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Business Standard
24-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Fizzy disruptions in policy, green finance, and EVs
There's a moment we've all seen when someone shakes a soda bottle and pops it open. The fizz, once contained, rushes out in a messy, uncontrollable burst. The silence, just before opening the bottle carries a warning, the cap twists, and then? Pssst! Everything bursts out. Not all at once, but in waves: fizz racing to the top, foam threatening to overflow, some bubbles dying instantly, others lingering on the surface. Today's world feels a bit like that — stories building pressure across different fronts, each one releasing its own distinct effervescence into the policy air. Some refreshing, some overwhelming, all demanding attention. Let's dive in. Take the EV scene. Vietnam's VinFast and Tesla are making sharply different bets on India — VinFast doubling down with a $2 billion plant in Tamil Nadu, and Tesla, as noted in our first editorial, entering quietly but expensively with import duties. The domestic industry finds itself caught between the promise of electrification and the threat of disruption, with government policy trying to juggle protectionism, green targets, and geopolitical caution, all without letting the bottle explode. Meanwhile, a record fizz of another kind appeared in the EPFO numbers. In May, 2 million new members joined, nearly 60 per cent of them aged between 18 and 25. First-timers, returnees, and more women suggest a growing sense of social security consciousness. But as our second editorial cautions, this bubble sits atop a still-fragile structure. The pension floor is too low, and wage thresholds are outdated — enough pressure, perhaps, to shake up long-needed reforms. Finance, as M S Sahoo and CKG Nair argue in their column, isn't the hero of climate action it's sometimes made out to be. Markets may glitter with green labels, but they follow profits, not principles. Without strong policies and pricing that penalises pollution, this fizz too will flatten out into greenwashing rather than green progress. In global trade, Pravin Krishna and Monil Sharma write of a new carbonated coercion — where the US uses its market heft to extract bilateral concessions. India and others now face a choice: bend to power or rebuild the WTO's fizzled-out framework. Finally, Sanjay Kumar Singh reviews H.I.T. Investing: Strong returns through high-impact investing leveraging technology by Mahesh Joshi, a book which insists that investing with impact doesn't mean compromising returns. True value, he suggests, is like the best kind of fizz — not trend-driven sparkle, but lasting effervescence. Stay tuned!
Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
M S Sahoo
M S Sahoo is an acclaimed thought leader in financial markets and served as the first Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. He has held several significant positions in the Indian financial sector.
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Business Standard
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Continuing turbulence in air, economy, and law
The crash of Air India Flight 171 shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad has reignited concerns about aviation safety in India. The cause remains unknown, but the toll, with multiple lives lost and a residential building destroyed, has prompted calls for a credible and timely investigation. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, under the civil aviation ministry, is leading the probe with support from British and Boeing investigators. While India's aviation safety record has improved in recent decades, the spotlight now falls on Air India's post-privatisation priorities, argues our first editorial. With the Centre aiming to double domestic traffic and expand airport infrastructure by 2030, public confidence hinges on ensuring safety isn't sidelined. Israel's air strikes on Iran have escalated tensions in West Asia, with fears of a wider conflict threatening energy markets and trade routes. Crude and gas prices have jumped, and the possibility of a proxy war looms with the involvement of Iran-backed groups. The strikes may also derail ongoing nuclear negotiations. Israel accuses Iran of nuclear ambitions, while Tehran insists its programme is peaceful. With both nations entangled in domestic political stakes, external silence has grown louder, notes our second editorial. India has echoed its familiar call for restraint, mindful of its diplomatic ties and economic exposure to both sides. Meanwhile, M S Sahoo and Ashish Makhija argue that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, once a shining example of institutional alignment, has been eroded by judicial overreach, bureaucratic delays, and enforcement disruptions. Supreme Court rulings in key cases have altered the Code's commercial logic. The National Company Law Tribunal, already under-resourced, struggles with complex insolvency matters. Meanwhile, government agencies continue to disrupt resolution processes, undermining investor confidence. Without urgent fixes, they caution, the IBC risks losing its effectiveness entirely. According to Debashis Basu, the Reserve Bank's recent rate cut failed to energise the economy. Despite liquidity infusion, growth remains sluggish. The four economic engines, consumption, exports, private investment, and government capex, are all under strain. Structural issues, including over-taxation and stagnant job creation, outweigh the benefits of monetary easing. Finally, Peter Sagal reviews Submersed:Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines by Matthew Gavin Frank, a haunting blend of memoir and true crime. The book explores the world of amateur submarine builders while tracing the tragic murder of journalist Kim Wall. Although the narrative occasionally drifts, its psychological depth makes it a gripping read. Stay tuned!
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Business Standard
15-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
IBC in stress: Survival depends on commitment to its core principles
Public laws aim to keep the crime proceeds beyond the reach of criminals while punishing the criminals. Although these proceeds were never the state's property, state benefits from their confiscation M S Sahoo Ashish Makhija Listen to This Article The Indian Parliament in 2016 enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to address the country's persistent challenges of financial stress and managing bad debts, with the overarching objective of driving economic growth. In its initial years, the IBC benefited from rare institutional alignment. The legislature amended the code six times in the first five years to address implementation challenges and respond to the evolving economic environment. With alacrity, the executive issued the rules and regulations, established the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), accredited insolvency professionals, and built the supporting ecosystem. The
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Business Standard
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Tracking shifts in judiciary, trade, and policy
On some winter mornings, the fog hangs low, heavy, and indifferent, so thick it swallows outlines and makes familiar paths feel eerily new. You know the road is there, the gate, the turn, the waiting tea vendor, but they disappear into the blur. So, what do you do? You light a lantern. Not to banish the fog, but to move through it. Slowly. Deliberately. That's what today's stories feel like, each one a small but stubborn light in the haze of complexity, delay, or transition. Let's dive in. Take the elevation of Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the 52nd Chief Justice of India. He becomes only the second Dalit to reach this post, a milestone of representation in a system often criticised for its opacity and imbalance, notes our first editorial. His six-month term probably won't clear the backlog of over 80,000 cases or instantly fix the judiciary's trust deficit but his vow to steer clear of post-retirement rewards is a moral lantern, lighting up a path where judges stand apart, not beholden. In climate policy too, the fog is thick. The government's plan to add a 'sustainable transport' mission to its climate change agenda sounds promising, highlights our second editorial. But scratch the surface, and you're lost in contradictions, charging stations powered by coal, EV adoption stalling, and road freight refusing to yield. Still, setting stricter norms like Bharat VII and planning millions of clean-energy charging stations signal direction. Not a revolution, but something nonetheless. Meanwhile, M S Sahoo's column dissects the Bhushan Power case, where a long-settled resolution was undone six years later, without consequence to those responsible. It's not just a legal curiosity, it exposes a system where decisions are made in fog and reversed with no warning. His call for finality, speed, and economic coherence in the insolvency process is not a cry into the void, but a call for justice to be visible and reliable. In a shifting world economy, Amrit Amirapu and Arvind Subramanian argue that even as old models of industrial growth fade, manufacturing still offers the clearest light for the world's poorest. It's not a floodlight, but a torch — scalable, inclusive, imperfect that shows enough of the road ahead to keep moving. And in his review of India-Africa: Building Synergies In Peace, Security And Development by Ruchita Beri, Dammu Ravi reflects on India's evolving partnership with Africa. The continent is no longer just a recipient of help, it's a force finding its own way. India's role? Not to lead with certainty, but to walk alongside, lighting lanterns of health, education, energy, and trade across a vast and often invisible terrain.
