Best of BS Opinion: G7 Summit delivers surprisingly constructive outcomes

Today's opinions examine the G7 summit, a changing US Federal Reserve, Karnataka's development priorities, India's infrastructure model and Indira Jaising's constitutional journey

Hello, and welcome to the Best of BS Opinion, our wrap of the day's Opinion page. 

 

The recent G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains delivered an unexpectedly constructive outcome, marked by reduced geopolitical tensions and renewed coordination among advanced economies, notes our first editorial. A US-Iran agreement eased concerns over regional instability, while a joint declaration backing Ukraine represented a notable diplomatic achievement despite earlier divisions within the grouping. However, the meeting also highlighted structural limits in global economic governance through the continued absence of China and the lack of a credible response to global imbalances. For India, the summit proved beneficial, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi advancing trade, diplomatic, and strategic interests through a series of high-level engagements.

 

 

Today's second editorial notes that the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting under Kevin Warsh signals a meaningful shift in how the US Federal Reserve communicates and conducts policy. While keeping interest rates unchanged, the Fed has adopted a shorter statement, avoided forward guidance, and reaffirmed its commitment to returning inflation to the 2 per cent target, prompting a hawkish market response. Fed chief Warsh’s decision to review communications, data use, the inflation framework, and other institutional practices could reshape central banking norms more broadly. However, tighter US financial conditions may create challenges for economies such as India that depend on stable capital inflows.

 

Karnataka’s next phase of growth depends less on industrial targeting and more on improving the public goods that enable economic activity, writes KP Krishnan. Despite its outsized contribution to India’s economy and technological leadership, the state faces slowing relative growth, weak social outcomes, and mounting urban constraints. It must prioritise rebuilding cities, reforming land and labour markets, improving safety and governance, and strengthening municipal capacity. State-led industrial policy must also give way to broad-based reforms that reduce friction for firms and migrants, while fiscal priorities must shift from subsidies to infrastructure.

 

Vinayak Chatterjee argues that India’s infrastructure journey has moved through repeated cycles of state dominance, private participation, overreach, and retrenchment. After early post-liberalisation experiments, public-private partnerships expanded rapidly in the 2000s, attracting large private investment but eventually producing stranded assets, failed projects, and banking stress due to weak institutional foundations. The government then reverted to publicly funded execution while introducing hybrid models to retain some private participation. As infrastructure priorities shift towards new sectors and asset monetisation, Chatterjee argues that India must rebuild private investment through stronger institutions and more disciplined project design rather than repeating past excesses.

 

In her review of The Constitution Is My Home: Conversations on a Life in Law by Indira Jaising (with Ritu Menon), Anjali Chauhan writes that the memoir blends personal history with the evolution of rights-based legal activism in India. Structured as an extended conversation, the book moves beyond courtroom victories to examine the political struggles, alliances, and lived experiences that shape constitutional change. Jaising’s reflections on Partition, migration, and identity lead her to define belonging through constitutional values rather than territory. The review portrays the memoir as a powerful defence of expansive, humane, and transformative justice.