Best of BS Opinion: Power fights, gig work strain, and AI beauty fixes

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

Imagine a scene, where a long table is set for a celebration, soft music, someone leaning forward with a smile and you, steadying that bottle of red wine you’ve saved for months. But in that exact moment, even though you wanted to pour wine with good intentions, the glass tumbled. The careful tilt, the hopeful offering, the tiny tremor of the hand and suddenly, a soft thud, and shattered glass all over the floor, and a hush that says things didn’t land quite as planned. The wine blooms across the tablecloth like a small, startled sunset, and every eye widens at once. Currently it seems, the world too is full of well-meaning pours yet unexpected tumbles. Let’s dive in. 

 

Take China, where Juliana Liu follows a workforce caught in the middle of a spill. Beijing wants to move from property to high tech, hoping innovation will be the vintage that restores confidence. But with around 200 million urban workers stuck in a fragile gig economy, the glass keeps tipping. Big platforms like Alibaba and Meituan offer benefits, yet job creation lags and enforcement stays weak. Without stronger labour protections and real social security, that intended pour of tech-led growth risks splashing across a restless workforce. 

Closer home, in Karnataka, the wine is political, and the glass is slipping from two hands at once. Aditi Phadnis watches Siddaramaiah resolve that he will present next year’s Budget even as DK Shivakumar hints it may be his turn. Their alleged 2023 pact has come due, but the high command hesitates, mindful of past power-sharing disasters. For Shivakumar, at 63, this is not just a leadership moment but perhaps the only pour he may get for a decade. And as his supporters stir, the Congress faces the familiar sound of ambition hitting the floor. 

Meanwhile, advertising behemoth WPP is facing its own toppled glass, as Sandeep Goyal writes. Once a global giant advising Apple and Coca-Cola, it is now hiring McKinsey to repair collapsing revenues and a 60 per cent stock plunge. Incoming CEO Cindy Rose calls the performance “unacceptable,” and rumours swirl of takeovers from Havas or private equity. The empire built on creativity is now racing to reassemble itself into a lean, AI-ready machine before the next slip becomes irreparable. 

Then comes the thud that silenced the Dubai Air Show. Shekhar Gupta examines how the Tejas crash, which killed an IAF pilot, has reignited scrutiny of India’s long struggle to equip its Air Force. Tejas is competent and largely indigenous, but decades of delays, from LCA approval in 1983 to squadron readiness still years away, reflect a deeper pattern of policymakers pouring ambition without steady support. The crash wasn’t a technical failure, yet it forces a harder question about a country perpetually playing catch-up in air power.

 

And in Ayushi Singh’s Eye Culture, the tumbles are on Instagram, where the “Nano Banana” trend turns faces into warm, polished AI portraits. It’s a comforting pour for a generation tired of digital scrutiny, though one that risks raising beauty standards further even as some users rebel with unedited pictures. The mirror is gentle but the screen is exacting. Between the two lies the truth we keep trying to hold without letting it fall.

 

Stay tuned!