Best of BS Opinion: Race to the bottom, increasing infection, and more

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Thursday

The latest round of serosurvey, conducted in June and July, saw the seroprevalence after the second wave jump to 67.6 per cent. In other words, two-thirds of the respondents had antibodies to Covid-19, indicating they had been exposed to the disease or to the vaccine. That one-third are still without antibodies suggests that a third wave can potentially infect a lot of Indians. It would be unwise to expect that “herd immunity” thresholds are close to being reached as the delta variant, being more infectious, has significantly raised that threshold. So, without a proper near-universal vaccination, herd immunity may be impossible, notes our editorial. Read here 

Business index rankings have become a substitute for addressing the fundamental constraints faced by entrepreneurs, argues Ajay Chhibber

Jayant Sinha and Anshu Bharadwaj note that India is demonstrating a new paradigm in which economic growth does not have to go together with the consumption of fossil fuels and increasing emissions.

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“The transmission of the virus from birds to humans is rare and sustained human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus has not yet been established and therefore there is no need to panic”

AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria