Best of BS Opinion: Looking beyond boundaries in search of the better

In today's newsletter, we take a look at our opinion pieces through the idea of boundaries and limits, and how they may be applicable to understanding different issues

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Hello and welcome to BS Views, our daily opinions newsletter.   

As humans, we are all too familiar with boundaries and limits; indeed, we spend most of our lives checking ourselves constantly. Today’s pieces, each in its own way, explores this idea of checks and limits. Let’s take a look.   

Our lead editorial posits that whichever way it goes, global uncertainty will impact the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy. Even though inflation is targeted to be within limits, the rupee’s decline beyond a certain limit will have an impact on prices. While the rate cut was anticipated, given lower inflationary projections, the Monetary Policy Committee would have done well to wait a bit longer while the global environment pushed itself to as far as it can go without breaking the global trade system.   

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) win in the Delhi elections, our second editorial notes, is clearly a mandate for change and better governance, a line that the party would be remiss to cross. It can’t complain about stepmotherly treatment from the Centre, either, as the Aam Aadmi Party was wont to. While the political culture of freebies is now virtually an all-party favourite, the BJP must work within the boundaries of good governance to overcome the challenges it has inherited – roads, air, and water – and promised to fix.   

In his column, Debashis Basu argues against the received wisdom of how low or middle income countries might move up on the prosperity ladder. These externally-imposed conditions have, in fact, bounded most countries’ ability to rise above their positions into the next level. Contrary to advice from global bodies, he finds that most success stories are countries that followed a kind of economic nationalism, which allowed them to eliminate inefficient entities. This necessary course correction is lacking in India.   

In his piece, Ajit Balakrishnan warns against jumping to conclusions following the launch of ChatGPT, and the challenge it faces from the newest kid on the AI block – DeepSeek. Instead, he dives into history to make the point that the success of any technology is not just because of itself but is the outcome of several yet-unknown social and legal variables. everyone would do well to stay within the limit of reason and understand what is happening instead of simply reacting to apocalyptic headlines.   

For our book review today, Mark Epstein takes up two tomes – ‘THE MORAL CIRCLE: Who Matters, What Matters, and Why’ by Jeff Sebo, and ‘ANIMALS, ROBOTS, GODS: Adventures in the Moral Imagination’ by Webb Keane – both of which deal with the idea of being human, being self-centered, and how we may connect to artificial intelligence by some sacrifice of the ego. While Sebo talks of moral circles, which includes familiar human, he pushes the reader to go beyond the self and take into account non-human form as well, including AI. Keane takes that reasoning a step further and suggests that one might treat AI much like Hindus treat an idol of God, creating a connection that that encourages surrender and relief from the boundaries of self.