Tag: economics

Why is the Pakistani consumer so poor?

January 28, 2026 7 Comments filed under Bombay Badshah

So a new edition of the T20 WC is coming up and it is already embroiled in some controversy. Bangladesh refused to play in India and ICC had them replaced with Scotland.

Cue the usual voices from Pakistan – “BCCICC”, “India’s money is ruining cricket” blah blah.

But it led me to ponder something – Pakistan itself has a huge population of 250 million + and it isn’t that “much” poorer than India. India’s GDP pci is $3050 while Pakistan’s is $1710 (around 1.8x) . Similarly India’s GDP is $4.51 trillion while Pak is $410.5 billion (around 11x).

So the other numbers should be in the same ratio right?

Here is where the difference comes

Revenue of cricket boards

BCCI – INR 20686 crore
PCB – INR 458 crore

That is around 45x

T20 leagues media rights

IPL – $6.2 billion for four years
PSL – $24 million for two years

That is around 130x (normalized on a per year basis)

And if you look at other stuff these huge ratios persist

Cars sold annually

India – 4.1 million
Pakistan – 200,000

Forex reserves

India – $710 billion
Pakistan – $21 billion

Stock exchange market caps

BSE – $5 trillion
PSE – $65 billion

Why do you think that is?

My theory is because the Pakistan military is stronger than the 1/10 ratio, it kind of effects everything else which leads to these lop sided ratios.

Give your thoughts in the comments below.

Cyclone Ditwah November 2025

December 9, 2025 3 Comments filed under sbarrkum

Cyclone Ditwah may have been a once in a 1,000 year event. However the Oceanographic and Atmospheric Physics implies this could be in all probability a regular even, may be a once in 10 years event.

First, energy for cyclones comes fir the ocean. Usually sea surface temperatures higher then 27 degrees is required. The ocean around Sri Lanka is currently more than 30 degrees. More than sufficient energy.

Second, more importantly the formation history of TC Ditwah. This is from the analysis of  Dr Sarath Wijeratne.The system started with the formation of two low pressure systems: one to the south-east of the Island and the other south-west. The one to the south-west was stronger and moved to the east whist the one south-east moved slowly to the west. Ultimately they joined together to form TC Ditwah. This merging of two low pressure system is called the Fujiwhara effect. This very rare event and has not been documented in this region. The merging of the two low pressure systems intensified TC Ditwah. Now we know the result. (Charitha Pattiarachi)

Watch video

https://web.facebook.com/511554041/videos/pcb.10164281956204042/828565176728130

There are two basic Physics that make the current condition conducive to devastating storms
a) Evaporation becomes exponential around 30C
b) Water holding capacity of Atmosphere too turns exponential around 30C

Thus a small change in air temperature results in a large change in amount of water vapor that can be held in the Atmosphere

The larger the amount of water held in the atmosphere, bigger possibility of it condensing i.e. becoming rain.  Worse because bigger amounts, it will come down in buckets,

Increases in atmospheric water vapor also amplify the global water cycle. They contribute to making wet regions wetter and dry regions drier. The more water vapor that air contains, the more energy it holds. This energy fuels intense storms, particularly over land. This results in more extreme weather events. (This was known by Year 2000 from Climate Models)    For South Asia means wetter Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.  Drier North India.

Economies of UP and Bihar

November 18, 2025 2 Comments filed under Archived Authors

In the rankings of major Indian states based on per capita income, UP and Bihar have been occupying the last two places for quite a while. Their per capita incomes are approximately half and one third of the national average, which has sparked considerable discussion lately. While most people focus on usual suspects like overpopulation and corruption, some argue that the absence of coastlines also plays a significant role. This idea has appeared in this blog several times, and I will offer my two cents.

On the surface, the argument seems reasonable, given that both Bihar and UP are non-coastal states and many coastal states are doing extremely well. However, a closer look reveals a lack of empirical evidence to support this claim. To begin with, the correlation between higher per capita income and having a coastline is relatively new. Back in 1990, of the eight major coastal states, only Maharashtra was performing exceptionally well. Gujarat was above average, while Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Bengal were either average or slightly below. Orissa, on the other hand, was quite poor. This suggests that it was economic liberalization, rather than the mere presence of coastlines, that primarily fueled the growth in South India.

The correlation between coastal status and economic performance appears even more spurious when we examine other non-coastal states. There are eight large non-coastal states with populations exceeding 20 million, excluding UP and Bihar. Their combined per capita income is almost same as the national average. In fact, two of these states, Telangana and Haryana, rank among the top three. If being landlocked is indeed such a significant disadvantage, why doesn’t it similarly impact these other non-coastal states?

Let’s explore the coastline related industries further. India’s blue economy, which includes sectors like coastal tourism, fisheries, shipping, and offshore energy, constitutes only about 4 percent of the country’s GDP. Given that coastal states account for 55 percent of India’s GDP, it’s evident that coastlines aren’t as impactful economically as one might assume. The transport sector in India represents roughly 5 percent of the GDP, but a significant part of this involves passenger and local freight transport. The part consisting of transport between port and non-coastal states is relatively small, and the extra burden is equivalent to a tax of less than 5 percent on all imported or exported goods.

So one could probably argue that if UP and Bihar were coastal, their per capita incomes might be 5-10 percent higher. However, this doesn’t change the big picture.

Setting the ground straight on the Indian economy

November 2, 2025 No Comments filed under Archived Authors

“I could see some parts of the coastal peninsula approaching Thai levels at best”

Some comments in our discussion threads necessitate a deconstruction of the Indian economy.

In my opinion, a good place to start analyzing national economies is nominal industrial output. This is a good measure of the level and depth of industrial prowess of a country. The prices of industrial goods also tend to be less sensitive to locale, than services.

As an example of the usefulness of this measure, consider the economies of Italy and Germany. Seeing the number of German brands around the world, the reputation of German engineering and more recently, the exodus of highly educated Italians from their country, we have a strong intuition that the German economy is stronger than the Italian one. Yet the difference between Germany and Italy in terms of overall PPP GDP per capita does not seem very large. However, restricting to the nominal industrial output, the German output is more than twice that of Italy.

 

Brown Pundits