Best of BS Opinion: Trump's India visit, coronavirus outbreak, and more

Why aren't more economists coming back to put down roots in this country?

Many respected economists such as Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who published a memoir this week, left plum jobs in the West to return to India and work in government. Nearly three decades after economic reforms, the question is: Why aren’t more people like him coming back to put down roots in this country? And more worryingly, though India has always had economic refugees travelling West, why are well-placed industrialists leaving the country now? Does India’s unattractive political economy have something to do with this exodus, asks T N Ninan here.

In other opinion, writers examine Indo-US relations and the politics of culinary habits. Kanika Datta sums up the views

Donald Trump will be the fifth president to visit India in the past 20 years, signalling the progressive improvement in ties.  But the real turnaround in Indo-US relations came with Manmohan Singh’s nuclear deal, which finally ended the influence of India’s left movement, says Shekhar Gupta. Read it here

The wet markets of Wuhan with its variety of exotic foods from bats to snakes have been identified as the proximate cause of the coronavirus outbreak. But the varied culinary trends in Asia and India have always created something of a social gulf, and dietary bans are now entering the lofty halls of culture as well, says Sunil Sethi here

Quote of the Day

"I'm going to India next week and we're talking trade. They've been hitting us very hard for many, many years,"

US President Donald Trump