Best of BS Opinion: Blunt realities and the need for sharper edges

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

Do you remember that one old uncle from your childhood who’d cycle into the neighbourhood with a grinding wheel strapped to the rear of his bicycle, ringing a tiny bell that somehow pierced a lazy afternoon. Children watched in awe, adults queued up with dull knives, and the uncle, with a few steady strokes, reversed the bluntness of edges, and sometimes, of the afternoon itself. His craft was simple. Take what had lost its sharpness, and coax it back into purpose. Today’s writeups feel like standing in that lane again, watching institutions, laws and markets turning on the wheel. Let’s dive in. 

The Sixteenth Finance Commission’s report sits with the same anticipation as a blade queued for sharpening. As our first editorial notes, southern states feel their share of devolution has steadily dulled, dropping from 19 per cent in 2010-11 to 16 per cent by 2025-26. Yet the larger fiscal picture shows deeper contrasts. Although poorer states have doubled spending since 2020-21, income gaps continue widening. And with debt liabilities crossing 30 per cent of GSDP in 19 states, the sharpening wheel must turn extremely carefully, or it will wobble the whole system. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s recall of its May 2025 ruling on retrospective environmental clearances feels like another tool placed on the grinder. The bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai argued that strict prohibitions risked halting major projects, but the critique is that convenience cannot override the right to clean air and water. Our second editorial underlines the risk of allowing post-facto approvals in a system that saw over 500 clearances in 2024. It only blunts the precautionary principle. 

K P Krishnan’s analysis of the Yes Bank rescue brings us to a different kind of sharpening. The episode saved the system but exposed how India relies on discretion over predictable rules. Writing down Rs 8,415 crore of AT1 bonds while sparing equity signalled that even foundational hierarchies could be inverted. India still lacks an independent resolution corporation and without it, crises are managed through last-minute grinding rather than long-term precision. 

And Vinayak Chatterjee’s deep dive into logistics rewrites an old belief, that logistics costs aren’t 13-14 per cent of GDP but 7.97 per cent. The former has often been cited as the ‘hidden cost’ blunting the edge of manufacturing. Yet the edge remains uneven. Road freight dominates, cold chains lag, smaller firms bleed margins, and port charges bite. Initiatives like Gati Shakti and Dedicated Freight Corridors promise sharper efficiency, but India’s logistics blade still needs multiple turns on the wheel before it slices cleanly. 

Finally, Chintan Girish Modi reviews Manoj Kumar Jha’s In Praise of Coalition Politics and Other Essays on Indian Democracy, where the book argues that coalitions, at their best, sharpen democracy by introducing friction, accountability and negotiation. Jha’s essays, especially the open letters, carry the emotional force of someone insisting that institutions must not be allowed to dull. Much like that old uncle’s craft, Jha’s appeal reminds us that democracies stay sharp only when we keep turning the wheel. 

Stay tuned!