3 min readNew DelhiFeb 4, 2026 05:42 AM IST
February has been an extremely eventful month for India despite it being only three days old. First, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2026-27 on Sunday, announcing a series of measures and a shift to a new fiscal consolidation framework that will target debt-to-GDP ratio. She also hiked the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on futures and options trading, which led to a stock market meltdown.
Late Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that an agreement had been reached on a trade deal that will see the tariff on Indian exports being slashed to 18% from 50%. India’s stock markets cheered the move on Tuesday, posting the biggest gain in nearly months. The rupee, too, soared by over 1% against the US dollar after nearly touching the 92-per-dollar mark last week.
But the action is not all over. Next week, on February 12, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will publish its updated Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation series. With a base year of 2024 for prices — as against 2012 currently — and a consumption basket reflecting consumption patterns as per the 2023-24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, the new headline inflation series will be crucial to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) interest rate decisions. Finally, on February 27, the statistics ministry will make public another major overhaul of India’s official statistics: the new GDP series.
To better understand recent economic developments as well as those on the horizon, The Indian Express has invited Prachi Mishra, Professor of Economics, Director and Head of Ashoka University’s Isaac Centre for Public Policy, for an Explained.Live session on Wednesday. She will be in conversation with Siddharth Upasani, Deputy Associate Editor, The Indian Express.
Mishra is uniquely positioned to break down the numerous events that have and continue to unfold around us, having worked across the spectrum of stakeholders that underpin the Indian and global economy, including as a Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor as well as the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and as the head of the Reserve Bank of India’s Strategic Research Unit. She then served as Goldman Sachs’ Chief India Economist from 2018 to 2020 before taking charge of the International Monetary Fund’s Systemic Issues Division until 2024 — her fourth stint at the multilateral agency.
With a PhD in Economics from Columbia University, Mishra was also a member of MoSPI’s expert group on the Comprehensive Updation of the Consumer Price Index.
Explained.Live is a unique series of explanatory conversations that The Indian Express hosts from time to time.
Topic: What’s the Big Picture of Budget 2026-27?
Date: February 4, 2026
Time: 6 pm
