 "Illustration")
Illustration: Binay Sinha
Hello and welcome to Best of Business Standard Opinion, our wrap of the day’s editorial page.
The UNEP’s “overshoot, peak and decline” pathway risks obscuring the ecological damage that could occur before global temperatures return below 1.5°C, writes Shyam Saran. He says the required removal of about 320 billion tonnes of CO₹‚ this century depends on technologies that are not yet viable, while forests and oceans are being degraded. AI may deepen the problem: data centres’ power and water use is rising rapidly, potentially reviving fossil-fuel generation. Saran cautions that India’s ambitions in AI could intensify energy and water constraints, pushing climate action aside; he urges greater respect for nature’s limits.
Security and national identity outweighed anti-incumbency in Israel’s vote, helping Benjamin Netanyahu retain the strongest position to form a government, writes Shekhar Gupta. He says the trauma of 7 October and continuing threats made voters choose continuity over an uncertain alternative, while Israel’s political centre and Labour left have weakened. Arab parties won seats but remain excluded from coalitions because Jewish parties see them as unwilling to meet a test of national allegiance. Gupta argues that proportional representation alone cannot secure minorities influence; they need to build coalitions with acceptable mainstream partners, as India’s Muslim voters did during the coalition era.
The US midterm results could shape the Iran conflict and trigger sharp swings in energy prices, warns Devangshu Datta. He outlines how a Democratic takeover of Congress could increase pressure on Donald Trump to pursue a ceasefire, while Republican control would leave policy unchanged; Trump might also escalate before Congress can constrain military action. The stakes for India are high: its crude basket rose from about $61–62 a barrel in January to $120.20 in late October, worsening inflation and the trade gap. Datta urges energy traders, the RBI and the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell to prepare for either outcome.
China can remain a global force in technology and manufacturing even as a prolonged property bust weighs on growth, consumption and jobs, says Kenneth Rogoff. Comparing China with Japan after its real-estate collapse, he notes that property and related infrastructure account for nearly a third of Chinese demand, while automation and AI limit job creation. The crisis may leave much of the population in weaker regions behind, yet China’s frontier industries could continue to compete globally. Rogoff says that outcome depends on political stability and restraint, and argues that US-China cooperation remains essential to tackling shared challenges.
First Published: Oct 31 2026 | 6:15 AM IST
