Best of BS Opinion: Creaks, wobbles, and a world learning to pedal again

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

Do you remember, in your childhood, when your rusted bicycle would finally move? That moment when you’d press down on the pedal, unsure if it’ll even budge and then it would. It creaked, it wobbled, but the tyres would begin to turn, spitting out old dust like memory itself waking up. You wouldn’t just ride it, you’d rediscover motion. The air would smell of metal and effort, the uneven rhythm. But the feeling of that first stretch of road after years of stillness, would feel like triumph. That’s what the world looks like currently with old systems, familiar wheels, all trembling back into motion. Not perfect, not steady, but alive again. Let’s dive in. 

India’s state finances are one such reluctant pedal. A PRS Legislative Research report shows states using over 60 per cent of their revenue just to pay salaries, pensions, subsidies, and interest. Growth money? Barely a trickle. The Centre’s 50-year, interest-free loan of Rs 4 trillion since 2020, has kept the wheels from freezing, but it’s borrowed grease on borrowed time, notes our first editorial. Meanwhile, populist cash schemes for women have spread to 12 states, many already deep in deficit. The bicycle’s moving, yes, but with a very wobbly axle and no brakes. 

Across the Atlantic, America’s political ride gets just as jerky. In New York, 34-year-old Zohran Kwame Mamdani (Uganda-born, Muslim, South Asian) became the city’s first Socialist mayor, promising free childcare, rent freezes, and taxes on the rich. It’s a daring uphill climb against centrist lawmakers and corporate headwinds, highlights our second editorial. Meanwhile, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill took Virginia and New Jersey, keeping moderates in motion as Trump’s convoy sputters behind. The bicycle of democracy rattles, but still rolls leftward. 

Closer home, the SC’s latest order on Vodafone Idea’s Rs 83,400 crore AGR dues test whether India’s regulators can pedal straight. As Nivedita Mookerji writes, the government must now decide whether to waive, convert, or collect, which are all risky choices in a fragile telecom market. A bailout could help avoid a duopoly between Airtel and Jio, but it also raises fairness questions that if Vi gets a push, should others too? Though the bigger problem is consistency, that whether our regulatory roads are clear enough to let every rider pedal by the same rules. 

And then there’s Ajay Chhibber’s piece on Gen Z revolts, the young across South Asia taking to the streets, tired of being told the wheels are fine when they clearly aren’t. From job quota protests in Bangladesh to social media bans in Nepal, corruption is the common chain pulling them together. India isn’t immune too, he warns. The rust shows in the daily grease of bribes and in the slow grind of opportunity. Unless the gears are cleaned, the bicycle might stop mid-ride or worse, collapse under its own noise. 

Finally, Dammu Ravi reviews The Silent Enemy by Arvind Gupta and Rajesh Singh, a book which argues that national security isn’t just about armies and borders, but about the nuts and bolts that keep the nation’s bicycle upright — food, water, climate, tech, and trust. The authors urge India to see resilience as the true brake and balance because without maintenance, even the strongest frame falls apart. 

Stay tuned!