Best of BS Opinion: India's race with reforms, reality, and risks

Business Standard

22-07-2025

We've all watched those nail-biting Olympic relay races — where one fumbled handoff, one split-second hesitation, can undo a team's entire rhythm. There's something profoundly frustrating about that race where everyone runs their stretch with gusto but the baton keeps slipping between handovers. The track is well-laid, the runners well-trained, the goal clear. Yet, without a clean pass, all that effort unravels because no matter how fast the sprinters are, it's the baton pass that decides victory. Today's editorials and columns draw our attention to something similar — everyone sprinting, but few managing a smooth exchange. Let's dive in.
Take the Centre's renewed urgency to reform the Goods and Services Tax system. It's been eight years since GST was introduced, and it was meant to be the ultimate baton pass — unifying the nation under one tax regime. Now, with Amit Shah reportedly entering the fray and the Prime Minister's Office giving the green light for structural overhaul, rate slab simplification and compliance easing are back on the agenda. But, as our first editorial cautions, unless these proposals are handed down with precision and not fumbled through political hesitation or procedural hurdles, the finish line will keep drifting.
Agriculture, too, is in transition mode. The new PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana, as our second editorial notes, marks a shift from blanket subsidies to district-level problem-solving. Yet, stitching together 36 schemes across 11 departments while tracking 117 performance metrics is no small feat. And if climate adaptation isn't baked in from the start, and bureaucratic bulk isn't streamlined, the baton risks falling before the first lap is done.
Globally, Nitin Desai warns that a faltering America is no longer the dependable lead runner in the global relay. To avoid a collapse in multilateral cooperation, he advocates forming 'coalitions of the willing' on agriculture and climate — groups that can bypass Washington's gridlock. These coalitions won't rewrite the rules, but they can keep the baton in play while the superpowers stumble.
And Ranjan Mathai's column on India's rare earths dilemma is a study in potential lost to poor handovers. Despite having the world's third-largest reserves, India's production chain is stuck at the starting block. China, meanwhile, controls the full mine-to-magnet relay. Without cleaner mining models, tech investment, and faster regulatory clearances, India's baton will stay grounded.
Finally, in The Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, Prosenjit Datta reviews Kaunain Sheriff M's harrowing exposé of how J&J knowingly delayed recalling faulty hip implants in India. Patients suffered while the firm minimised compensation and regulators hesitated. It's a brutal reminder: when the baton is dropped in healthcare, lives — not medals — are lost.
Stay tuned!