Best of BS Opinion: Breaking up Big Tech, J&K after Article 370, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

Today, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party can celebrate reaching two milestones that loomed large on its socio-religious agenda. The first is the ceremony, which the prime minister is to attend, to lay the foundation stone of a temple at Ayodhya, the culmination of an intense 30-year campaign. The second is the first anniversary of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A that gave the former state of Jammu & Kashmir its special status. These events must be weighed against the declining health of the Indian economy since 2016, which the pandemic has rendered precarious, and the steady diminution of secularism in the public discourse. Opinion writers tackle facets of these issue on the opinion pages. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

Neelkanth Mishra explains why the balance of payments surplus, normally a good problem to have, will create challenges for macro-economic stability and currency management. Read it here

The jury is still out on whether the government has fulfilled its stated objectives in reading down Articles 370 and 35A, says the second edit. Read it here.

Aditya Puri steps down as managing director of HDFC Bank after a long and stellar stint. His successor, also a long-term insider, will have to match that track record, says the top edit. Read it here

The US anti-trust hearings against Big Tech companies have attracted little attention in India even though they have deep implications for domestic tech, says Prosenjit Datta. Read it here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The problem is a mix of poor data culture and a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy”

Steve H. Hanke, professor at the Johns Hopkins University, about the accuracy of pandemic data in India