Best of BS Opinion: Chinese military, Biden as US President, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day.

China is about to launch its third aircraft carrier and plans six in all, two of them reportedly designated for the Indian Ocean where India will probably deploy a brace of much smaller carriers. It is hard to tell whether intensifying and broadening power rivalries will result in military conflict, as has happened with previous power-shifts, or simply the Finlandisation of much of Asia. Ten years from now, the world could look a very different place, writes T N Ninan here.

We should harbor no illusions about what President-elect Joe Biden will face in office. There will be deep scars left from the Trump presidency, and from a pandemic that the outgoing administration did so little to fight. The economic trauma will not heal overnight, and without comprehensive assistance at this critical time of need — including support for cash-strapped state and local governments — the pain will be prolonged, writes Joseph E Stiglitz. Read it here.

The government will need to be transparent in terms of its monthly targets for the vaccination programme. So far it has gotten away just by talking up its expectations of India’s installed manufacturing capacity. Now it needs to give us numbers, and allow statisticians to model the interaction of the vaccination programme and the infection rate, writes Mihir S Sharma here.

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“The procedure of the vaccination drive is the same as the election. In any election, we train people at the booth the same way. We need more manpower so we have to train the people who can look after the proposed beneficiaries.”

 

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan