Latest news with #SunitaNarain
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Business Standard
04-08-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: India must not shy away from trade negotiations
Hello, and welcome to the BS Views, our distilled wrap of today's Opinion page. The chasm between the 25 per cent tariffs against India and the so-called TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) sentiment is considerable but not unbridgeable. It is entirely possible that it may end up lower, if the Indian negotiating teams is able to reach a broader deal at the last minute. Our first editorial notes that, whatever the final outcome, this episode should not cause India to step back from the need for more international trade. The way to move forward would be to increase productivity and competitiveness, and not allow the view that India can never match the levels of north-east or south-east Asia. On the contrary the best way to improve competitiveness is greater trade openness and the competitive discipline that comes with it. Meanwhile, India should keep looking for broad agreements with the US, as well as other trade blocs such as the EU, instead of giving up on trade negotiations altogether. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) stands to benefit from its participation in the Artemis Accords, perhaps more than its counterpart, the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), notes our second editorial. The launch of the Nisar (Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite is the second major mission between the two, after the Axiom 4 mission. The Accords offer a set of principles for civil exploration and use of outer space, and lets the famously-frugal Isro and the Indian aerospace sector to bid for Nasa tenders at a time when President Trump is cutting Nasa budgets. The Nisar data will also be critical to understand climate change, and India will be a major beneficiary, given Nasa and other American agencies may not be able to fully capitalise on the data because of new policy restraints. If you live in any major Indian metro, chances are you are stuck in a traffic jam every single day; hours in traffic are time away from more meaningful activities, yet we have normalised congestion without understanding its root causes, writes Sunita Narain. Much-touted solutions - more flyovers, fewer signals, wider roads - have instead exacerbated the problem. To fix this, we must look at congestion's political economy: more people are opting for two-wheelers and cars, filling up any new road space. The fundamental problem is the lack of public transport modes, their unreliability (ironically, caused by congestion), and gaps in planned last-mile connectivity. In fact, the last issue is being met largely by unregulated auto- and e-rickshaws, making congestion worse. But the key remains more, viable mass transport systems, pedestrian systems, and an integrated, well-regulated last-mile transit system. The headlines have been abuzz with words like QR code scams, digital arrest, and the like. Digital financial crimes have risen in tandem with India's digital economy, writes Ajay Shah and Nandkumar Saravade, while calling for a more rigorous approach than the current web of micro-regulations that do little other than passing the buck between the government, telecom operators, and the hapless victims. The mismatch between reported numbers and government data points to a lack of clarity, preventing the government from grasping the actual scale of the issue. To fix it, the government must first clarify the extent of losses. The second requirement is a coordinated response involving various stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, telcos, and the police. The final piece of the jigsaw is a expert group that formulates a national strategy on digital fraud with specific timelines and milestones. The rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution that ousted the then Shah is a historical event that upended the region's politics, US foreign policy, and effectively ended then-US President Jimmy Carter's hopes for a second term. Scott Anderson's book KING OF KINGS: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation captures the miscalculation of American policy - which triggered the hostage crisis - in exceptional detail combined with superb storytelling, writes Mark Bowden. This sweeping and complex chronicle also highlights the travail of Michael Metrinko, America's political office at the US Embassy in Tehran at the time, whose dire warnings were ignored by the highest levels of the US government because they were at odds with the official, upbeat versions of what was coming.
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Business Standard
07-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: US trade deal or not, India must cast its net wider
Hello and welcome to BS Views, your doorway to today's opinion page. The deadline for US-imposed higher tariffs is almost upon us, and yet there is little to suggest that it has reached a trade deal with India, notes our first editorial. Reports suggest that the US is seeking greater market access in agricultural commodities and genetically-modified (GM) foods, which India is uncomfortable with. One thing is clear, though: the US will have much higher tariffs, increasing friction in global trade. While India and the US might yet reach a deal, the former must seek deeper engagement with other partners. This is necessary also because of China's arm-twisting: it recently recalled some of its engineers working in India as a means to disrupt India's growing strength in mobile manufacturing. Doing all of this won't be easy, but ways must be found to advance engagement with multiple trading partners. Vehicle pollution needs structured solutions, argues our second editorial, as shown by the recent ban - and withdrawal soon after - on selling fuel to overage cars in the national capital. It might have been well-intentioned but was inherently impractical solution to the issue Delhi's toxic air pollution. While the science and law was behind the ban, inadequate monitoring equipment has made a mockery of the directive. Then there was the public outcry, which had political implications. A more structured approach towards vehicular pollution, such as accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and offering more rigorous testing standards, would work better. Sunita Narain writes on behalf of a cohort that grew up in the post-colonial era and witnessed a world order that was intensely inequitable but still seemed capable of reform. She rues the changing world order, where countries can take unilateral action to bomb another, and the world stands by, helpless and silent. Her lament is in the context of the Israeli bombing of Iran, which is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (unlike Israel, which is suspected of having a covert nuclear programme), and was under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The attack on Iran is, she argues, about the future of a world order built on rules, or even the future of multilateralism. All this adds up to crisis of the commons, and one that can only be solved by consensus and trust. Our columnist Ajay Shah argues that China's recall of some of its engineers to stymie efforts by Foxconn to shift globalised manufacturing to India reflects its weakness, not strength. While this may delay movement of high skill activities from China to India, it increases incentives for global firms to do less in China. Globalised manufacturing is a high wire act, requiring building complex firms and deep knowledge, which is available in many places other than China. What's more, China faces two key issues: first, its foreign policy is one of strategic autonomy but at a much lower scale than, say, the US; the second is a lack of intellectual leadership. India's firms need to redouble their efforts at obtaining frontiers knowledge from abroad, rather than just mobilising factory workers into shifts. That is quite a journey ahead. Megan Greenwell's BAD COMPANY: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream maps the rise of private equity, one of the most powerful forces in America's, if not the globe's, financial and corporate world. Jennifer Szalai says the book emphasises the human costs of private equity, but offers stories that are textured, not one-note tales of woe, stories of tentative hopefulness followed by a rude awakening. The author, herself the editor of an online magazine that was taken over by a PE firm and then run into the ground, notes that she wrote the book not out of spite but of curiosity towards how powerful private equity had become. The catch is that PE firms charge fees and benefit from tax breaks that delink risk and reward. The book points out how abstractions like 'consolidation' and 'efficiency' have given cover to real betrayals.
Business Standard
06-07-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
Sunita Narain
Sunita Narain is an Indian environmentalist and the director general of the Centre for Science and Environment. She is also the editor of Down To Earth and was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in 2005 for her work in promoting water literacy.
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Business Standard
08-06-2025
- Automotive
- Business Standard
Electric vehicles: Why change is needed and how to make it happen
By 2030, the penetration of EV sales would be 70 per cent of all new commercial cars, 30 per cent of private cars, 40 per cent of buses, and 80 per cent of two- and three wheelers Sunita Narain Listen to This Article There are three key reasons why countries need to electrify their vehicle fleet. One is climate change. The transport sector guzzles massive amounts of oil (petrol and diesel) and globally contributes roughly 15 per cent of annual carbon dioxide emissions. Zero-emission vehicles, or electric vehicles (EVs), replace oil with electricity, which is ideally generated in renewable-energy plants, and are seen as the solution. The second reason, which is more important for Indian cities, is that replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with zero-emission ones will reduce local pollution. And third: It will save us valuable foreign exchange because oil consumption will
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Mixed report card for Bengal environment
Kolkata: Bengal received mixed results in a nationwide assessment of states' performance on environment, sustainability, agriculture, public health, and infrastructure, according to State of India's Environment in Figures 2025, released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on the eve of World Environment Day. When it comes to agriculture and land use, Bengal fared better, ranking 6th with a score of 60.5, thanks to improved agricultural input usage and land sustainability. However, it lagged in terms of farmer welfare indicators, like indebtedness and insurance coverage. The report placed Bengal 23rd among 28 states in overall environmental performance, with a score of 50.1 out of 100. It fell behind on key indicators, like solid waste management, sewage treatment, and polluted river stretches, although it had moderate scores in climate-related parameters and forest cover. In terms of public health, Bengal fared poorly, ranking 23rd with a score of 39.4. The state continued to grapple with high rates of undernutrition among children, poor health infrastructure, and low percentages of medically certified deaths. Its performance across health outcomes, such as infant and maternal mortality, life expectancy, and insurance coverage, was also weak. In public infrastructure and human development, Bengal ranked 22nd, with a score of 43 out of 100. The state struggled with issues such as low female workforce participation, high graduate unemployment, and inadequate per capita power availability. CSE director general Sunita Narain emphasised that the data, sourced entirely from official govt statistics, offers a sobering picture. "India's most populous states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh — home to 49% of the country's population, rank low on nearly every theme. This shows that large segments of the population remain vulnerable and exposed to multiple threats," she said. Narain added: "Numbers usually give us the truth, and what we are unveiling clearly indicates that this is not the time for complacency, nor chest-thumping." No state emerged as a comprehensive leader, with even top-ranking states struggling in key areas. Andhra Pradesh, while leading in forest and biodiversity conservation, struggled with sewage and river pollution; Sikkim excelled in sustainable land use but lagged in farmer welfare; Goa, despite being the best in health and human development, faced bed shortages and low female labour participation.
