Best of BS Opinion: External shocks and domestic course correction

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

The US-Israel-Iran conflict has exposed India’s deep dependence on West Asia at a delicate economic moment. Energy is the clearest risk. India imports over 80 per cent of its crude, much of it from the Gulf, and holds limited reserves. Any disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and LNG trade, would push up prices and strain supplies. Even without closure, shipments have paused and crude has risen. Higher prices would widen the current account deficit, pressure the rupee, complicate fiscal management and add to inflation, highlights our first editorial. With nearly nine million Indians in the Gulf and remittance flows at stake, the fallout could also extend beyond fuel. 

Meanwhile, a nationwide free HPV vaccination drive now addresses a different vulnerability. The government will offer a single dose of Gardasil-4 to 14-year-old girls at public facilities, targeting cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among Indian women. India records about 80,000 new cases and over 42,000 deaths annually. Earlier, high private-market prices restricted access. Public procurement with Gavi support has lowered costs and enabled scale through the Universal Immunisation Programme and the U-WIN portal. Yet, as our second editorial argues, screening remains abysmally low, and without parallel investment in diagnostics, awareness and follow-up care, the long-term impact will be limited. 

Ajay Tyagi and Sujit Prasad make the case for unifying India’s bond market under a single regulatory structure. Government securities are regulated by the RBI and corporate bonds by Sebi, creating fragmented trading and settlement systems. Retail interest in G-Secs has been modest despite RBI efforts, while exchange-based corporate bond platforms have grown. Integrating G-Secs into demat accounts and stock exchanges, they argue, would improve liquidity, pricing efficiency and participation, especially given the scale of sovereign debt. 

Laveesh Bhandari examines urban governance. Despite higher allocations to urban local bodies and tighter conditionalities, he argues that authority and accountability remain misaligned. Elected representatives lack executive power, which rests with state-appointed bureaucrats. Rather than push an empowered-mayor model, which is unlikely to gain traction, he proposes an accountable-CEO framework with defined performance metrics and structured answerability to city stakeholders. 

Finally, Ambi Parameswaran reviews Marketing That Works by Shivaji Das Gupta, a book which questions the traditional Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning framework. Das Gupta proposes the Unify, Magnify and Amplify (UMA) model, reflecting digital integration, rising affluence and evolving consumer behaviour. For firms that treat India as a uniform market, the lesson is clear: success depends on recognising its diversity and adapting strategy accordingly. 

Stay tuned!