Best of BS Opinion: India must learn to negotiate its way across the world

With the world in rapid flux following the election of Donald Trump, India finds itself in uncharted waters, and needs to learn how to make deals that serve its interests to the fullest

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A character in a recent web series says "Negotiations... that’s where the real fun is...”. Indeed. So let’s view today’s editorials and opinions with that lens – of negotiations, competition, and their outcomes.   

First off, our lead editorial suggests that US President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China are merely a starting point for deeper negotiations. India would do well to remember that dealing with the new US administration will need to adopt a strategy without being a pushover or being in denial about the latest changes in the global trade system. We need to recognise that this is the time to negotiate new trading relationships and intensify old ones.  

The Union Budget declared that India would revamp the model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which is seen as a prelude to easing the signing of free trade agreements with the UK and the EU. While it appears the government is open to adjustments, our second editorial advises that India would do well to adopt a flexible approach. In short, it will need to use the BIT well and negotiate FTAs so as to make it easier for investment of foreign capital here.    Laveesh Bhandari is fascinated by the Viksit Bharat 2047 objective, particularly because it seems so alluringly close. But he suggests the government discard the old ways of doings things and instead thrash out platform models that are flexible, fast, and responsive to innovation. The government will need to sit down with stakeholders and devise a comprehensive platform policy for a new economic ecosystem.      

Our second columnist Prosenjit Datta looks at how small modular reactors could get a fillip with the new Budgets recommendations. SMRs are rapidly gaining in favour as an easier source to feed the world’s hunger for energy, exacerbated by power-hungry AI models. SMRs are cheaper and claimed to be safer. However, the Indian government will need to negotiate the use of SMRs keeping in mind its benefits, safety issues as deployment goes up, disposal of nuclear waste, and critically, avoiding nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.   

For our book review, Talmiz Ahmad dives into Pankaj Mishra’s ‘The World After Gaza: A History’ and finds that post-WWII, the world has been divided into two halves: those who back Israel in its war against Gaza, and others, mostly Global South nations, who are horrified by it. Israel, however, has negotiated for itself a place on the side of the US.  This has encouraged former leaders of the anti-colonial movement, like India, to side with Israel, based on shared xenophobia and ethnocultural supremacy of the ruling parties.