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Business Standard

Best of BS Opinion: Guarding your wicket because the stakes are high

You can tell when someone's batting for survival. Their front foot doesn't glide, it anchors. Their bat meets each ball like it's a ticking time bomb. In life, like in cricket, there are moments when you can't afford a reckless shot. You need to defend, calculate, and wait for the right ball. India, too, is batting on a tricky pitch, where one loose move could cost it dearly. Let's dive in. Take the long-delayed census, finally scheduled in two halves for 2026 and 2027. After 16 years, India's statistical innings will resume, with caste back on the scoresheet for the first time since 1931. As our first editorial notes, the data will determine everything from welfare policies to parliamentary seat counts (including women reservation). But mismanaging it, especially amid rising caste demands, could be like swinging blindly against a googly. The ball could turn sharply into political controversy. A similar test match is playing out in India's skies. Emirates' Tim Clark wants more airspace, but IndiGo's Pieter Elbers is defending home turf. As our second editorial outlines, Gulf carriers are eyeing India as a transit trophy. But without upgrading our airports and holding firm on bilaterals, we risk losing the strategic match point. Then there's the US-India tariff standoff. As Mark Linscott and Anushka Shah explain, India's offer to slash duties for the US, without a formal FTA, feels like a bold reverse sweep. But if Washington doesn't reciprocate, we could lose pricing power and political face. Three scenarios are on the table, but only one keeps India in the game. Meanwhile, India's telecom sector is playing a long innings on a crumbling pitch. As Nivedita Mookerji observes, decades of ultra-low tariffs have thrilled spectators but drained the players. With debt piling up, 5G unrecovered, and spectrum battles brewing, even a solid forward defence might not be enough to keep telcos standing. And in the media pavilion, Jennifer Burns' review of Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus reminds us how postwar conservatism's star batsman mixed style with substance, though not always cleanly. The strokes he pioneered still echo in today's polarised playbook. In all of this, one truth holds: the field is open, the crowd is watching, but it's the careful batsman who will survive. Stay tuned!