Best of BS Opinion: Transparency is key to both democracy and global ties

Openness, reliability, and hope are critical to successful democracies and have a cumulative effect on both domestic and global ties

Hello, and welcome to BS Views, our round-up of today's editorials and columns. There are a few things that are essential for a democracy. These are openness, reliability, hope and the cumulative effect they have on both domestic and global ties. The pieces you will read today highlight each of these elements in their own ways. Dive in!   

The new Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, has made encouraging comments about the need for more transparency in the markets as well as the regulatory body, especially on conflicts of interest of the board. Our lead editorial argues that in modern financial markets, relevant disclosures must be made for both regulated entities as well as key persons in the regulatory body to engender trust in the system. 

  Our second editorial calls on the government of India to be open about the discussions it has been having with the US over trade and tariff measures. Given US President Donald Trump and his commerce secretary's statements last week on India's tariff rates highlight India's predicament. However, India’s counter-offers cannot be designed and made behind closed doors. The Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal has just concluded a visit to Washington D.C. and the government should share with the public what steps have been taken; this will also enable developing a domestic consensus on the government's steps. 

  Our lead columnist Debashis Basu warns about the colossal damage that Trump's policies are doing to global trade ties. This, he says will make the dollar extremely volatile, pushed higher due to tariffs and lower due to reduced growth because of the same high tariffs. Trump's moves will also impact India’s two biggest job-creating export sectors - pharmaceuticals and software, not to mention others, all of whom will be threatened. He cautions that Trump is a huge threat right now, a fact that is not being fully realised. 

  Ajit Balakrishnan, our second columnist, also ponders potential threats to India's tech startup boom, along the lines of the pre-90s protectionism that disincentivised Indian manufacturers to innovate. He points to three potential pain points: price sensitivity among users, late adoption habits for new tech, and the value-for-money seeking mindset. At the same time, he sees hope in the near-universal adoption of UPI payments systems, and how multiple players have built upon that stack. That's something we could learn from and execute to enable world-scale success for our startups, he suggests.  

  For our book review tonight, Robert Sullivan dives into Carl Zimmer's 'AIR-BORNE: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe', a book that shows how the fight against Covid-19 was hampered by historical acrimony between entrenched medical factions. Zimmer's book ascribes the reluctance of both the Centers for Disease Control and the WHO to accept the airborne nature of the virus to an inherent bias against so-called 'contagionists', who had first raised red flags about its transmission methods.  

  Elsewhere in the paper, Tamal Bandyopadhay writes on the gender gap in banking and credit services. While more women are now in the labour force, their access to credit remains low. More women have access to Mudra loans, but the per capita credit to them is comparatively lower than what male borrowers. Women-led enterprises face ongoing challenges in securing the credit they need. Efforts have been made to serve women entrepreneurs, but we still have a long way to go. A decade back, a bank dedicated to women customers failed. In sum, he says, narrowing the gender gap in the labour market is as important as women’s access to finance.