Best of BS Opinion: Digital transactions haven’t dented demand for cash | Opinion Specials

Hello, and welcome to the Best of BS Opinion, our wrap of the day’s Opinion page.  India’s continued demand for cash, despite the rapid growth of digital payments, warrants closer examination, particularly as currency in circulation continues to rise. Cash offers immediate settlement, no transaction costs and privacy, while its persistence may also reflect the size of the informal economy and tax avoidance. The Reserve Bank of India faces the challenge of managing a growing currency stock, including printing around 28-30 billion new notes annually and disposing of damaged ones. Today’s first editorial notes that India’s cash-to-GDP ratio remains relatively high internationally and argues that sustained cash demand deserves greater scrutiny, while cautioning that cash use alone does not indicate black money.  The Phuket-Delhi Air India flight incident should prompt a deeper investigation into the simultaneous failure of all three hydraulic systems on the Airbus A320, rather than allowing the captain’s positive drug test to become a convenient explanation, today’s second editorial says. It calls for stronger drug-testing requirements, noting that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation currently mandates random testing of 10 per cent of safety-sensitive personnel, compared with 25 per cent in the US. Air India’s decision to test all its pilots once is welcome, but enforcement must go beyond paper compliance. With India’s aviation sector expanding, airlines must prioritise safety and regulators ensure global-standard oversight.  The decision of Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran not to seek a third term should prompt a fundamental reassessment of the Tata group’s purpose, governance and business direction, writes Arun Maira. He traces the group’s origins to an industrial mission centred on building Indian capabilities in manufacturing, technology and human capital, and warns that this foundation has weakened since economic liberalisation and the rise of finance and digital technology. With Air India, Tata Digital and Tata Neu straining resources, and TCS facing disruption from AI, the next chairman must restore the group’s long-term industrial focus, says Maira, while calling for clarity on Tata Sons’ purpose, governance standards, board competencies and leadership values.  The popular narrative that US trade with China caused widespread deindustrialisation and manufacturing job losses is misleading, contends Michael R Strain. While studies confirm that Chinese import competition eliminated between 1.5 million and 2.4 million US manufacturing jobs, other research shows that export expansion generated a roughly equivalent number of jobs. Manufacturing employment had also been declining steadily for decades before China’s WTO accession, largely because of productivity growth. Strain argues that the more important lesson is the difficulty workers face in moving between sectors and regions as opportunities change. Policymakers should therefore support workers through economic disruption, including relocation assistance and earnings subsidies, rather than restricting trade or technological progress.  In The Tihar Players: A Prison Memoir, Mahmood Farooqui revisits the 18 months he spent in Tihar after being arrested and later convicted on rape charges, which he denied and was ultimately acquitted of. Neha Kirpal reviews the memoir as an account of how faith, books, theatre and writing helped Farooqui survive prison and rebuild his life. Drawing on his childhood, education, career, marriage and revival of Dastangoi, the book also offers a detailed portrait of Tihar, its inmates and its dehumanising conditions. Farooqui recounts conducting theatre workshops in prison and his continuing efforts to help former inmates, while reflecting on the enduring consequences of his ordeal.