Best of BS Opinion: Power without guardrails becomes a risk

Power can become dangerous if it outruns its safeguards. A financial market can give retail investors access, but also expose them to players with far greater information and technology. A government can invoke development but weaken ecological protection. A manufacturing giant can reshape global trade but also create strategic dependence. Foreign investors can influence market narratives but not always understand where domestic opportunity lies. Artificial intelligence can make the state more efficient but also hollow out democratic judgement.

 

Our first editorial today, “A losing proposition”, looks at the equity derivatives market, where retail traders continue to suffer heavy losses. New Sebi studies show that retail participation in equity derivatives declined in 2025-26, but the average loss per trader increased. Indian households lost more than Rs 2 trillion in this segment over two years, while proprietary traders, mutual funds and foreign portfolio investors gained. The editorial does not argue for a blunt ban, but the data shows that many small traders, including those with low incomes and little or no underlying equity portfolio, are entering futures & options in search of quick money. The case for stronger investor protection, better sensitisation and exposure limits linked to underlying portfolios deserves serious debate.

 

 

The second editorial, “Development vs conservation”, applies that warning to Kaziranga. The Assam government’s proposal to reduce the ecosensitive zone around the national park from 10 km to 1-3 km is presented as a move to promote civic and urban growth. But Kaziranga is already under pressure from construction, mining, quarrying and other activities that disrupt wildlife corridors and pollute water bodies. The park’s animals, including one-horned rhinoceroses, tigers and elephants, depend on wider ecological space, especially during the monsoon when they move towards the Karbi-Anglong highlands. Development that weakens conservation may damage not only biodiversity but also tourism, local livelihoods and Assam’s own natural inheritance.

 

Mihir S Sharma’s column, “A new kind of China Shock”, turns to industrial power. China’s export surge today is unlike the first China shock of the 2000s. It is concentrated in strategic sectors like electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels, and reflects a more self-contained Chinese supply chain. This creates a different kind of challenge for the world, including developing economies. Cheap Chinese goods may reduce prices, but concentrated control over high-end manufacturing can weaken domestic industry elsewhere and create geopolitical dependence.

 

Debashis Basu’s column, “Ignore the FPI pessimism”, offers a counterpoint in markets. Foreign portfolio investors may be downbeat on India because they remain concentrated in largecaps and sectors like financials, software, and oil & gas. But domestic investors are directing large flows into smallcaps and midcaps, where many of India’s stronger growth stories now sit. The power to define India’s market story no longer belongs only to foreign investors.

 

“Rule by automation”, Jennifer Szalai’s review of Jill Lepore’s The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, closes takes the argument to the field of technology. Rule by automation may promise efficiency, but it also risks replacing human judgement with machines, corporations and algorithms.

 

The message across all these pieces is clear: Power needs limits, markets need protection, development needs ecological restraint, capital narratives need scrutiny, and technology needs human oversight.