Hello, and welcome to the Best of BS Opinion, our wrap of the day’s Opinion page.
Today’s first editorial highlights the sharp rise in sugar prices ahead of the festival season and welcomes the Centre’s decision to allow duty-free imports of 1 million tonnes of raw sugar. However, it cautions that delays in refining and falling domestic prices could limit actual imports. Lower-than-expected production, crop damage, volatile weather and a global supply deficit have tightened supplies. The editorial notes that blaming ethanol diversion alone would be misplaced, given its declining share of sugar use and benefits to mills and farmers. It calls for faster imports, better crop forecasting, disease-resistant cane and greater scrutiny of water-intensive sugarcane cultivation.
India’s banking system is becoming richer in data, but this is not translating into a wider borrower base, with the share of fresh businesses entering formal credit falling from 52 per cent in 2022-23 to 42 per cent in 2025-26. Traditional lending models still depend heavily on collateral and formal credit histories, leaving many viable “credit-invisible” borrowers underserved. The second editorial highlights the potential of alternative data and artificial intelligence to assess repayment capacity. It stresses that technology must complement human judgement and governance, with consent-based data use, bias testing and human review essential to prevent new forms of exclusion.
Global trade policy is increasingly marked by a “dualism” in which major economies promote freer trade while simultaneously using unilateral and discriminatory measures, writes Amita Batra. The US has pursued punitive tariffs despite its WTO commitments, while the EU has expanded free-trade agreements even as it adopts protectionist instruments such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. China, meanwhile, continues to wield its dominance of global value chains while seeking to project itself as a responsible power. Batra highlights Asean as an exception, with its continued commitment to rules-based trade. India, too, is balancing new FTAs with persistent protectionism, leaving the future of the multilateral trade order uncertain.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s efforts to manage America’s rising borrowing costs could signal growing concern within the Trump administration over the country’s fiscal position. With US debt above $40 trillion, a federal deficit near 6 per cent of GDP and global long-term interest rates rising, Kenneth Rogoff warns that the assumption of effortless, AI-driven fiscal consolidation is unrealistic. He highlights the erosion of the dollar’s safe-asset premium and the risk that persistent budget pressures could weaken its global dominance. Rogoff questions Bessent’s strategy of replacing long-term debt with short-term borrowing, arguing that historical evidence suggests higher interest rates may represent a lasting normalisation rather than a temporary spike.
Newspeak and Newthink: China’s “Rejuvenation” of Its Memory by Volker Stanzel examines how the Chinese Communist Party has shaped and manipulated collective memory to reinforce its legitimacy and political objectives. Gunjan Singh highlights the CCP’s use of patriotic education, museums, monuments, cultural institutions and diplomacy to establish a consistent historical narrative centred on China’s “One Hundred Years of Humiliation” and its subsequent rejuvenation. The book also links this memory-building to foreign policy, including the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s global ambitions. Singh notes that the CCP’s attempt to suppress alternative memories faces persistent challenges from episodes including the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, Taiwan and ethnic-minority repression.
