Best of BS Opinion: Silver linings emerge in oil, politics, and trade

Business Standard

06-05-2025

There's a strange beauty to waking up just before the sun. The world is still draped in yesterday, the sky unsure whether to stay grey or start glowing. It's a moment of in-betweens. The silence after the storm, the stillness before the stir. And yet, just then, a sliver of light appears at the edge of your window — small, steady, and insistent. A reminder that every long night has its crack of dawn. Today's stories feel similar. Let's dive in.
Take oil, for instance. After months of volatility, Opec+ is nudging prices lower again with a 400,000 barrels-per-day production increase for June. The push, led by Riyadh, isn't just about economics, it's also about enforcing discipline on overzealous producers like Iraq and Kazakhstan. And for big oil importers like India, this softening is a blessed relief, easing inflation and soothing the current account deficit, notes our first editorial. It's not a full sunrise, but it's enough to warm your hands.
Politics, meanwhile, is shifting too, defiantly, highlights our second editorial. Voters in Canada and Australia have shrugged off Trump-style politics in favour of centre-left steadiness. Mark Carney in Canada reversed a polling deficit after anti-Trump sentiment took hold, while in Australia, conservative hardliner Peter Dutton couldn't hold his own seat. Even Nigel Farage, the perennial populist disruptor, is keeping a cautious public distance from his American inspiration. The Anglosphere may still be divided, but its spine appears to be stiffening.
Yet amid these hopeful turns, the US itself is weathering an economic and geopolitical tornado. Akash Prakash observes how Trump's second term has brought back tariff-era uncertainties, with markets soaring even as recession risks loom. But perhaps this chaos is also carving out a once-lost path for India, an overdue shot at integrating into global supply chains. Now, maybe, just maybe, dawn is returning.
Still, seizing that dawn won't be easy. As Prosenjit Datta points out, India's caught between two giants — America's push for decoupling and China's not-so-subtle threats. The country must chart its own course, building manufacturing muscle and strategic autonomy. It's a tightrope, no doubt, but also a rare alignment of opportunity and urgency.
And speaking of memory and new beginnings, Neha Kirpal's review of Farewell Karachi: A Partition Memoir reminds us that silver linings aren't always loud. Bhawana Somaaya's memoir of Partition-era displacement offers something raw and luminous: stories of women silenced, of homes abandoned, and of identities stitched together in the dark.
Stay tuned, and remember, no matter the darkness of the night, the sun is always on its way!