Hello and welcome to Best of BS Opinion, our wrap of the day's Opinion page.
As India celebrates its 76th year of being a Republic,
the moment reflects the changed global environment and the shaping of its response, notes our
first editorial. Over the past several months, the United States' actions and policies have challenged the post-WW II global order, of which it was a principal architect, to the point where it has become the biggest risk to it. It is at such a critical juncture that India and the European Union are poised to finalise a major free trade agreement (FTA) a day after Republic Day. India has a deep interest in protecting a rules-based global order, and it should be part of arrangements that are willing to work towards it. To be able to do so, India will need to improve its level of preparedness in multiple areas, and soon. The real issue is how it moves forward. In an unsupportive world, India needs to find its way quickly.
The government's plan to link urea sales with digital farmer IDs promises to be
an important step towards reforming India’s fertiliser subsidy system with the aim of reducing leakages, stopping misuse, and making subsidy spending more efficient. Despite decades of high subsidies, outcomes in fertiliser use and soil health remain weak, points out our
second editorial. However, linking fertiliser subsidies too tightly to digital identities without adequate safeguards, marginal and tenant farmers, many of whom lack clear land documentation or struggle with digital interfaces, could be left out. This makes the design of the reform as important as its intent. Thus, a phased rollout can help align fiscal objectives with soil sustainability and farm productivity.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos has ignited considerable debate over the collapse of the rules-based international order and how economic coercion was affecting policy decisions globally.
Mihir S Sharma notes that
India finds itself in a particularly difficult situation. Of Carney’s three criteria for great powers – market size, military capacity and leverage – it only has the first and even that is not quite large enough to dictate terms to the world. As such, middle powers must stand together in the face of great-power intimidation, and the ones most vulnerable are those trying to go it alone. At this moment in history, that advice applies to India as well.
The Indian government is reportedly in the final stages of
setting up a new high-level body to cut regulatory hurdles and red tape to help goods exports triple by 2035. This implies a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 13 per cent. Our columnist
Debashis Basu points out that for this to happen, India will need a number of conditions working in tandem, none of which it currently possesses to the required degree. What it has in plenty is red tape in varied forms, all of which lead to corruption. Successive governments have tried to fix India’s weak manufacturing base, modest export performance and dense regulatory thicket through incremental tinkering. The National Manufacturing Mission is one more. The results, he fears, have been and will be predictable.
Electric vehicles are all the rage these days, touted for their zero emissions and environmental gains. A new book by Nicolas Niarchos - The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth - challenges that marketing schtick with its
deep reporting of the human costs of mining the minerals on which EV batteries depend, from cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo to nickel in Indonesia. While the span of the book is global,
Peter S Goodman bemoans the lack of a narrative that tells the reader why they are going where they are going, and they can hope to grasp at the end of it. The book, he says, leaves one unenlightened about whether the current battery revolution is the beginning of something useful, or just another wrong turn.
 "Best of BS Opinion: India must find its way as it enters a new world order")
