Best of BS Opinion: Resilience depends on adapting better

From capital flows and climate risks to telecom regulation and corporate governance, today's opinion package explores why institutions must evolve to meet new realities

Old systems rarely collapse in a single dramatic moment. More often, they begin to do so by looking slightly out of step. A capital-flow framework struggles to reassure investors. Energy systems buckle under heat. Talent flourishes abroad more easily than at home. A telecom regulator built for one era confronts another. Corporate responsibility moves from annual-report language to a test of how business actually behaves. The pressure is new, but the question is familiar: Can institutions redesign themselves before reality forces a change?

 

Our first editorial today, “Emerging challenges”, looks at India’s need to attract stable capital flows after the easing of tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. The immediate global relief is welcome, but the deeper challenge remains. Foreign portfolio investors have been cutting exposure to India, and the country needs more durable capital to finance investment and growth. Short-term measures may help, but they cannot substitute for a stronger investment climate. The editorial argues that India must improve infrastructure, reduce policy uncertainty, ease doing business and make itself a more reliable destination for long-term global capital. Relief from a crisis is not the same as resilience.

 

The second editorial, “Mercury rising”, turns to climate. Europe’s heatwaves show that fossil-fuel dependence is no longer only an environmental concern. It is now a public-health, economic and infrastructure challenge. Heatwaves damage productivity, strain cities, raise mortality risks and expose the limits of existing energy systems. The editorial argues that countries must move faster on renewable energy, cooling infrastructure and climate adaptation. The old assumption that growth can continue with only marginal changes to energy use is becoming harder to defend.

 

Ajay Chhibber’s column, “Diaspora’s global success”, asks what India can learn from the achievements of Indians abroad. The success of the diaspora is not merely a story of individual talent. It reflects education, mobility, professional networks, supportive institutions and open economies that allow ambition to scale. The column’s implication is clear: India must create conditions at home in which talent does not have to leave to reach its full potential. The challenge is not to celebrate global success alone, but to build domestic systems that can reproduce it.

 

Nivedita Mookerji’s column, “Time to overhaul the telecom regulator?”, applies the same argument to regulation. Trai was created for a market that looked very different from today’s converged digital economy. Telecom, broadcasting, OTT platforms, satellite communications, data and content now overlap in ways the old framework was not designed to handle. The column argues that regulatory architecture must be updated so that it can deal with technology as it exists now, not as it was when the institution was created.

 

Neha Bhatt’s review of The Business of Business brings the theme to corporate responsibility. Business responsibility cannot remain a matter of slogans, compliance language or reputational polish. The book argues that companies must embed responsibility in governance, strategy, supply chains, labour practices and stakeholder relationships.

 

The message across these pieces is clear: Systems built for one world cannot be expected to serve another without rethinking. Resilience will depend not on reacting harder, but on adapting better.