Best of BS Opinion: India's growth and creativity tied by old knots

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

We’ve all seen it play out in different ways, be it at school sports days when a runner is made to balance an egg on a spoon while sprinting, or when a boss keeps piling on new rules that make finishing a simple job twice as hard. It is like tying the horse’s leg and then expecting it to win the race. The spirit is willing, but the system holds it back. Today’s writeups echo that same frustration, where promise is curbed by the very hands meant to guide it. Let’s dive in. 

The Annual Survey of Industries 2023-24, dissected in our first editorial, shows manufacturing growth slowing sharply. Gross value added rose 11.9 per cent in FY24, but output growth halved, while productivity refused to budge. The sector still employs only 12 per cent of India’s workforce. For all the policy push, structural knots (fragmented firms, rigid labour laws, high costs) hold the horse down. Unless land, labour, and capital reforms untie those knots, the dream of manufacturing-led jobs may keep slipping away. 

Education paints a similar picture. Our second editorial traces how government schools are losing students even though they remain the cheaper option. A 10-point fall in rural higher secondary enrolment and dismal teacher absenteeism rates show how state schools, once the ladder of mobility, are now broken rungs. Without strong public schooling, millions risk being stranded in the race before it even begins. 

Meanwhile, in his column, Ajay Srivastava explains how new quality control orders in steel have created a “double-certification trap.” Imports are stuck at ports, smaller players are getting locked out, and costs are ballooning, all in the name of standards that few other nations demand. It is regulatory capture dressed as quality control, tripping up competition while letting the favourites run free. 

R Kavita Rao argues that GST reform could be the untethering that is the need of the hour. A short-term cut in Central GST may revive demand and rationalising slabs in the long run could simplify rules and give businesses clarity. Crucially, this two-step reform can both ease immediate pain and steady the path forward, ensuring that stimulus today does not come at the expense of fiscal sustainability tomorrow. If crafted with care, it could be the rare reform that both frees and steadies the horse. 

Finally, Neha Kirpal reviews Priya Purushothaman’s The Call of Music: 8 Stories of Hindustani Musicians, where musicians struggle against caste, gender, and tradition but keep creating. She writes how their art carries them forward despite the binds. The portraits remind us that resilience is often born out of constraint, and that the act of making music itself becomes a rebellion against limits. Proof that even with one leg tied, some still find ways to run and even dance. 

Stay tuned!