 "Best of BS Opinion: Inflation falls, oceans rise, and choppers crash")
Some of the worst problems start not with action but inaction. Like when a lease is unsigned for weeks and you realise only when the lights go out. Or when a friend ghosts a group trip plan, promising to confirm “tonight” but never circling back. These are not always malicious choices, just tiny, daily abandonments of duty. But whether it’s a legal form or a social promise, an unsigned contract is often the first sign of deeper neglect. In our world today, such forgotten obligations are everywhere: in environmental governance, tourism safety, and even global diplomacy. Let’s dive in.
Take the RBI's surprise rate cut this June, double what markets expected. Governor Sanjay Malhotra insisted this wasn’t a pivot but a preemptive balancing act. With inflation cooling and liquidity rising, the central bank cut the policy rate and CRR to inject Rs 2.5 trillion into the system. But as our first editorial notes, the unspoken truth is India still lacks a coherent inflation-management framework for the long haul, we’re reacting, not planning.
Tourism in Uttarakhand offers another chilling example. In our second editorial, the helicopter crash near Gaurikund is one in a growing pile of disasters. Despite five such incidents in six weeks, infrastructure keeps expanding into ecologically fragile zones. No ATC, no real-time weather systems, just speed, volume, and hope. Ten years after the Kedarnath floods, we’re still drafting the same rules, never signing off on enforcement.
Shyam Saran writes about the third UN Ocean Conference, where 170 nations pledged once more to protect our oceans. But like SDG 14 itself, it was heavy on declarations, light on delivery. India’s plans sound good, more research, protected zones, and coastal empowerment, but with only four marine parks and 7,000 km of endangered coastline, we’re still far from a real ocean contract.
And while inflation falls to 2.8 per cent, as Rajesh Kumar explains, foreign investors are fleeing. A narrowing yield gap with the US, geopolitical churn, and rising global capital costs are eroding trust. India needs to seal its pact with investors through deeper reforms, not shallow incentives.
Finally, Laveesh Bhandari’s review of India’s Finance Ministers III: Different Strokes (1998–2014) by A K Bhattacharya, shows how four key FMs shaped India between 1998 and 2014. But it also flags what’s missing, coverage of the post-2014 years when economic policymaking became more centralised, more polarised, and arguably more opaque. The book remains engrossing, but more consequential chapters are still waiting to be written, perhaps in the next volume.
Stay tuned!