Best of BS Opinion: Delicate footwork in a world full of large traps

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

Some mornings feel like performance art. You wake up already late, one eye on your phone’s doomscroll, the other trying to find your socks. You’re tiptoeing around emails, jumping over headlines, dodging calls like shrapnel — each moment a mix of fragility and chaos. Like trying to sprint through a minefield in ballet shoes. Every step must be precise, every misstep explosive. That’s the world we’re navigating currently. Let’s dive in. 

The RBI yesterday just performed its own sprint. By cutting the repo rate by 25 basis points and softening its stance, it’s trying to glide through global uncertainty without losing balance. Inflation’s been tamed for now, but with trade tensions looming like landmines, the RBI’s movements are delicate. As our first editorial notes, any misstep could trigger a currency shock or inflation surge. Grace under pressure has rarely felt so literal. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has defused one political mine: Governors sitting on states' bills. In Tamil Nadu, the governor’s refusal to assent to multiple bills finally hit a constitutional tripwire. The Court's ruling, our second editorial highlights, reasserts that Governors aren’t referees in the arena — they’re props in the choreography of democracy. And when they stall, they trip the entire routine. 

Globally, M Govinda Rao urges India to pirouette past the lure of protectionism. With Trump’s tariff wars threatening export-driven economies, he sees an opening for deep domestic reforms — from GST to labour laws. But these are not soft moves; they require discipline and bold footwork in terrain that shifts under pressure. 

Kanika Datta, too, sees the US sprinting through industrial chaos in ballet shoes three sizes too small. Trump's “Liberation Day” tariffs may thrill his base, but they disrupt supply chains, hurt US workers, and could backfire on tech giants. America risks dancing backward into a less competitive past. 

Finally, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay’s review of Hindi Hindu Histories: Caste, Ayurveda, Travel and Communism in Early-Twentieth-Century India by Charu Gupta, introduces a quartet of forgotten rebels who danced barefoot through ideological firestorms. Santram BA, Yashoda Devi, Satyadev, and Satyabhakt didn’t just survive hostile terrain; they performed solos, challenging entrenched power, redefining their faith, their gender, or their caste. 

Stay tuned, and remember, fragile shoes, hostile terrain, and still, we move on!