us iran standoff

The new developments in the Middle East could not have come at a worse time for India. With the economy languishing at a sub-five per cent GDP growth for the past two quarters, and inflation overshooting the five per cent mark, driven by high prices of onion and pulses, the last thing that the country needed was an exterior shock that would make matters worse. The killing of a key Iranian paramilitary leader Major General Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq on Friday morning by the US forces has not only brought the Middle East on the brink once again, it has cast a shadow on the economy of hugely oil-dependent countries such as India. Coming just days ahead of the Union budget–in which finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to announce tax cuts and further sectoral stimulus to kickstart the economy–the Middle East crisis raises serious questions on the impact on India of a fresh escalation in tensions in the region.