Latest news with #ShyamSaran
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Business Standard
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: High drama, stark contrasts, and subtle turns
There's something timeless about watching old Bollywood films. The slow pans, dramatic lighting, and silent longing in a glance, everything was coded, layered, and deceptively simple. Unlike the flashy saturation of today's Instagram reels, those monochrome moments knew that complexity often hides in contrast. That's how the current world feels too. At first glance, it seems disparate: inflation numbers, a language row, China's strategic tone, income inequality debates, and a re-examination of India-Israel relations. But like the classics, each carries subtext, contradiction, and a black-and-white simplicity that only deepens with closer look. Let's dive in. Take India's cooling inflation. Vegetable prices dipped by nearly 19 per cent in June, pulling retail inflation down to 2.1 per cent. But under that calm surface, oils and fats jumped 17 per cent, and core inflation remains sticky. As the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee weighs holding the repo at 5.5 per cent, the script shifts from price control to long-term reforms, notes our first editorial. The good monsoon may play hero this season, but the central bank, ever the stoic lead, refuses to overact. Meanwhile, the three-language formula of NEP 2020 is sparking fresh regional drama. In Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, it's not just about learning Hindi, it's about identity, autonomy, and electoral posturing. The Centre's push is seen by some as cultural dominance, though the Madras High Court ruled that RTE funds can't be held back over NEP non-compliance. The debate is familiar, and like in black-and-white films, what's left unsaid often says the most, highlights our second editorial. Overseas, the dragon is rewriting its own script. Shyam Saran finds China's confidence growing despite economic stumbles, rooted in its reading of American decline. With PLA purges and renewed aggression towards India, Beijing is back to playing antagonist, but with a sharper edge, more willing to back Pakistan, and dismissive of Indian clout. India, Saran warns, needs to shift from reactive cameos to strategic lead. At home, Ram Singh challenges the popular belief that inequality is soaring. The World Bank's latest data suggests India now has one of the lowest consumption inequality rates globally. Critics cite missing elite data, but Singh argues that even flawed numbers show a trend: more equitable consumption, stronger welfare, and a rise in bottom-half income share. The story of India's poor isn't just poverty anymore, it's progress too. Finally, Chintan Girish Modi reviews Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance between India and Israel, where Azad Essa explores India-Israel ties not as new-age alignment but as a long-standing, pragmatic bond. Essa draws a line from secret arms deals in 1962 to the booming defence trade today, arguing ideology isn't the main glue, strategy is. Stay tuned!
Time of India
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
'Global Disorder': Ex-Diplomats Warn On US Strikes' Fallout For India & World
/ Jun 23, 2025, 10:15PM IST Former Indian diplomats have weighed in on the Iran-Israel conflict's impact on global and regional stability. Ex-Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran highlights a shift from global order to growing disorder, stressing the breakdown of diplomatic norms and rising violence. Former diplomat Anil Trigunayat criticises the U.S. for destabilizing the Middle East warning this could harm India and the world. Veena Sikri, another former diplomat, finds hope in America's statement against regime change and praises Prime Minister Modi's advice to Iran's president to prioritise de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy to resolve the crisis peacefully.#iranisraelconflict #middleeastcrisis #globalinstability #indianforeignpolicy #shyam saran #anitrigunayat #veenasikri #pmmodi #deescalation #diplomacy #dialogue #usforeignpolicy #geopolitics #indiandiplomacy #regionalpeace #worldorder #iran #israel #internationalrelations #crisisresolution #toi #toibharat
Business Standard
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Shyam Saran
Shyam Saran is a Honorary Senior Faculty and Member of the Governing Board at Centre for Policy Research. He is a former Foreign Secretary of India and has served as Prime Minister's Special Envoy For Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change. After leaving government service in 2010, he headed the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a think tank focusing on economic issues (2011-2017) and was Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board under the National Security Council (2013-15). He is currently Life Trustee of India International Centre, Member of the Governing Board of the Institute of Chinese Studies, a Trustee at the World Wildlife Fund (India) and Member of the Executive Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2011 for his contributions to civil service.
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Business Standard
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Inflation falls, oceans rise, and choppers crash
Some of the worst problems start not with action but inaction. Like when a lease is unsigned for weeks and you realise only when the lights go out. Or when a friend ghosts a group trip plan, promising to confirm 'tonight' but never circling back. These are not always malicious choices, just tiny, daily abandonments of duty. But whether it's a legal form or a social promise, an unsigned contract is often the first sign of deeper neglect. In our world today, such forgotten obligations are everywhere: in environmental governance, tourism safety, and even global diplomacy. Let's dive in. Take the RBI's surprise rate cut this June, double what markets expected. Governor Sanjay Malhotra insisted this wasn't a pivot but a preemptive balancing act. With inflation cooling and liquidity rising, the central bank cut the policy rate and CRR to inject Rs 2.5 trillion into the system. But as our first editorial notes, the unspoken truth is India still lacks a coherent inflation-management framework for the long haul, we're reacting, not planning. Tourism in Uttarakhand offers another chilling example. In our second editorial, the helicopter crash near Gaurikund is one in a growing pile of disasters. Despite five such incidents in six weeks, infrastructure keeps expanding into ecologically fragile zones. No ATC, no real-time weather systems, just speed, volume, and hope. Ten years after the Kedarnath floods, we're still drafting the same rules, never signing off on enforcement. Shyam Saran writes about the third UN Ocean Conference, where 170 nations pledged once more to protect our oceans. But like SDG 14 itself, it was heavy on declarations, light on delivery. India's plans sound good, more research, protected zones, and coastal empowerment, but with only four marine parks and 7,000 km of endangered coastline, we're still far from a real ocean contract. And while inflation falls to 2.8 per cent, as Rajesh Kumar explains, foreign investors are fleeing. A narrowing yield gap with the US, geopolitical churn, and rising global capital costs are eroding trust. India needs to seal its pact with investors through deeper reforms, not shallow incentives. Finally, Laveesh Bhandari's review of India's Finance Ministers III: Different Strokes (1998–2014) by A K Bhattacharya, shows how four key FMs shaped India between 1998 and 2014. But it also flags what's missing, coverage of the post-2014 years when economic policymaking became more centralised, more polarised, and arguably more opaque. The book remains engrossing, but more consequential chapters are still waiting to be written, perhaps in the next volume. Stay tuned!
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Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
At sea on ocean goals: India must lead to protect marine health interests
With UN pledges on ocean health remaining voluntary, India must chart its own course to safeguard its maritime interests Shyam Saran Listen to This Article Humanity is terrestrial, but its origins lie deep in the ocean. In 1967, when the world was negotiating the historic Law of the Sea, a Maltese diplomat, Arvid Prado said: 'The dark oceans were the womb of life; from the protecting oceans life emerged. We still bear in our bodies — in our blood, in the salty bitterness of our tears — the marks of this remote past.' And the umbilical cord that ties us to the ocean is the stuff of life itself. The ocean generates half of the planet's oxygen. It absorbs 30 per cent of all carbon
