Opinion

Rewiring power reforms: Discom profitability is an encouraging start

India's discoms return to profitability after a decade of losses, boosted by fuel cost pass-through, smart metering, and sector reform incentives

A big deal: The India-EU partnership will open up new opportunities

India and EU seal historic free trade deal, opening vast markets and cooperation avenues while urging India to boost competitiveness and reforms

Land value capture: Public investment, private windfalls and policy failure

Public investments in infrastructure continue to produce private windfalls. Allowing this imbalance to persist is economically irrational and ethically indefensible

This Budget will see many firsts, but future Budgets need a different mould

Budget 2026-27 breaks new ground, but delayed GDP rebasing and continued fiscal secrecy risk undermining its numbers within weeks

Thoughts from Davos 2026: India recognised as a trusted value-chain partner

WEF 2026 highlighted AI's shift from hype to execution, India's rising global confidence, and the need for policy consistency, R&D investment, and trusted partnerships in a fragmenting world

Budget 2026: Tax transition India needs to shift to residence-based regime

The Budget should consider moving to a residence-based tax regime, exempting foreign investors from long-term capital gains tax

Best of BS Opinion: Fiscal pressures and strategic bets in a changing India

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Niti vs niyat in farm policy: Agri loan authority should be part of Budget

Without a credible opposition or a coherent farm strategy, India's agricultural policy risks drifting into populism, fiscal stress and long-term rural distress

More power to 'People India' and Middle India as growth engine shifts

India's growth is powered by hard-working people and a rising 'Middle India';. This aspirational group needs financial enablement and infrastructure support to accelerate mobility and sustain growth

What the Budget must present in a tough global and job environment

As the Union Budget nears, the focus must shift to debt, deficits, and borrowing from household savings, and how these choices affect private investment, manufacturing growth, and jobs

Strategic alliance: Pax Silica can reshape global tech supply chain

The bloc brings together complementary strengths. The US and Japan can provide technological leverage while South Korea dominates chip manufacturing

Demographic shift: State finances reflect the rapid transition ahead

Nationally, the working-age population is expected to peak around 2031, but several states have already crossed that point

Best of BS Opinion: India must find its way as it enters a new world order

From India's role in a changing global order to fertiliser reform, export ambitions and the EV supply chain, today's Best of BS Opinion brings together key editorials and columns.

Exim Matters: Republic Day, Customs Day and limits to executive power

On Republic Day and International Customs Day, a reminder that vigilance in enforcement must remain anchored in constitutional limits, due process and the rule of law

Digital intervention: Fiscal efficiency can work together with soil revival

Linking urea sales to digital farmer IDs could curb leakages and fiscal waste-but only a phased, inclusive rollout can protect farmers and revive soil health

March of a Republic: India must find its way in an uncertain environment

As global order frays and the US turns inward, India's Republic Day optics underline a strategic pivot towards Europe and faster reforms at home

India's exports dream likely to run into the hard wall of realities

Tripling India's exports by 2035 needs tiger-like performance, open markets and ruthless reform-conditions history suggests India does not yet have

The middle powers' dilemma: Are they at the table, or on the menu?

Countries that aren't at the table are on the menu, says Mark Carney

Housing finance must be part of India's next economic reforms agenda

India's six largest cities contribute nearly half to housing and mortgage volumes but lenders with scale shy away from deeper geographies

Budget 2026-27: New playbook for trade, Customs reforms needed

A high-level committee should be set up to review India's trade and Customs regulations, and undertake economic impact analyses of trade agreements