Latest news with #AKBhattacharya
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Business Standard
9 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Fear and posturing in politics, policy, and war
We've all heard the stories of the witch on her broomstick, streaking across the sky, ominously laughing and casting spells to terrify entire villages. But look closely, and you might see something else: a figure clutching the broom a little too tightly, lashes of wind in her face, rage masking internal fear. Often, the loudest menace is just the most unsettled spirit. Power in such hands doesn't seek balance, it seeks control, a way to bend the world into something less frightening to itself. And while the witch believes she's in command, the trail she leaves behind can be chaos for everyone else. Let's dive in. Take Donald Trump's tariff blitz for example. As our first editorial notes, his policies have upended long-settled trade norms. India's talks with Washington failed, and now tariffs could top 50 per cent on some goods, pricing much of $86.5 billion in exports out of the US market. Negotiations may still yield a deal, but the real spell being cast is on the structure of global trade itself, one that might not easily be undone. Meanwhile, in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court's order to round up all stray dogs, whether sterilised or vaccinated, has sparked its own storm. Bypassing earlier norms, it has demanded vast shelters within eight weeks. Animal rights activists fear cruelty; municipal bodies fear logistics. Proven, humane models exist in other regions, yet years of neglect have brought us here, highlights our second editorial. In this story too, the harsh hand is a response to a deeper fear: of losing control over a problem long left to fester. A K Bhattacharya notes, India's import duty scene has transformed since GST. Customs duty's share has slid from 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2016-17 to 0.7 per cent today, while IGST on imports has surged, shifting more revenue to states. The Centre, seeing its share erode, leans on cesses and surcharges. Like a witch guarding her sky route, each side is recalibrating to secure its patch of fiscal space. And Ranjan Mathai tracks a similar mix of theatre and threat in oil politics. Trump's Pakistan oil talk and tariff pressure aim to sway markets and India's choices. With 90 per cent import dependence, India needs domestic exploration more than ever, yet taxation and underwhelming finds are limiting momentum. The witch's broom may be shaking; the real test is whether India builds its own wings. Finally, in The Art of War and Peace: The Changing Face of 21st-Century Warfare by David Kilcullen and Greg Mills, reviewed by Shyam Saran, conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine show how fear of defeat and irrelevance can drive leaders to reckless action. The witch's lesson holds: the more fear governs the hand, the wilder the flight. Stay tuned!
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Business Standard
17 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Tariffs as revenue: Change in India's import duties lifted states' income
The last decade or so provides a nice base for studying the trends in government revenue from import tariffs of all types A K Bhattacharya Listen to This Article Everyone these days is talking about tariffs. India has been accused of being a tariff king, suggesting that the country keeps its tariffs high. The United States President Donald Trump has levied additional tariffs of over 50 per cent on imports of most goods from India. Indian exporters are, obviously, worried and concerned. But this piece is not about whether India's tariffs are high. Nor is it about assessing the seriousness of the impact of higher tariffs on Indian exports. Instead, an attempt is being made here to evaluate the impact of tariffs on the exchequer by way of tax
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
No, Minister: Subhash Chandra Garg's 2nd memoir mirrors tone of his first
The tenor of the second part of former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's memoir is not dissimilar to that which pervaded his first one --and the title is a dead giveaway A K Bhattacharya New Delhi Listen to This Article No, Minister Published by Juggernaut 424 pages ₹799 There are no government-mandated uniforms for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, but they must follow an unwritten dress code. A price has to be paid by those who don't. It may be a casual admonition or a serious charge. Former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg recounts in this book two such instances from his 36-year-long service as an IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre. As a young officer, he once called on his senior wearing sneakers. Many years later, Mr Garg was gently admonished publicly by the same senior, who expressed
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Business Standard
23-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: In a swirl of crises, who still holds the torch?
There's something surreal about watching the Olympic flame being passed hand to hand, unwavering, even as torrential rain pelts down or gusts of wind try to snuff it out. That torch — symbolising effort, endurance and fragile hope — has to stay alight. And so, often, do we. In a world where each week feels like a relay of upheavals, someone somewhere must clutch the torch. Whether it's a policymaker braving backlash, a pilot navigating public doubt, or a seller trying to keep the algorithm from crushing them. The flame must travel on, however stormy the route. Let's dive in. Private banks are gripping the torch with white-knuckled resolve. As unsecured loans and agri lending turn slippery, Axis and Yes Bank have already stumbled, reporting sharp slippages. Yet the system-wide burn remains faint, for now. As our first editorial notes, the deeper tremor lies in a subtle credit pivot: with big corporations increasingly tapping capital markets, banks may soon be stuck with the riskier borrowers. More risk, fewer returns, while households pile on debt and liquidity flows unchecked. The flame flickers, but regulators must keep it upright. NITI Aayog, meanwhile, is navigating geopolitical gusts. As our second editorial argues, it has recommended letting Chinese firms buy up to 24 per cent in Indian companies without extra clearances. A torchy move, given the fraught 2020 border standoff, but also a pragmatic one. With India's trade deficit with China peaking and FDI flows from Beijing still negligible, this could signal a new openness — though the risks, influence-wise, remain very real. Carrying the flame into darker terrain is A K Bhattacharya, who dissects the troubling investigation into the Ahmedabad Dreamliner crash. The AAIB's hasty, error-ridden probe, minus a Dreamliner pilot no less, has dented public trust. Global scrutiny, aviation opacity, Gujarat's political sensitivity—it's a storm of scrutiny. Yet in this downpour, the need for transparency and technical reform shines brighter than ever. And Kaushik Das writes of a rare weather shift: inflation has dipped to 2.1 per cent, offering momentary relief. But economists urge restraint — torch-bearing is not torch-throwing. The RBI must resist aggressive rate cuts, lest inflation re-ignites with renewed ferocity. Finally, in OTP Please! Online Buyers, Sellers and Gig Workers in South Asia, reviewed by Chintan Girish Modi, Vandana Vasudevan captures the lonely resilience of gig workers and small sellers trying to stay visible, solvent, and sane in a platform-controlled storm. Their struggles of data dominance, algorithmic suppression, and vanishing autonomy are stories of endurance, often in silence. Stay tuned!
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Business Standard
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: When the world cartwheels, who lands on their feet?
Cartwheeling. There's something beautifully chaotic about it. One moment, you're upright and confident, the next, your limbs are in the air, the ground vanishes from under you, and you're spinning in a blur: half out of control, half in flow. For kids, it's play. For adults, it becomes a metaphor. Of pivoting too fast, adjusting mid-air, hoping the landing sticks. And lately, India seems to be in a season of cartwheels, not just in trade or nutrition or diplomacy, but in the stories of those who've lived through many flips and still found their footing. Let's dive in. Take Donald Trump's latest tariff twist with duties flying from 25 per cent to 40 per cent for 57 countries. Yet somehow, India is off the hit list. Our first editorial reckons that a US-India deal might be near. But this isn't the gentle art of negotiation, it's more like a cartwheel through a trade war, where balance is elusive and timing is everything. Meanwhile, the National Statistics Office's new data reveals a different kind of shift: how India eats. With caloric intake among the poor rising and cereal dependency dipping in parts, we're seeing a cautious pivot toward protein diversity. But the movement's uneven, argues our second editorial. Some states remain grounded in tradition, while others are mid-flip, experimenting with diets that could either nourish or tip us into obesity. A K Bhattacharya reminds us that institutions, too, cartwheel with time. SBI, LIC, and Air India, each spun by policy winds over 70 years and landed differently. LIC clings to strategic value. Air India, flung back to the Tatas. SBI still stands tall, but slightly dizzy from its tightrope walk between government control and autonomy. And Ajay Srivastava explores the US' tariff tantrums as those MASALA deals are less about fair trade, more about flexing muscle. India, unlike Vietnam or the UK, hasn't jumped yet. It's watching the floor spin beneath others, deciding if it wants to leap or stay grounded a little longer. Finally, in The Woman Who Ran AIIMS: The Memoirs of a Medical Pioneer reviewed by Neha Bhatt, Sneh Bhargava's story emerges as a masterclass in composure mid-cartwheel: handling trauma, leadership, and change with grace that only decades of revolutions, personal and national, can teach. Stay tuned and remember, the trick isn't just in spinning. It's in knowing when to stop and how to land!
