Best of BS Opinion: India must not shy away from trade negotiations

Our Opinion page today makes a case for more trade talks, note less; benefits for Isro from partnering with Nasa; a sustainable fix for urban congestion; and the need for a framework for digital fraud

Hello, and welcome to the BS Views, our distilled wrap of today's Opinion page. 

 

The chasm between the 25 per cent tariffs against India and the so-called TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) sentiment is considerable but not unbridgeable. It is entirely possible that it may end up lower, if the Indian negotiating teams is able to reach a broader deal at the last minute. Our first editorial notes that, whatever the final outcome, this episode should not cause India to step back from the need for more international trade. The way to move forward would be to increase productivity and competitiveness, and not allow the view that India can never match the levels of north-east or south-east Asia. On the contrary the best way to improve competitiveness is greater trade openness and the competitive discipline that comes with it. Meanwhile, India should keep looking for broad agreements with the US, as well as other trade blocs such as the EU, instead of giving up on trade negotiations altogether.

 

 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) stands to benefit from its participation in the Artemis Accords, perhaps more than its counterpart, the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), notes our second editorial. The launch of the Nisar (Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite is the second major mission between the two, after the Axiom 4 mission. The Accords offer a set of principles for civil exploration and use of outer space, and lets the famously-frugal Isro and the Indian aerospace sector to bid for Nasa tenders at a time when President Trump is cutting Nasa budgets. The Nisar data will also be critical to understand climate change, and India will be a major beneficiary, given Nasa and other American agencies may not be able to fully capitalise on the data because of new policy restraints. 

 

If you live in any major Indian metro, chances are you are stuck in a traffic jam every single day; hours in traffic are time away from more meaningful activities, yet we have normalised congestion without understanding its root causes, writes Sunita Narain. Much-touted solutions - more flyovers, fewer signals, wider roads - have instead exacerbated the problem. To fix this, we must look at congestion's political economy: more people are opting for two-wheelers and cars, filling up any new road space. The fundamental problem is the lack of public transport modes, their unreliability (ironically, caused by congestion), and gaps in planned last-mile connectivity. In fact, the last issue is being met largely by unregulated auto- and e-rickshaws, making congestion worse. But the key remains more, viable mass transport systems, pedestrian systems, and an integrated, well-regulated last-mile transit system. 

 

The headlines have been abuzz with words like QR code scams, digital arrest, and the like. Digital financial crimes have risen in tandem with India's digital economy, writes Ajay Shah and Nandkumar Saravade, while calling for a more rigorous approach than the current web of micro-regulations that do little other than passing the buck between the government, telecom operators, and the hapless victims. The mismatch between reported numbers and government data points to a lack of clarity, preventing the government from grasping the actual scale of the issue. To fix it, the government must first clarify the extent of losses. The second requirement is a coordinated response involving various stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, telcos, and the police. The final piece of the jigsaw is a expert group that formulates a national strategy on digital fraud with specific timelines and milestones.

 

The rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution that ousted the then Shah is a historical event that upended the region's politics, US foreign policy, and effectively ended then-US President Jimmy Carter's hopes for a second term. Scott Anderson's book KING OF KINGS: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation captures the miscalculation of American policy - which triggered the hostage crisis - in exceptional detail combined with superb storytelling, writes Mark Bowden. This sweeping and complex chronicle also highlights the travail of Michael Metrinko, America's political office at the US Embassy in Tehran at the time, whose dire warnings were ignored by the highest levels of the US government because they were at odds with the official, upbeat versions of what was coming.