Best of BS Opinion: Solid GDP print meets weak cities, policy bottlenecks

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

India’s first advance estimates for 2025-26 offer reassurance at a time when global signals remain mixed, highlights our first editorial. The National Statistics Office has pegged real GDP growth at 7.4 per cent, broadly in line with expectations and marginally above the RBI’s 7.3 per cent forecast. Growth is expected to slow in the second half after a strong start, but the full-year number still improves on last year’s 6.5 per cent. The challenge will be meeting the 4.4 per cent fiscal deficit target amid subdued revenue growth. As India prepares to shift to a debt-to-GDP anchor next year, nominal growth and the upcoming revisions to GDP and CPI series will shape how both growth and inflation are read. 

Meanwhile, urban India’s story is less reassuring. Despite rapid urbanisation, with cities expected to house nearly 60 per cent of the population by 2050, local governments remain politically marginal and fiscally constrained, notes our second editorial. Municipal elections are routinely delayed, weakening accountability and governance. This runs against the spirit of the 73rd and 74th Amendments and persists despite repeated Supreme Court interventions. Financial weakness compounds the problem. RBI data show municipal revenues at just 0.6 per cent of GDP. Attention now turns to whether the 16th Finance Commission can help restore balance. 

Writing on insolvency, M S Sahoo and Raghav Pandey argue that Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code needs recalibration. Introduced to prevent errant promoters from gaming the system, it now often narrows the resolution pool and risks value destruction. By tying disqualification to non-performing asset status rather than conduct, the provision can penalise honest failure and ignore sector-wide shocks, a contradiction underscored by exemptions for MSMEs. 

On innovation policy, Nagesh Kumar contends that Budget 2026 must decisively address India’s chronic underinvestment in research and development. While patent filings and innovation rankings have improved, gross R&D spending remains low and heavily concentrated in government institutions. The lack of private-sector participation reflects market failures that advanced economies offset through generous tax incentives, public procurement and mission-driven funding. Restoring these benefits and introducing petty patents for incremental innovation, he argues, would better align India’s R&D ecosystem with its growth ambitions. 

Finally, Jyoti Mukul reviews The Great Revival by Natarajan Srinivasan, which documents CG Power’s recovery after fraud and balance-sheet collapse. The book traces how new ownership under Tube Investments of India combined capital infusion with decentralised management, cultural reset, and productivity drives, even as investigations continued. Drawing on voices from management, lenders and the board, it presents the turnaround as a steady rebuilding of trust and capability, offering lessons in governance, leadership and long-horizon decision-making. 

Stay tuned!