New Delhi, April 21 -- Last week, Bertie was in Vietnam with the extended family. Whenever he sees a wide, un-dug road with orderly traffic, the harried Mumbaikar in him sighs. When he sees clean sidewalks, the non-tobacco-chewing Indian in him sighs, and when he sees the hotel rates in South-East Asia, the Taj Inner Circle member in him sighs.

Bertie cannot do much about the state of the roads in Mumbai or the 'jubaan kesari' crowd, but the exorbitant hotel rates at home are something he decided to investigate. The properties he stayed at in Vietnam were priced at half of what a comparable hotel in India would cost, and what intrigued Bertie was that this was never the case till before the pandemic.

Analysts in India blame the standsti...