Best of BS Opinion: Street signs for 2021, infra projects, and more

Here are the top Opinion pieces of the day

One of the paradoxes of 2020 has been the global divergence between economic fundamentals, and stock market returns. But, as our lead editorial notes here, a return to pre-Covid levels of activity in India would in itself imply a bounce of over 21 per cent in earnings, and investor-expectations do target that degree of recovery by end-2021-22.  Even so, a PE ratio of 38 looks high but a sharp bounce in earnings is more or less guaranteed in the first six months of 2021-22.

Other opinion pieces for the day, among other things, talk about the need for innovation, and infrastructure. 

If we place export and innovation at the heart of our growth aspiration, we will sustain rapid progress for years. 2021 must see us rebuild our economy, and set course for decades of rapid growth, writes Naushad Forbes here.

The biggest benefit of the proposed surety bonds may have less to do with substituting bank guarantees as ensuring that insurance companies play a much bigger role in infrastructure financing in India, writes Vinayak Chatterjee here.

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“We are committed to the continuation of the MSP in Haryana. Manohar Lal will quit politics if anyone tries to end the MSP regime.”

 

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar”