Best of BS Opinion: Why acting early matters in both policy and life

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

There’s a strange kind of hesitation we all carry. A loose thread on a favourite shirt. A creeping pain in the back molar. A message we keep meaning to send. Tiny thorns, really. But left alone, they fester. Till the shirt tears, the tooth aches, and the friendship sours. We’re often so desperate to avoid discomfort that we let it multiply. But if there’s one universal truth, it’s this: pulling the thorn early hurts less than pretending it’s not there. Let’s dive in.  Take India’s long-stretched journey to self-reliant defence. After decades of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited flying solo, and often flying late, the Defence Ministry has finally brought in a new model for the fifth-gen stealth AMCA jet project. Public and private players can now jointly bid, ending HAL’s monopoly, notes our first editorial. It’s a thorn pulled early, a move that may sting HAL today but promises faster skies tomorrow. 

But while the sky opens up, the ground drowns. The monsoon’s rude early arrival on May 26 swamped Mumbai, again. Warning systems blinked red, but drains were already clogged, trains already halted. The rains don’t wait for infrastructure excuses. And with 70–80 per cent of our urban water bodies vanished, as our second editorial highlights, Indian cities can’t afford to delay climate-resilient planning any longer. Monsoon pain is no longer seasonal; it’s systemic. And the longer we postpone climate action, the deeper the rot will set. 

Globally, thorns are sprouting fast. Amita Batra writes how Trump’s tariff tantrums have flung trade into chaos. Allies, rivals, even US firms are unsure which sector gets hit next. Mini-deals and retaliatory tariffs now dominate the trade discourse. Instead of trying to dodge each jab, the world may need new, rules-based trade formats, ones that can hold up even when leaders don’t. 

But how we spend our days also shapes what thorns we choose to ignore. Amitava and Gopal Saha, analysing the latest Time Use Survey, show how India’s youth are spending more time working and less on self-care or socialising. Women, despite entering the workforce in growing numbers, still carry the weight of unpaid domestic work. Until that imbalance is addressed, gender equality remains just a polite fiction. 

Finally, Neha Bhatt reviews Deconstructing India’s Democracy: Essays in Honour of James Manor, a timely reminder that Indian democracy too carries deep thorns: centralisation, shrinking civil liberties, and majoritarian politics. But its essays argue that hope lies in resistance, decentralisation, and reimagining the liberal idea. It’s a call to action — not in comfort, but in urgency. 

Stay tuned and remember, waiting doesn’t numb the thorn, it only infects the wound!