Best of BS Opinion: India's challenges in a rapidly-changing world

Business Standard

23-05-2025

At some point, every city-dweller has done it: chasing after a train that's already moving. Shoes skidding, breath short, fingers stretching for a handle that's just out of reach. There's a thrill in catching it and a sting in missing it. Lately, the world feels like a series of such moments. Whether it's tech, health, money, or mobility, the train doesn't stop. You either catch it or you fall behind. And India, in many ways, is sprinting and stumbling on this ever-accelerating platform. Let's dive in.
Take the country's car market, once defined by the humble hatchback. Now, premium SUVs are dominating sales, nudging past the halfway mark in FY25, while small car sales stall in the pit lane. As affordability falters, with just 12 per cent of households earning enough to dream of a new car, mobility is tilting toward either two-wheelers or used SUVs. The classic middle-class car dream is being priced out of reach. Reimagining this market may need the boldness that airlines and FMCG players once showed, suggests our first editorial.
Meanwhile, the pandemic train has slowed but not stopped. The sub-variant JN.1 is sweeping across parts of Asia, and while India's caseload is low, the writing on the wall is clear: Covid is here to stay. Our best bet? Annual boosters for the vulnerable, stronger genomic tracking, and active participation in global health compacts, notes our second editorial. Complacency isn't an option: the virus won't wait, nor should we.
On the economic front, Sonal Varma writes on a rare upside: inflation dipping below the RBI's 4 per cent target, potentially even below 3 per cent. Cheaper food, softening imports, and a tepid global environment are helping. The RBI may cut rates further, cushioning consumption and margins. But this tailwind must be caught fast before risks like geopolitical shocks or global instability sneak back in.
As India responds swiftly to the Pahalgam attack, Rajesh Kumar dissects how Pakistan remains trapped in its own loop, driven by military priorities and economic chaos. While India recalibrates on the fly, Pakistan's train seems headed backwards, with ordinary citizens footing the fare.
And in Telecom Wars: The Race to Capture a Billion Voices, Deepali Gupta captures another high-speed transformation, India's chaotic, courageous journey from patchy landlines to telecom titans. As Nivedita Mookerji notes in her review, the book is a crash course in how to run, and sometimes, outrun the system.