Best of BS Opinion: Cut down on sugar, next level in AI, and more

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

The World Health Organisation has issued draft guidelines to countries on how the tax system can be used to provide disincentives for sugar-sweetened beverages or SSBs. Given that fiscal policy has been used by governments as a major anti-nicotine tool, there is a logical reason to hope that some fiscal measures could be repurposed to address this additional killer. But India has a specific problem in that the Goods and Services Tax imposes differential rates on beverages and foods with sweeteners and sugar content. A streamlined tax structure as well as other policy levers such as better food labelling requirements would go a long way towards improving public health, says the top edit. Read it here

In other views:

CKG Nair & M S Sahoo show how the growing ‘adventurism” by Adjudicating Authorities and tribunals in inventing powers for themselves can impact the business environment. Read it here

My column points out that that in the global scheme of things the dimensions of Indian businessmen’s personal wealth appear to dwarf the scale of the businesses they run. Read it here

The second edit says Microsoft’s reported plan to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, the non-profit that created the ChatGPT app, points to the need for careful navigation of next-levelAI apps. Read it here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

 

‘…Was the unzipping to satisfy a sexual desire? I am not running away from the fact that it was obscene… Her statement doesn’t make the case in four corners of putting me as a lustful man’

 

‘Peegate’ accused Shankar Mishra