Best of BS Opinion: Markets and culture test the limits of old frameworks

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

Concerns over regulatory balance dominate the debate around the Securities Markets Code Bill, 2025. In his column today, Ajay Tyagi argues that by granting stock exchanges statutory powers of rule-making, investigation and enforcement, the Bill elevates them into quasi-sovereign regulators. Since exchanges are for-profit, privately owned entities operating in weakly competitive markets, this concentration of power risks conflicts of interest and undermines market neutrality. 

R Gopalakrishnan writes that institutional endurance depends less on static leadership styles and more on cultural continuity through change. Tracing leadership transitions at the Tata Group, he shows how JRD Tata, Ratan Tata and N Chandrasekaran adapted to vastly different contexts without diluting core values. None sought to blame predecessors and each focused on execution suited to their time. JRD worked within a controlled economy while reinforcing ethical foundations, Ratan reshaped the group around global ambition and strategic clarity, and Chandrasekaran has pushed simplification, scale and disciplined execution. 

Devangshu Datta examines how long-assumed geopolitical and economic constants centred on the United States are fraying under Donald Trump. Alliances with Canada, Europe and Nato partners are under strain through economic confrontation rather than military conflict. With US debt above $30 trillion and heavy foreign ownership of bonds, Datta warns that escalating trade wars and erratic policy could trigger bond market stress and accelerate moves away from the dollar. For India, high exposure to global capital flows makes this environment particularly fragile.  Rajan Menon argues that Donald Trump’s Greenland threats, though defused for now, have irreversibly shaken faith in the US as Europe’s security guarantor. By questioning Nato commitments and treating allies with open disdain, Trump has exposed the fragility of trans-Atlantic security. With Washington’s focus shifting elsewhere regardless of who succeeds him, Europe faces a choice: remain dependent on an unreliable partner or finally build credible military autonomy. 

Finally, in today’s Eye Culture, Abhijeet Kumar questions the reflex to blame Gen Z for cultural shallowness. What looks like a generational failure, he argues, is better understood as a longer cultural exhaustion shaped by algorithms, risk-averse platforms and institutional choices. Gen Z inherited these systems; they did not design them. Blaming youth, the piece suggests, is an easier diversion than confronting the failures of cultural gatekeepers who continue to reward repetition over depth.  Stay tuned!