Kashmir

OriginalOct 8, 2024Government, India

“Kashmir Under 370” by Mahendra Sabharwal, ex-DGP, J&K “Kashmir Under 370” is a very unassuming title for a book that has rich details on the politics and policing of the state. In the last decade of the last century…

SC Garg’s Explanation and Commentary on the Budget 2024-25

OriginalOct 8, 2024Government, India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

There used to be the Nani Palkhivala lectures on the Indian Budget. Thirty years after they ended in 1994, a new annual series of books by former Finance Secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg is bringing in the discipline and…

Mumbai’s Road to Resilience: Managing in a Climate Crisis

OriginalSep 18, 2024Climate, Government, India, Public policy

I am anxious. I am anxious about traffic jams. Every year in the winters, I drive between 2,000 and 4,000 kilometers across India. The most stressful thing about a drive is a traffic jam – it binds one to a place with…

CFA Webinar: Practitioners’ Insights – Rise of Alternate Data in Investment Decisions

OriginalAug 29, 2024India, Investments, Macroeconomy

In recent years, the financial landscape has witnessed a seismic shift with the proliferation of alternate data sources, reshaping how investment professionals analyze markets, assess risks, and uncover opportunities.…

Green trifecta: Financing higher retail capex in a low greenium world

OriginalAug 16, 2024Climate, Industries and sectors, Investments, Public policy

Green transition (a) requires an increased share of investments by households, (b) creating an economy with higher capex and lower opex, and (c) without material green premium Green transition is here to stay. As…

Creating India’s Climate Stack

OriginalJul 19, 2024Climate, India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Data and models of climate change are required by society, business, and policymakers: building a tool which houses a common understanding can empower all stakeholders Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is a unique…

Climate Policy Lab Academy 2024

OriginalJul 3, 2024Climate, India, Investments, Public policy

A country makes big commitments at a mega climate event. For its people and industries, it then announces many policies to meet its commitments. How would you know if the policies (and their eventual implementation)…

Careers in economics and public policy

OriginalJun 18, 2024Industries and sectors, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Career Day at OIS Last year and again this year, I gave a talk at Oberoi International School JVLR to the students of high school on careers in economics and public policy. I highlighted five unique roles each: these…

The many insights from India’s toll analysis

OriginalMay 20, 2024Government, India, Investments, Macroeconomy

Once a dataset is released to the public, the ability to derive insights is limited only by imagination. We detail our learnings from analyzing India’s tolls Akhilesh Tilotia and Akshata Kalloor Last August we…

Heatmaps for tracking India’s economic activity

OriginalMay 14, 2024

Tracking movement on Indian roads provides insights into underlying demand and supply patterns since road traffic typically precedes expected demand. NIIF’s HeatMaps – Toll Roads report analyses Indian toll road data…

India’s fiscal contract: More incomes in the tax net

OriginalApr 19, 2024Financial planning

Akhilesh Tilotia and Akshata Kalloor. More Indians now assessed to tax, they have higher incomes, tax net is now cast wide, and average effective rates of tax have come down The fiscal choice for any country is whether…

NIIF – Monthly Economic Reports on India

OriginalApr 8, 2024Government, India, Macroeconomy

When I joined the sell-side as an analyst two decades ago, maintaining databases, converting them to good-looking charts, and writing a basic headline was a full-time (well paying) job. That drudgery is now history! It…

India price point: Make it work for me

OriginalMar 23, 2024Macroeconomy

Lilliput Land by Prof Rama Bijapurkar Indian consumer market is as heterogenous as it is large – to win in this unique mid-income, high-aspiration market, craft a unique India strategy In the three years that I worked…

Union Finances: Budgeting for long-term macro stability

OriginalMar 19, 2024Government, India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Long-term trends on revenues, expenses, and debt of Union government show (a) India’s path from subsidies to capex, (b) a more conservative fiscal stance, and (c) a potentially lower debt-to-GDP ratio Since the interim…

Holding up half the sky

Financial ExpressMar 17, 2024India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

The changing circumstances, choices, and careers of women in India will shape the outcomes on demographics, demand, and destiny. We look at key macro trends to identify how the future could unfold. Elections With the…

INR: It’s now relatively stable

OriginalFeb 18, 2024Government, India, Macroeconomy

India’s currency has remained relatively stable – and is forecasted to remain so. INR strength can unlock significant capital flows Over the course of last year, we have touched upon the topic of the Indian rupee (INR)…

NIIF – India’s Macro Research Report 2023

OriginalJan 1, 2024

As we gear up to celebrate Republic Day, a symbol of India’s progress and growth, we’re excited to launch our report on India’s compelling macro story. “How we Track India’s Macro Story” captures the essence of the many…

Artificial Intelligence – Challenges and Opportunities

OriginalNov 22, 2023Industries and sectors

, Sep-Oct 2023 (opens a pdf; page 9) When I received the invite to write an article on the above topic, I knew for sure that I will contribute. I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I fed the email, practically…

Climate investments require ‘equity’

OriginalNov 17, 2023Climate, Government, Investments

Social and financial sectors approach equity in climate investments very differently: a shared understanding can unlock human and financial capital Sometimes the best ideas come from completely unexpected places. A…

G20: Making Climate Finance of Multilateral Development Banks Impactful

OriginalSep 28, 2023Climate, Investments, Macroeconomy

Innovatively augmenting the resources of MDBs, alignment with national goals, and effective delivery of climate technology, finance, and resilience can create multiplier effects in climate finance Amit Garg, Akhilesh…

Winds of Change: Learnings for the Indian Offshore Wind Energy Sector

OriginalAug 22, 2023

Link on the WRI portal; PDF link on NIIF portal Published: Jun 27, 2022 In this paper, jointly written by teams from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the National Investment and Infrastrcuture Fund (NIIF), we…

Building on India’s digital data stack

OriginalAug 18, 2023Government, India

India’s digitalization drive is now spewing copious amounts of data – this can form the backbone of granular understanding and grand policy design The Financial Express An important corollary of Digital India is the…

De-risking developing country currencies for climate financing

OriginalAug 17, 2023

T20 briefing paper My T20 Policy Brief for the Task Force 5 “Purpose & Performance: Reassessing the Global Financial Order” recommends that the G20 encourage its partner countries to create long-term central bank swap…

Lower volatility in exchange rate lowers cost of capital

OriginalJul 14, 2023India, Investments, Macroeconomy

Indian Rupee is now witnessing lower depreciation vis-à-vis the US Dollar and its volatility is at decadal lows An important component of the cost of capital for any domestic project, which relies on external financing…

Mobilising Climate Finance Through Long-Term Currency Swaps

OriginalJun 17, 2023Climate, Government, Investments, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Akhilesh Tilotia and Jayant Sinha The Economic Times The global South requires trillions of dollars of private sector investments every year in climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. In most global South…

Green finance: Calibrating capital and regulations for different stages

OriginalJun 8, 2023Climate, Government, India, Investments, Public policy

Climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience require trillions of dollars of financing. Green finance has hence caught the attention of companies, investors, regulators, and policy makers. As climate change creates…

Decoupled: Better inflation dynamics can lower yields in India for longer

OriginalApr 17, 2023Macroeconomy

India’s inflation trajectory has been stable leading to compressed differentials with the US: this led to a lower rate hike cycle and a possible longer-term lower yields Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) pause in its…

Green Finance: Mind your Ps and Qs

OriginalMar 10, 2023Climate, Investments, Macroeconomy

“Green finance” is not naturally low-cost finance; with their fiduciary duty, investors expect appropriate returns. Focus should be on enhancing sources of finance and structuring What is now undisputed is that the…

India macro-2023: Prepare while the sun shines

Financial ExpressFeb 13, 2023Macroeconomy, Public policy

For the month of December 2022, the purchase manager index (PMI) for India was 59.4, almost touching multi-decadal highs. PMI above 50 is taken to mean that an expansionary phase follows as confidence among participants…

Crystal gazing global growth 2023

OriginalDec 31, 2022India, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Indian Merchant’s Chamber (IMC) [opens pdf] The last few years have conclusively shown that real outcomes are a lot more interesting than what even the most egregious forecasts can imagine. Almost no forecast saw the…

Building a pipeline of urban infrastructure projects

OriginalDec 19, 2022Government, India

Over the last month, two important reports on urban India came out in quick succession: The World Bank’s report on “Financing India’s urban infrastructure needs” and the Reserve Bank of India’s “Report on Municipal…

Winner’s Curse

OriginalDec 16, 2022

Strategies to understand and mitigate it Last month, at a leadership development program, I went back to my alma mater, IIM Ahmedabad. It is always fantastic to go back to the classroom and that too at IIMA! A topic…

Reducing greenhouse gasses: Pathways to achieving the objective

OriginalOct 7, 2022Climate, Public policy

Adding a monetary value to carbon can incentivize or disincentivize some sectors; setting performance standards can create a race for innovation Financial Express “Bending the curve”, or the process of changing the…

Building a network of green financing institutions in India

OriginalAug 12, 2022Climate, India

The idea that India needs to invest trillions of dollars in meeting its Net Zero by 2070 commitment is, by now, well known. Estimates run to over ten trillion dollars in the next half century or the hundreds of billions…

Net Finance – A companion to Net Zero

OriginalJun 23, 2022Climate, Government, Public policy

India made five commitments at COP26: (1) it will increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030; (2) it will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements through renewable energy by 2030; (3) it will reduce…

Fiscal considerations of the Green transition

OriginalApr 17, 2022Climate, Government, Macroeconomy

State of public finances has a direct impact on Green policies that Government can pursue – the range of policy options gets shaped by the need for more revenues or the ability to spend them Financial Express India’s…

EFGHIJK: Taking stock of the Indian economy

Financial ExpressMar 11, 2022India, Macroeconomy

Exports, fiscal, growth, health, inflation, jobs, and capital: sizing up the dynamics in the Indian economy in these volatile times Financial Express In September last year, with two waves of Covid-19 largely behind us…

India’s Union Budget FY2023 – Impetus for investments and capex

OriginalFeb 15, 2022Government, India, Investments, Macroeconomy

Indian government presented an investment-oriented budget with a focus on getting future ready. Increasing public investments and capital expenditure are expected to take the combined (Centre plus States) public capex…

Sequestering the fiscal bounty

Financial ExpressJan 12, 2022Climate, Government

The notional ‘saving’ of ~Rs 1 lakh crore on the fiscal deficit front offers India an opportunity to create a fund to deal with climate change Financial Express Fiscal year 2021-22 has been volatile, to say the least.…

IIM Ahmedabad Public Policy Alumni Special Interest Group 2021

OriginalJan 1, 2022

Ico-lead as an alumni coordinator the IIMA Public Policy Alumni Special Interest Group’s (PP ASIG).Learn more about the IIMA PP ASIG’s activity highlights from 2021 in the #AnnualReport published recently.

Shaping our Green Future: Pathways and Policies for a Net Zero Transition

OriginalNov 3, 2021Climate, India, Public policy

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) put together a monograph on Shaping Our Green Future: Pathways and Policies for a Net-Zero Transformation. 1 They pulled together a fantastic set of perspectives from Mr. Jayant Sinha…

Financing the Green Transition

OriginalAug 13, 2021Climate, India, Investments, Public policy

New sources of capital and new instruments are required to power the green transition Green Transition is a reality: it is here and now. The recent spate of high-impact climate-related disasters across the world…

India: Getting ready for global macro resets

OriginalJul 21, 2021Government, India, Macroeconomy

Second wave of Covid-19 is now behind us. Localized lockdowns are opening, economic activity is coming back to pre-pandemic levels, and vaccinations are now proceeding apace with large, assured supply over the next few…

Urban development and green finance: Blending two mega trends

OriginalJul 12, 2021Climate, Government, Investments, Public policy

Writing on LinkedIn recently, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said, “The 15th Finance Commission and several academics have emphasised the crucial importance of sound property taxation. The third reform…

Vaccine tracker – taking it down

OriginalJun 17, 2021India

Last month when the CoWIN APIs had just been released, a few of us got together and created a portal to track availability of vaccines. The portal (http://vaccineavailability.atilotia.com/) saw around 400,000 hits with…

Attracting Large Pools of Capital for a Green Transition

Financial ExpressJun 17, 2021Climate, India, Investments, Public policy

India is a signatory and strong advocate for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the only large country on track for emissions reduction as agreed under the Paris convention. These…

Financial planning for a family after a sudden shock

OriginalMay 23, 2021Financial planning, Investments

The sudden shock Over the last month many of us have had horrible, heart-wrenching stories of losses to share. In my immediate circle, I have had a relative, a batchmate, and a close business acquaintance pass away. In…

Infra investment plans: India and the USA

OriginalMay 14, 2021India, Investments, Macroeconomy

Two of the largest democracies have embarked on a massive capital investment planover the next few years US President Biden recently announced a two-part plan to invest in the USA: first part of the plan details a USD…

Learnings from the digital Co-WIN app

OriginalMay 9, 2021Public policy

Last weekend, I was part of a rather novel experience. A group of us designed a portal that pulled data from the Co-WIN APIs to showcase where the vaccine slots were available. This was novel and interesting for two…

Modelling the vaccine market in India

OriginalMay 3, 2021Government, India, Public policy

A new chapter has opened up in India’s fight against Covid-19 with three big changes in April. Starting May, vaccines are now available for all adults in India. The central government is no longer the only purchaser –…

Know when vaccine slots become available

OriginalMay 2, 2021India, Public policy

Click here to check availability for slots for those in the 18-44 age range. The full link is this: http://vaccineavailability.atilotia.com/ Use filters to check whether COVID-19 vaccination slots are available in your…

‘Moving epicenters’ – preparing India for future waves of Covid

OriginalApr 25, 2021Government, India, Public policy

India faced a severe second wave of Covid-19 – actionable public policy recommendations to prepare ourselves better An unexpected, unprecedented 16X surge Around end March 2021, with rapidly reducing active cases, India…

Capital and Innovation: This Time is Different

OriginalApr 22, 2021Climate, Investments

Unlike capital chasing technological innovations in the 2010s, now technological innovations are being driven by the availability of capital.

Net-zero will require a serious effort – now!

OriginalApr 1, 2021Climate, Investments, Public policy

Bill Gates’: “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” This book should be a required reading for anyone interested in:• the “big picture” of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (where do the 51 billion tons of GHG come from),• what…

India’s USD 550 bn stimulus

OriginalMar 12, 2021India, Macroeconomy

Relaxation in fiscal deficit targets creates enhanced fiscal space for India: this offers an opportunity to build India Financial Express Last month was abuzz with many commentaries on the Union Budget 2021-22 – the…

Financing urban infrastructure

OriginalFeb 12, 2021India, Investments

Empowering Urban Local Bodies to leverage the markets. India’s rapid urbanization is a well-documented story. Depending on how one counts urbanization, India has between a-third and a-half of its population already live…

Annual report of IIMA Public Policy ASIG

OriginalFeb 4, 2021Public policy

I co-lead as an alumni coordinator the IIMA Public Policy Alumni Special Interest Group’s (PP ASIG). Learn more about the IIMA PP ASIG’s activity highlights from 2020 in the #AnnualReport published recently. IIMA ASIGs…

IIM Ahmedabad Public Policy Alumni Special Interest Group 2020

OriginalDec 31, 2020

Ico-lead as an alumni coordinator the IIMA Public Policy Alumni Special Interest Group’s (PP ASIG). Learn more about the IIMA PP ASIG’s activity highlights from 2020 in the #AnnualReport published recently.

Hedging INR for the long-term

OriginalDec 21, 2020India, Investments, Macroeconomy

Foreign investors with long-term commitments to Indian infrastructure need the ability to hedge their currency exposure in India. The exposure can typically last for multiple decades, especially in the context of…

Larger incomes to tax or larger taxes on incomes?

OriginalOct 26, 2020Government, Macroeconomy, Public policy

Budget 2020 cares for people’s economic aspirations, says Axis Bank’s Akhilesh Tilotia

A day in the life of an Indian

OriginalOct 19, 2020Macroeconomy

 What the numbers say—how men and women spend their day differently; and how much bijli, sadak, paani can improve productivity Here’s a question that has been of interest to me: in a country of 1.4 billion people, if…

Finding investors for State debt

OriginalOct 8, 2020Government, Investments, Macroeconomy

As States issue more debt, finding the investors who will subscribe to the issue will require expanding the current pool of investors and making the investment more lucrative. While there have been many deliberations in…

HippoBrain conversation

OriginalOct 5, 2020

In 2015, I was summoned to the North Block from the office of the then Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha. For somebody who worked in a bank, my first thought was that some hell had broken loose somewhere; I…

Getting the vaccine to a billion plus people

OriginalSep 10, 2020Government, Macroeconomy

India can learn a lot from its experience in managing cash – getting a billion people what they need can be planned effectively. A vaccine for Covid-19 is expected to come sometime over the next few months – hopefully…

Making the frontier sector work

OriginalAug 14, 2020Macroeconomy

Many of the networks of value could start to become ‘utilities’ as they become more embedded in everyday lives. In the previous article, we introduced the idea of the D-sector. The three traditional sectors have a…

Defining the frontier sector

OriginalAug 13, 2020India, Macroeconomy

The new normal after Covid-19 requires a re-imagining of macroeconomics: we need to start defining the contours of, and measuring, the fourth sector. (First of a two-part article) “There are three estates in Parliament…

Indian Aviation: Looking Ahead

OriginalJul 15, 2020India, Industries and sectors

Aviation is amongst the worst-hit industries in Covid-19: what might change? – By Akhilesh Tilotia and Sunil Bhaskaran Before Covid-19 pandemic hit India and its aviation industry, airline traffic had been growing…

Landmark Reforms in Indian Agriculture

OriginalJun 25, 2020India, Industries and sectors

Notes from a Live Webinar co-hosted by Axis Bank and agribazaar The panel was represented by senior government officials, investors, developmental agencies, agri-industrialists and a banker. The reforms undertaken by…

Medium-term dynamics for India post Covid-19 lockdown

OriginalJun 1, 2020Macroeconomy

Shape of economic recovery will determine employment, debt and exchange rates. The immediate fiscal deficit dynamics and growth outcomes for India post Covid-19 lockdown have been the subject of intense analysis and…

Building “digital cocoons” for the population

OriginalMay 15, 2020India, Public policy

Covid-19 highlights the importance of and urgent need to build ‘digital cocoons’ for the whole population. The Covid-19 series of lock-downs have brought very different experiences for varied segments of society: the…

Coronavirus crisis: Making your ‘Beyond COVID-19 Plan’ work

OriginalApr 17, 2020

COVID-19 could change entire industry ecosystems—what makes planning challenging is that it is not clear how permanent and deep the changes will be. By now you are deep in your business continuity planning (BCP)—if your…

Coronavirus: Flattening the curve

OriginalMar 20, 2020India

Building liquidity infrastructure and solution and protecting incomes required in the short-term; rebuilding trust in the long-term. We looked at some of the possible impacts of social distancing in the previous…

How social distancing disrupts supply chains

OriginalMar 19, 2020

What the virus spread has revealed is that it is difficult to predict where it might emerge next and with what ferocity. What has surprised the world about the new Coronavirus, Covid-19, is how quickly it engulfed the…

The Ladder of Development and Progress

OriginalFeb 20, 2020

Development and Progress go hand-in-hand; getting on and remaining on the ladders key to economic growth for individuals and nations. As India changed and economically progressed, it brought hope. There was indeed a…

Larger incomes to tax or larger taxes on incomes?

OriginalFeb 1, 2020Government

Budget 2020 cares for people’s economic aspirations, says Axis Bank’s Akhilesh Tilotia. India’s response to its dilemma will determine whether budgets of the next decade will have larger incomes to tax or larger taxes…

Here’s why India may end up choosing capital flows over current account flows

OriginalJan 9, 2020India, Macroeconomy

India may end up implicitly choosing a stance of preferring capital flows over current account flows, if it sets a GDP target in a foreign currency. A currency serves two purposes: medium of exchange and store of value.…

State finances: Finding the monies

OriginalDec 12, 2019Government, Macroeconomy

As the Centre and States try to find GST compensation cess monies, it is time to look beyond the present, to see how the future could unfold for State finances. The financial relationship between states and the Centre…

Fiscal architecture for a US$5 trillion economy

OriginalNov 28, 2019Macroeconomy

The evolution of India’s tax-to-GDP ratio will require significant political and social consensus—a strategic modelling and planning of tax POLICIES is required. India’s tax-to-GDP ratio at the government level has…

Fintech and legacy finance, not fintech vs legacy finance

OriginalOct 31, 2019Industries and sectors

The product design strategy of a financial service firm revolves around ‘maturity transformation’, ‘liquidity transformation’ or ‘risk transformation’. There is excitement about fintech eating traditional finance. The…

Housing needs a stronger mortgage market

OriginalOct 17, 2019Industries and sectors

A house is not merely a place to live and build a life, it is also one of the most significant assets of the family. An investment in a house roots a family to a location, giving them a significant stake in the…

Guiding markets from crisis to calm

OriginalOct 3, 2019Investments, Macroeconomy

This requires confidence, coordination and capital; resolution can’t be imposed using policy actions. When commemorating anniversaries, we tend to reserve our special attention for round-number, decadal years. Last…

A flight plan for tech regulation

OriginalSep 19, 2019India

The onus falls on business to continue to engender society’s and regulators’ trust in the usefulness of technology. New technologies bring with them challenges of regulation. The key challenges facing regulators in the…

Leveraging open data for policy making

OriginalSep 5, 2019Public policy

Large digital databases like the GST Network can give granular insight, create predictive models; this can lead to more grounded interventions. A lot has been said about the current economic slowdown. Econometricians…

Arresting slowdown: Export focus fine, but there’s more to growth

OriginalAug 22, 2019Macroeconomy

From purely a financial perspective of current account deficit, the distinction between goods and services does not matter. The exports performance of Vietnam continues to be contrasted with that of India: the most…

India must learn from China about aircraft leasing

OriginalAug 8, 2019Industries and sectors

The announcement of this policy statement in the Budget follows the release of the ‘Rupee Raftaar’ report at the Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai in January earlier this year. The Finance Minister, in her maiden budget…

India’s future fiscal architecture: Disinvest and Redesign

OriginalAug 1, 2019Macroeconomy

The knife-edge balanced nature of Government finances means that there is little leeway available for the Central and State Governments whenever there is a shortfall in receipts or an increase in expenditure. In both…

India’s current fiscal architecture: 3+4+5+6=18

OriginalJul 31, 2019

Since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India, the Central Government is now a primary decision-maker on almost all the taxes in the country. With an effective veto power in the GST Council and its…

TEDxFidelityInternational

OriginalOct 25, 2018

Talk on Location-Casting: Taking You Near Your Customers More details here. Unfortunately, no video. 

Video: Masterclass at IIM-A

OriginalAug 15, 2018

Facebook Live of MasterClass speaker session by Mr. Akhilesh Tilotia, Officer on Special Duty to Minister for Civil Aviation. In this video, I discuss the idea of Choices – how I have chosen in life and what…

Airports driving new urbanisation patterns

OriginalFeb 28, 2018

Business Standard The economic multiplier effect of airport construction is estimated to be around six times the capital invested in an airport Jayant Sinha & Akhilesh Tilotia In the previous century, Jawaharlal Nehru…

Took a 2-hour long class on Business and Public Policy for Vedica Scholars

OriginalOct 25, 2017

Run by the Centre for Civil Society, Vedica Scholars brings together a bunch of bright ladies who are interested in business and public policy. Link

Udan air connectivity scheme: Not just a flight of fancy

OriginalNov 17, 2016

The Economic Times By Jayant Sinha & Akhilesh Tilotia Providing regional air connectivity is an important policy goal for the government. Such services deliver a host of benefits by fulfilling latent consumer demand for…

Powering growth through airport hubs

OriginalNov 7, 2016

Business Standard As the aviation market in India deepens, the creation of hubs for regional connectivity, international travel, mega- tourist destinations and freight connectivity will ensure the flow of more foreign…

So the average Indian can fly: How aviation is being transformed from an elite to a public service

OriginalOct 3, 2016

The Times of India Jayant Sinha and Akhilesh Tilotia India’s aviation sector is being rapidly transformed and air travel is becoming indispensable for the general public. India is now the fastest growing major aviation…

CAD: Unless India reverses sustainably, net foreign assets may stay negative

OriginalAug 2, 2016

Unless it reverses sustainably, India’s net foreign assets are expected to remain negative India’s financial relationship with the world has two large components: (1) a large trade account deficit balanced by services…

CFA Institute – Career Guide India

OriginalJul 31, 2016

CFA Institute Talented enough to be hired at one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, Akhilesh Tilotia, CFA, is a numbers guy at heart and, in his head, likes to chase the big picture. At Kotak…

How to prepare for US$100 oil?

OriginalJul 5, 2016

A spike in prices near the next general elections could test the building up of fiscal buffers An important point that Ruchir Sharma makes in his new book, The Rise and Fall of Nations is: don’t ask what the world would…

The joys of sharing

OriginalJun 27, 2016

As the practice of sharing becomes more prevalent, cities will develop their own culture, and it is fascinating to see that emerge Over the last month or so, since car-pooling apps launched their pooling or shared…

How can India escape Robin Hoodesque fate of taxing urban India to prop-up rural India

OriginalJun 5, 2016

A revised estimate of the labour market in 2022 finds 500 million Indians could still be dependent on agriculture India’s consumption story is predicated upon the millennial and post-millennial demographic performing…

Building State capacity to protect citizens

OriginalMay 3, 2016

For the citizen to be confident, the state has to first believe that it can enforce the rule of law In Mumbai (and this may be true in many other cities in India), many traffic signals start blinking the yellow lights…

Podcast on ‘The Making of India’

OriginalMar 21, 2016

My Kitaab podcast Akhilesh Tilotia leads thematic research for KIE and co-authors market strategy reports. His first book, ‘The Making of India – Game Changing Transitions’ chronicles the journey of India’s demographic…

India’s hopes hinge on its demographic dividend

OriginalJan 27, 2016

Forbes India The country faces many challenges in diverse sectors but reforms in education and skilling its workforce can script a new growth story India’s demographic dividend has already begun and over the next few…

Video at CFC 2015: Outlook of Commodity Finance : Key Game Changers

OriginalNov 4, 2015

CFC 2015: Outlook of Commodity Finance: Key Game Changers by Mr. Akhilesh Tilotia, Kotak Securities. You can watch the video here: YouTube Mr. Akhilesh Tilotia, currently working as an Associate director with Kotak…

Video: Speaker at E-merge 2015 – Kotak Institutional Equities Conference

OriginalOct 26, 2015

Akhilesh Tilotia speaks about how the entire online e-commerce digital industry is panning out in India. In his point of view there is a bit of dichotomy, but as India becomes more digital there are immense business…

Video – IPPAI speaker – Epochal Shift in the Idea of India

OriginalSep 15, 2015

You can watch the 10 minute speech here: YouTube

‘Business models will need to adjust to digitized world’ – ET Now interview

OriginalAug 23, 2015

Akhilesh Tilotia, associate director with the Kotak Institutional Equities says that the business world will need to adjust to digitized world as e-commerce and data analytics is reshaping business models. You can watch…

Colloquia Guest Talk – IIM, Calcutta

OriginalJul 31, 2015

Colloquia, IIM-CalcuttaColloquia, the oldest club of IIM Calcutta, organized the first guest talk of the current academic session. Mr. Akhilesh Tilotia, Associate Director, Kotak Institutional Equities spoke on ‘Making…

Mumbai has a long way to go

OriginalJul 16, 2015

The Free Press Journal Friday, July 17, 2015, 12:48 AM IST Looking all around, it appears that Mumbai’s infrastructure has developed tremendously in the last few years. Bridges, flyovers, expressways–these are all major…

Book review of ‘The Making of India’

OriginalJun 5, 2015

Hindustan Times Making of India: From 1947 to 2015, the complexities of our country Is the idea that India should be a hub of manufacture beset with problems of infrastructure? Updated: Jun 06, 2015 14:29 IST In 1857…

IAIP Speaker Event in Hyderabad: The Making of India – GameChanging Transitions

OriginalMay 7, 2015

IAIP event at ISB, Hyderabad SPEAKER SESSIONSAKHILESH TILOTIA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR KOTAK INSTITUTIONAL EQUITIES (KIE),Akhilesh Tilotia leads thematic research under the Game Changer brand and co-authors market strategy…

Meeting change in food habits

OriginalApr 28, 2015

The Hindu Business Line India needs to diversify its agriculture, break out of the cereals trap The country’s agriculture has mostly revolved around inputs required to make farming viable and successful. But it is high…

Video – Panelist at Deepening the U.S.-India Commercial Partnership, USA

OriginalApr 14, 2015

CSIS event, Washington, DC, USA Panelist at Smart Cities as Innovation Hubs Wednesday, April 15, 2015 5:00 pm – Thursday, April 16, 2015 2:30 am Center for Strategic and International Studies1616 Rhode Island Avenue…

IAIP Mumbai event

OriginalMar 12, 2015

IAIP Mumbai speaking event The Making Of India – Game Changing Transitions Leading Thematic Researcher and Market Strategist in Indian Equity Markets Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP) is pleased to…

Video: If I were FM

OriginalFeb 24, 2015

Akhilesh Tilotia, associate director, Kotak Institutional Equities, says if he were FM he would try to kick start the capital cycle. You can watch the video here: LiveMint

Video – The Making of India: book launch by Arun Shourie

OriginalFeb 8, 2015

Arun Shourie launching and commenting on the book ‘The Making of India’ at the annual Kotak Institutional Equities conference in 2015. You can watch the video here: YouTube

Uday Kotak launches ‘The Making of India’ by Akhilesh Tilotia

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

The Making of India – book launch Uday Kotak observes, “Markets and economies worldwide are in a state of constant tumult led on by a string of known and unknown unknowns. In a connected world, the ever changing global…

The Making of India – Akhilesh Tilotia Introduces the book

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

Akhilesh Tilotia, author of The Making of India talks about the inception of this insightful book and the efforts that went into it. You can watch it here: YouTube

The Making of India – Book Launch

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

Uday Kotak introduces talks about The Making of India, a book by Akhilesh Tilotia that narrates the story of Indian economy with a wide variety of facts, figures, analysis, anecdotes and insights. You can watch the…

The Making of India – Urbanization of India

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

India is no longer a land of villages. Uday Kotak , Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Akhilesh Tilotia talk about urbanization in India. You can watch the video here: YouTube

The Making of India – Current Market Pricing

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

Akhilesh Tilotia talks about the current market pricing and its impact on India and how it is affecting the Indian economic landscape. You can watch the video here: YouTube

The Making of India – Manufacturing Industry and Job Creation

OriginalFeb 3, 2015

Uday and Akhilesh talk about how the job scenario has changed due to the evolving manufacturing sector and how the current demographic dividend forms a part of a large labour market. You can watch the video here: YouTube

Dr. Ben S Bernanke, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve in conversation with Mr. Uday Kotak at the second Kotak Presidium

OriginalApr 12, 2014

Write-up here.

Missing women in India’s labour force

OriginalFeb 26, 2013

Over the past seven years, India has strongly economically implemented a minimum-wage regime via MGNREGA: We hypothesise that this may have driven rural women out of the workforce leading to jobless growth. Basic…

Time ripe for agriculture

OriginalJan 20, 2011

The Economic Times The outlook for agriculture in India is changing: price rises are lifting realisations , which are being reinvested in productivity growth. The outlook for agriculture in India is changing: price…

Family Office 101: Managing Family Wealth and Legacy

OriginalFeb 29, 2008

If the needs of families gave birth to family office concept, the changing business environment has made it a business opportunity today and Financial Planners in India can take a lead in utilizing this opportunity.…

Realty funds are now offering innovative investment avenues to the middle class and HNIs.

OriginalFeb 10, 2008

The Economic Times Realty funds offering innovative investment avenues Pradeep was ecstatic. He had just received a larger than expected year-end bonus. After a vacation to Shimla with family, he was now wondering how…

Financial lessons for the newly married

OriginalJan 30, 2008

The Economic Times If you have exchanged vows recently, you would need to rejig your expenses and savings structure. Here’s how you should go about it. Now that both of you have decided to take the plunge, among the…

Why should you think long term?

OriginalDec 31, 2007

“While thinking of equity investments, think long term” – goes oft-repeated words of wisdom. Is it true only when the markets touch these unprecedented heights or should we keep this in mind even during saner times?…

Jumpy Re: Right time to send money to India?

OriginalNov 19, 2007

The Economic Times – part 3The case of dealing with a historical exposure is like determining the right proportion of currencies that you should have in your portfolio.  By Akhilesh Tilotia & Ramganesh Iyer In the last…

NRIs need to handle the jumpy Re with care

OriginalNov 5, 2007

The Economic Times – part 1 NRIs have been hit hard by the appreciating rupee. Here is the first part of a three part series on what the appreciating rupee means for them. Investing tips for beginners By Akhilesh…

How to cash in on your bonus

OriginalJun 10, 2007

Rediff Getting a bonus calls for a celebration. With the right investment tools, you can put your bonus to good use and create wealth. Finance experts, Krishanmurthi Vijyan, CEO, JP Morgan Asset management; Rajivdeep…

Beware of ‘lifestyle inflation’

OriginalMay 30, 2007

Rediff ‘Beware of inflation: it eats into your savings,’ your financial advisor would have warned you a number of times. What you need to worry about it not just the inflation number that the government publishes every…

NRIs invests in an emotional angle

OriginalMay 29, 2007

The Economic Times For many NRIs, investing in India is more reliable because of tax benefits & better growth opportunities. In our previous article, we looked at some of the issues faced by the professional NRIs when…

3,500-year-old investment tips that still work!

OriginalApr 25, 2007

Rediff A book was cast in stone more than 3,500 years ago in Babylon and was found by a British professor late last century. What impressed him — and helped him come out of a debt crisis — were the inscriptions on how…

Investment advice for youngsters

OriginalApr 23, 2007

Rediff In your early 20s and planning to make your first investment? The first and foremost, keep aside three times your monthly expenses, before you begin. Next, invest in life cover and health insurance. Many…

Here’s how to invest in an SIP

OriginalApr 4, 2007

Rediff – part 6 of 6 Mutual funds offer a variety of options through which you can invest in or divest from them: each option has its own advantages and it is very helpful to know of your various options. Lump sum…

Tax liability on your mutual fund

OriginalApr 3, 2007

Rediff – part 5 of 6 When you invest, you can look at the investment from two perspectives: to generate a regular periodic return or to invest for a long term, without bothering about the intermediate returns. Mutual…

The risks of investing in a mutual fund

OriginalApr 2, 2007

Rediff – part 4 of 6 We have seen the advantages of investing in a mutual fund. Now let us look at some of the risks and costs of investing in the same. Risks of investing in a mutual fund: The biggest risk of investing…

6 advantages of investing in a mutual fund

OriginalApr 1, 2007

Rediff – part 3 of 6 Having grasped the basic of mutual funds, let us try to understand why you as an investor would want to invest in them. Professional expertise: Investing requires skill. It requires a constant study…

Mutual funds, demystified

OriginalMar 30, 2007

Rediff – part 2 of 6 We have seen the basic types of assets into which a mutual fund might invest: equity and debt, and how this choice impacts the risk and return characteristics of the funds. However, you would have…

Video: CNBC Awaaz-Impact of rising interest rates

OriginalMar 30, 2007

Live discussion of Akhilesh Tilotia, Director, PARK Financial Advisors with CNBC Awaaz on the impact of rising interest rates, 31st March 2007 You can watch the video here: YouTube

Learn the easy way, apply rules of thumb

OriginalMar 29, 2007

Financial planning and products are all about number work and most of it is fairly complex. It helps if there are certain simplifications to make life easy. One way is to have rules of thumb, which can be quickly…

What are mutual funds? Where do they invest?

OriginalMar 29, 2007

Rediff – part 1 of 6 It is almost always assumed that anyone reading an analysis on mutual funds (or the fund management industry) knows the intricacies of the same. This is not universally true and, at all times, there…

Do your homework before picking a financial planner

OriginalFeb 11, 2007

The Economic Times Choosing a financial advisor is like choosing your family physician. Once you are associated with him, it is difficult to restart with another. You have decided to do long term planning for yourself…

Making money through debt

OriginalDec 31, 2006

DNA “Where do I park my money for the best returns?” is a standard investor query. The standard answer might well be, “put it in equities and forget it for 5-7 years.” But, while there is no denying the power of…

How big should my nest-egg be?

OriginalDec 31, 2006

DNA One needs to understand how big the retirement corpus needs to be to lead a comfortable life in the golden years Aman Jain, 27, is an MBA from a top-rated business school with a great job with a major retail chain.…

Two articles in the India Infrastructure Review 2004, 3i Network (IDFC, IIM-A, IIT-K)

OriginalDec 31, 2003

Swapnil Pawar and I wrote two articles in the India Infrastructure Review in 2004 while we were second-year students of the Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) at Indian Institute of Management…