Opinion

Modi's next test is not revisiting history but governing the future

Like any Prime Minister serving such a long tenure, Mr Modi has had his share of crises. Three of them were global: Covid, Ukraine, and the West Asia wars

Best of BS Opinion: Why PM Modi must leave the past behind and look ahead

From China's bid to expand the renminbi's global role to India's data centre boom, Narendra Modi's next challenges and Pope Leo XIV's views on AI, here's the best of BS Opinion

Marjane Satrapi's women: How Embroideries shaped a generation of readers

The process of adapting a Tehran-based play into one in Lucknow made us realise how women's struggles - both the everyday and the revolutionary - are often the same everywhere

AI's promise must not come at the cost of human dignity

Whether you agree with the Pope's interpretation depends in part on your answers to foundational questions about what it means to be human and the nature of consciousness

China's push for renminbi global role reflects world seeking dollar hedges

The weaponisation of financial markets is driving the search for less risky alternatives, and China is stepping into the breach

India's data centre boom will succeed only if it stays sustainably green

Policy aspirations to becoming a big player in AI cannot be fulfilled without the necessary DC capacity

Best of BS Opinion: E85 policy push needs a coherent transport roadmap

From India's biofuel push and FIFA's commercial priorities to pressure on the rupee, shifts in the global arms market and Malayalam cinema's evolution, here are today's key opinion pieces

India needs to deploy e-trucks urgently to win the pollution battle: Kant

The solution is clear: India must rapidly electrify its trucking sector

Rupee risks persist as oil shock could outpace policy response

The clock is ticking on the capital inflows that the recent measures of the government and the RBI are expected to garner

A fragmented arms market offers India a chance to gain influence

India possesses geopolitical credibility, growing technological capability, and a thriving defence innovation ecosystem, particularly in emerging technologies, that allows engagement across competing

FIFA's own goals: Revenue maximisation is tarnishing sporting values

Ticket prices for the final stand at over $7,500, more than four times the price of the 2022 final

Ethanol Gambit: E85 push must be matched by a long-term transport strategy

Every increase in ethanol content requires engineering changes, recalibrating engines, testing, certification, and modifications to components exposed to fuel

Best of BS Opinion: Real cost of freebies is lower quality public spending

The day's opinion page analyses priority sector lending reform, AI use in courts, the fiscal cost of freebies, youth activism, and a book on luck and self-help

Priority sector lending must reflect India's changing economy

In 2025-26, micro and small enterprises, for the first time, overtook agriculture as the single-largest component of PSL

India's political class remains irrationally uneasy about youth dissent

Let's just enjoy the rare spectacle of peaceful youthful defiance

Real cost of freebies is the erosion in quality of public spending

State debt and deficits do not capture the damage that doles inflict on the quality of public spending

Smart Courts: AI can improve India's justice delivery with human oversight

Judicial officers, the registry personnel, lawyers and other court staffers, especially in the lower courts, will require extensive training to understand the capabilities and limitations of AI tools

Best of BS Opinion: Reforming institutions, governance for a changing India

Today's Opinion page examines fertiliser subsidy reform, urban governance failures, market regulation, industrial financing and antibiotic resistance through the lens of institutional accountability

Narendra Modi's 12 years as Prime Minister: Record run, and the road ahead

Under Modi, India has remained among the fastest-growing major economies in the world despite the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the supply-chain disruptions

Fixing Fertiliser: Urea subsidy cannot be allowed to continue unreformed

With fertiliser subsidies set to hit record levels, India faces growing pressure to reform urea pricing and shift support directly to farmers