Latest news with #AKBhattacharya
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Business Standard
a day ago
- 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!
Business Standard
08-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Three nationalisations: Lessons from govt's approach to SBI, LIC, Air India
A common factor uniting the three entities is that they all belonged to the services sector A K Bhattacharya New Delhi Listen to This Article About seven decades ago, the Indian government under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru nationalised three major entities. One of them — State Bank of India (SBI) — is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its reincarnation this month. The second — Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) — will mark 70 years of nationalisation in 2026. And the third should have celebrated its 70th anniversary of nationalisation two years ago, but could not do so as it was privatised just a year before turning 70 as a nationalised outfit. This was Air India. The trajectory of these three enterprises that embarked on their individual
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Business Standard
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Ghosts return when we forget why they were banished
There's a superstition in every family. Some refuse to say the name of a dead relative who brought more harm than good. Some keep a room locked, an old letter unread, a photograph hidden behind a newer one. Not because they want to forget, but because they want to remember right. That is because a ghost must be remembered, precisely so it is not counted among the living and allowed to raise hell again. Let's dive in. On the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, the unnamed ghost is easy to see. June 25, 1975 was not merely a date, it was a descent into sanctioned silence. With habeas corpus gone, opposition crushed, and media blinded, the darkness was not just metaphorical. As memories fade, so too does vigilance. Yet, as our first editorial notes, the legal aftershocks lasted until 2017. The Emergency was not a one-off horror but a recurring lesson in how institutions like the courts, press, and even Parliament, can be turned against the people they are meant to serve. Meanwhile, another spectre lurks in the form of India's demographic dividend. Our second editorial cautions: the window opened in 2019 when the population between 15 and 64 began to dominate the number of children and the elderly, but time is ticking. Without high growth, skilled labour, and meaningful reform in health and education, our advantage could rot into a liability. Like a ghost that once offered promise, but now rattles chains of regret. A K Bhattacharya shows how the Centre's approach to public sector undertakings is shaped by ghosts of past policies, shifting from privatisation dreams to PSU-led capital expenditure. While this approach powered post-Covid recovery, it may not remain sustainable without new funding sources. And in Debarpita Roy's column, the spectre is social exclusion. The PMAY scheme works in small towns, but in India's largest cities, EWS housing plans are haunted by delays, poor design, and worse demand. Until cities prioritise serviced plots and rental reforms over distant, vertical ghettos, the urban poor will remain stuck in the ghost neighbourhoods of failed intentions. Finally, in Kanika Datta's review of 1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World, the ghost is colonial hypocrisy. Phil Craig revisits WWII's end not as a heroic Allied victory, but a cynical return to empire-building. While flawed in rigour, the book still reminds us that many post-war promises were buried alive, not fulfilled.
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Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
A K Bhattacharya's third book on India's FMs captures the post-reform era
Typically, by the third sequel, authors tend to lose energy, but not A K Bhattacharya. He enjoys reporting the joys and pains of India's finance ministers too much premium Laveesh Bhandari Listen to This Article India's Finance Ministers III: Different Strokes (1998–2014) by A K Bhattacharya Published by Penguin Business 556 pages ₹999 Titled India's Finance Ministers: Different Strokes (1998-2014), this volume does exactly what the previous two in the same series did, but over some of the most interesting years of modern Indian economic history. The style remains the same: Non-judgemental and clinical, yet not critical. Perhaps there would be another where the author does not shy away from judgement or critique, but for now, he is simply a raconteur and not an analyst. The period 1998 to 2014 is unarguably critical; the reforms of the
