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Why women in India and Afghanistan earn, save and inherit far less than the law, or the economy, would suggest By Dei Hakim | Meridian Market Review | October 18, 2026 In South Asia, women’s ability to build wealth remains severely restricted. In India, women face barriers such as unpaid care work and skewed property ownership. In Afghanistan, women have been shut out of education and most formal work, essentially erasing them from the economy. More Than an Income Gap Gender

Inside America's K-shaped recovery The typical household just posted its best year ever. The households at the bottom didn't get the memo, and that should worry every company that sells to them. By Elliot Anselme | The Meridian Financial Review | September 30, 2026 The headline number hides the real story On September 15 the U.S. Census Bureau delivered what looked like unambiguously good news. Median household income rose 2.6% in 2025 to $87,460, the highest level recorded s

Article by Tejasva Pande In India, an ancient social structure dictates the nation's distribution of wealth. Despite decades of economic growth and industrialization, the caste system, which was originally a system of social hierarchy, continues to act as one of the country's most powerful drivers of economic disparity. It determines who owns assets, who accesses capital, and who remains at the bottom in terms of wealth. In traditional economic models, wealth inequality is an

By Jack Bellais | The Meridian Financial Review Nepal and Bhutan are not large economies. Set against India or Bangladesh, their financial markets are small. But both have something that has become steadily more valuable across South Asia: hydropower. Over the past few years more money has moved into Nepalese and Bhutanese energy projects, alongside newer instruments such as green bonds. At the same time SAARC, BIMSTEC and BBIN have been working on trade, energy links and fin

By Karitte Robles Spain's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two decades. Tourist arrivals are breaking records. GDP growth is outpacing most of its European neighbours. By every headline metric, Spain is booming. And yet approximately 13 million people meaning more than one in four Spaniards remain at risk of poverty or social exclusion according to the EU's indicator. What makes Spain's poverty crisis particularly difficult to address is that it inc

By Mannaan Mubarak Over the past 15 years, urban development across major Indian cities has been dominated by high-profile Indian slum clearance alongside housing lottery schemes. Under initiatives like the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in Maharashtra, state agencies promise a clear path out of poverty. They hope to improve life for slum-dwellers through the replacement of informal settlements with concrete, vertical housing units awarded via public lotteries. However,

By Mannaan Mubarak | The Meridian Market Review In a rare, unlikely display of unity, the most bitter, notorious rivals in tech whom we’ve all probably become quite familiar with; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, xAI Founder Elon Musk and Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis have all publicly blacked a dramatic call to slow down article intelligence development. We’ve all heard the grand leaks from Anthropic employees and CEO Dario Amodei himself calling for the immediate industry slowdown

Oura's S-1 is the cleanest test yet of whether wearables can earn software valuations By Elliot Anselme | The Meridian Market Review Oura filed its S-1 with the SEC on September 3 and plans to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol OURA. It is reportedly seeking up to $3 billion at a valuation in excess of $16 billion, roughly three times the $11 billion valuation it carried in October last year, when it raised $900 million in a Series E led by Fidelity. Goldman Sachs is lead-left,

By Mannaan Mubarak Over the past four decades, Baby Boomers have essentially built the backbone of the global small to medium-sized business ecosystem. Today, they own roughly half of all privately held enterprises in North America and Western Europe. This spans from local manufacturing plants to regional logistics providers for larger corporations. Now, as the generation born between 1946 and 1964 begin to reach retirement age, many left without clear successors or offspring

Article by Tejasva Pande What turns a roadside hotel into a $1000 luxury destination overnight? The answer is a total solar eclipse. Millions of travelers come to geographic paths of totality to watch the moon block out the sun, which in turn, allows the hospitality industry to experience an economic phenomenon as rare as the event itself– a sudden, massive surge in pricing. A total solar eclipse occurs across specific areas in the world. When these parts go through populated

What happens when a tech company backed financially by the government meets a global AI-driven chip craze? You get the biggest stock market debut in Asia this year. On July 27, 2026, Chinese chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies made its debut on Shanghai's STAR market and its shares surged nearly 470% in a single trading day. CXMT is China's largest producer of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). This computer memory chip powers everything from smartphones and laptops to

Article by Tejasva Pande The next time you fill your vehicle at a fuel station in India, you aren't just buying petroleum but rather a product of Indian sugarcane and grain. India has hit a historic green milestone by mandating E20 petrol– which is a mix of 80% petrol and 20% domestically grown ethanol across the country. While this policy is designed to reduce the heavy reliance on foreign oil, it is causing completely different realities for the everyday population along wi

As temperatures peak across the US and Europe during the height of summer, so do the stocks, with the market serving up some of the most fascinating investment setups that have been seen this year. If you want to grow your money, you don’t need to rely on niche, unknown companies, as two of the most well-known corporations– Rolls-Royce in the UK and Meta Platforms in the US are flashing major buy signals for different reasons As we enter July 2026, the financial markets are b

Would you pay close to $1700 for a single square foot of dirt? In a lot of parts of the world, this statement would sound absurd, but in the ultra luxury heart of New Delhi, that is simply the entry level price to the most exclusive neighborhood in all of India. While global real estate markets face high interest rates, the elite areas of New Delhi are experiencing a record-breaking surge in property valuations. When we talk about posh areas in New Delhi, we primarily look at

Article by Tejasva Pande “Let the oil flow!” With those words, the Four month war that nearly pushed the global economy into a severe recession came to a sudden halt. This newly announced Pise deal between the United States and Iran is more than just a massive lift of burden from global diplomacy– It is a major catalyst for international markets. Following the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, Pakistan and Qatar successfully mediated a deal in Geneva. At the heart of this w

Article by Tejasva Pande The World Cup began yesterday, and as millions of fans across the globe tune in to watch it across North America, the real competition isn’t happening on the field, but rather on your screen. While 48 nations compete for football’s greatest prize, the world’s biggest corporations are locked in their own competition– the game of World Cup sponsorships, where the financial return on investment can be just as historic as the tournament itself. Every 4 ye

Article by Tejasva Pande Imagine owning stocks of a company that wants to send humans to mars, and provides internet to the most remote corners of the world. For two decades, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was completely off limits to everyday investors, however this ends on June 12th, where SpaceX will go public and offer the largest IPO in the stock market in history. An IPO, or Initial Public Offering is the very first time a private company sells its stock to the public. SpaceX has r