Best of BS Opinion: How India can turn policy setbacks into gains

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

Ever been in a rush to get to the office, only to spill your last sip of coffee all over yourself just as you’re about to slip out the door? You curse your luck, rush back to change, annoyed at the delay — only to realise soon after that you narrowly missed getting drenched in an unexpected downpour. Life often works that way. Policy and markets, too, have their share of such moments where seemingly unfortunate events create unforeseen opportunities. Let’s dive in. 

India’s nuclear sector mirrors this trajectory. The US Department of Energy has approved Holtec International to transfer small modular reactor (SMR) technology to three Indian private entities. This milestone comes 18 years after the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement, potentially helping India achieve its target of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047. But as our first editorial notes, much like narrowly avoiding the downpour, India’s nuclear ambitions may still stumble if regulatory rigidity persists. 

In another arena, India’s biotechnology sector has surged ahead after years of lagging behind the IT boom. Our second editorial highlights how the Bio-E3 policy and Bio-RIDE scheme have catapulted biotech revenues from $10 billion in 2014 to $165.7 billion in 2024, with projections touching $300 billion by 2029. Yet, despite this growth, much like changing shirts but still navigating slippery streets, challenges like geographical concentration, limited skilled manpower, and weak R&D investment persist. 

Meanwhile, on the financial front, regulatory overreach is slowing down leadership transitions in private banks. CKG Nair and MS Sahoo argue that this overreach has eroded autonomy and market confidence, akin to overcorrecting after a minor misstep and stumbling into a larger mess. 

Globally, India’s restrained response to Donald Trump’s upcoming “Liberation Day” tariffs follows a similar pattern of caution. As Prosenjit Datta explains, India’s decision to negotiate rather than retaliate buys time, but underlying manufacturing inefficiencies continue to hinder its global competitiveness. 

Finally, Kallol Bhattacherjee’s book, Nehru’s First Recruits: The Diplomats who built Independent India’s Foreign Policy, explores the early architects of Indian diplomacy. Aditi Phadnis notes in her review that while the book offers deep insights into India’s foreign policy evolution, its dense factual content could have been more streamlined. Yet, as with everything else, deeper insights often come with a bit of patience. 

Stay tuned, and remember, a minor inconvenience sometimes saves you from a bigger storm!