Opinion

Women's workplace safety in India struggles with culture, weak enforcement

Workplace challenges often begin subtly: Inappropriate remarks dismissed as humour or exclusion from informal networks

Beyond borders: India must harness its untapped services trade potential

Unlike trade in goods, where tariffs dominate, services face regulatory and structural barriers like data-localisation rules, licensing requirements, restrictions on foreign ownership, and compliance

Free float theory falters as capital flows drive rupee volatility

India's current account deficit (CAD) is modest, but portfolio flows and oil price volatility mean the rupee is driven more by sentiment and positioning than by exports and imports

EPFO, ESI overhaul required to unlock India's formal jobs potential

The EPFO and ESI have resisted radical reinvention since 1991, illustrating how self-interested bureaucracies preserve their own interests by creating improbable scenarios of chaos

What ails our heritage sites: It's time to review the Ancient Monuments Act

India's blanket heritage rules under AMASR Act risk harming conservation, tourism, and urban growth; experts call for graded, flexible protection

Best of BS Opinion: Hopes fade for early resolution of West Asia crisis

From rising West Asia tensions and oil shocks to heat stress on food systems and women farmers' role in India, here are the key insights from Business Standard's Opinion page today

Diversify overseas to beat country and currency risks amid volatility

Diversification is not about having all your money in the best-performing asset all the time. It is about not having all your money in the worst-performing asset at any point

IBC overhaul: Hope for stalled dreams, debts as focus shifts to homebuyers

India's decade-old insolvency system is shifting its focus from lenders to becoming a lifeline for the ordinary citizen - the homebuyer

Complementarity sans capability: Limits of India's trade strategy

India's trade pacts with developed economies highlight a gap: without stronger domestic capabilities, complementarity alone cannot deliver balanced gains

Buyers and brands keep an AI eye on each other in fast-changing dynamics

Consumers adopt tools to monitor the very brands that track them. It's a double-edged opportunity for brands as consumers expect greater transparency

Rising heat stress: Integrated climate strategy key to building resilience

India, the largest producer of rice with an output of about 150.18 million tonnes, faces a sharpened threat as heatwaves are projected to severely impact production in the Ganga-Indus basin

Damaging stalemate: Hopes for early resolution of the US-Iran crisis fade

Over the weekend, a third aircraft carrier, the USS George W Bush, entered the waters near Iran, joining the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, and the USS Abraham Lincoln

Beyond the hearth: Recognising women farmers as key to India's agri future

Unlike the 1970s, the 2026 oil shock may trigger faster shifts to renewables and new global demand patterns, reshaping long-term economic outcomes

Oil shock 2026: Milder than the 1970s but reshaping India's energy outlook

The decade of the 1970s provides us the reference point. The world experienced big jumps in prices of crude oil in 1973 and 1979

As the left fades from Bengal's landscape, BJP makes a fervent pitch

In West Bengal, the Left is in a dead heat with the Congress for the wooden spoon; Maoism in the tribal heartland has been entombed; and in Kerala, the Left fights double incumbency

Best of BS Opinion: India must pursue delimitation, devolution of powers

Today's BS Opinion wrap examines delimitation and federal balance, the BJP's Andhra Pradesh dilemma, shifts in Bengal politics, and Infosys's bet on sport-led branding

Infosys picks Alcaraz as brand ambassador, but can it leverage his reach?

B2B companies hiring global celebrities at colossal prices does not really make sense

Over the moon: Apollo missions dominated, Artemis II drew muted attention

Where the Apollo missions routinely hogged the headlines, Artemis II, whose mission was consequential for science, usually made it to second lead, sometimes third

BJP's alliance bind in Andhra Pradesh complicates long-term growth strategy

With the two most powerful political forces falling over each other to support it in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP gains and loses at the same time

Delimitation and devolution must advance together for India's democracy

One cannot keep kicking two contentious cans down the road forever