Best of BS Opinion: The quiet undercurrents changing the world today

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

You know that moment at the lakeside when everything looks still, no wind, no ripples. And then suddenly, your feet feel something shift below? A swirl. A stirring. A current quietly turning things over beneath the calm surface. That’s how change often arrives, not like a bolt of lightning, but like a whisper under the surface. That’s what our world today feels like as well. On the surface, institutions still stand, celebrities still smile, the city still runs. But beneath it all, subtle forces are rearranging the landscape. Let’s dive in. 

Shang-Jin Wei notices one such tectonic ripple: the growing financial and ecological anxiety that’s unravelling the global order we’ve long taken for granted. With Trump’s fiscal recklessness threatening the dollar’s credibility and climate cooperation fraying post-Paris exit, Asia and Europe are being nudged toward deeper, alternative alliances. From stablecoin diplomacy to carbon tariffs and WTO rewiring, a new architecture is quietly forming, not in resistance, but in response. 

 

In the shadows of this global churn, R Gopalakrishnan spotlights India’s own deep-sea innovators — Suhas Patil and Anjan Bose — whose life-long work in chips and grid technology never grabbed headlines but shaped industries. They’re the hidden champions, steadying the foundation even as waves crash up top. They built not for the quarter but for the quarter-century and India’s future may well depend on unearthing and honouring many more like them. 

Then comes the political tremor from New York. Devangshu Datta writes about Zohran Mamdani, the unlikely mayoral frontrunner whose democratic socialist platform has stirred the status quo. His agenda, rent freezes, public transit, tax-the-rich, may sound radical, but it’s tapping into real pain. And if implemented well, it might just recalibrate NYC’s urban engine. The current he rides on? Economic justice wrapped in a rejection of capitalist excess. 

But as Shekhar Gupta reminds us, Mamdani’s rise is no quiet ripple in India. It has unleashed a storm of identity debates, religion, origin, ideology, triggering unease within India's right-wing circles. Ironically, Mamdani’s agenda resembles India’s own socialist past, even as it tries to distance itself from that very memory. What we buried, others now revive and perhaps better dressed, perhaps better timed. 

And Vishal Menon watches another tide turn: Aamir Khan’s shifting cinematic presence. Once the harbinger of meaningful cinema, his recent roles falter even as his vision behind the camera still gleams. Maybe it's time he lets the current carry him back to where his true strength lies. 

Stay tuned, and remember, sometimes, the storm isn’t loud. But the undercurrent? That’s what pulls the future in!