Best of BS Opinion: The inequality debate, China's Taiwan tangle, and more

It is a sign of the times when the day’s headlines talk about mass sackings (Walmart India), a Competition Commission probe (against Amazon, Flipkart and other online retailers), and an Enforcement Directorate probe against a realtor (Amrapalli). Investments? New projects? Expansions? All that’s thin on the ground. As Shreekant Sambrani points out in his critique of the first six months of Narendra Modi’s second term,  “The sounds of economic thunder may have appeared distant when first heard a year or so ago, but now they are within the audible range of even those wearing ideological ear buds.” Mr Modi will ignore those warnings to India’s peril, he concludes. Read his analysis here. In other views, writers tackle another element of the inequality debate, an income tax immunity scheme and the implications of Taiwan’s recent elections. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

Inequality isn’t just about income and lifestyles but the fact that the west ignores its responsibilities on the climate change with impunity, says Harvard’s Ken Rogoff. You can read about his solution here 

The top edit explains why the government’s reported plan to offer immunity scheme for direct tax assessees in the Budget is a bad idea. Read here 

The landslide re-election of pro-independence Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen raises a fresh challenge for China’s “one-country-two systems” principle on its south-east and southern peripheries, says the second edit here

 QUOTE OF THE DAY

Narendra Modi should have the courage to speak to the youngsters of these universities on why the economy has become a disaster, and why unemployment in India is at its highest in 50 years

Rahul Gandhi