Best of BS Opinion: What's behind the bull run, can India be financial hub

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

On Saturday, the Indian Council of Medical Research set a deadline of August 15 for the Covid-19 vaccine that is being developed jointly with Bharat Biotech. Given that human trials, which potentially take months, have not begun, this is a remarkable demand, which the medical fraternity openly suggests has been written under government pressure. As the top edit points out here, the search for a vaccine should not compromise on trials because the costs of an error can be cataclysmic. On Sunday, GSTN, the IT infrastructure provider for the Goods and Service Tax, put out a rare statement pointing to a surge in e-way bills over May and June as a sign that the economy is in rebound mode. To interpret the transition from no activity to limited activity in such an upbeat manner suggests a concerted official effort to generate optimism where little exists. As opinion writers suggest, we’re some distance from a return to sustainable growth. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

The stock-markets have been rising in contradiction to all economic fundamentals. So is India looking at a sustained bull run? Debashis Basu explains why this may be an unviable expectation even in the post-Covid-19 world. Read it here

Hong Kong and the City of London are facing existential threats as global financial centres. Can India be one of the countries that can step into the breach? Mihir Sharma sets out the conditions that made these cities what they are and argues that India has a long way to go to fulfil those conditions. Read it here

The defence ministry’s announcement last week that it had cleared the procurement of Rs 38,900 crore worth of weaponry and defence equipment should be welcomed but capacity creation in defence shouldn’t wait for a crisis, says the second edit. Read it here

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