New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- This column usually addresses economic issues. However, in the present context, economic outcomes will be largely determined by the current political conjuncture.

Domestically, India is on the cusp of a new political phase following the mobilization of a young generation at Jantar Mantar recently, triggered by repeated and disruptive leaks of examination papers, which soon morphed into a broader demand for government accountability and reforms to fix a broken education system.

Globally, we are at the threshold of an emerging new world order, the contours of which are still uncertain, the old order having been disrupted by the very powers that established it at the end of World War II.

This column is the first part...