The country has reluctantly eased into the classical Hindu growth of rate of 3%, which is actually what the reported 4.5% now is. Between 1990 and say 2014, it struggled and succeeded in getting out of this rut, to chart an admirable growth rate path. In the process, it gained the means to reduce poverty levels substantially. The clock has turned back now. It is as remarkable as mystifying as to how this government, in a span of three years, turned the story of the economy into a misery. It lacks knowledge and experience on its own, has been shunning sane advices and seems highly prone to unilateralism. The key to revival now is entirely dependent on reversing the extensive damages caused to the huge informal economy by demonetisation. There is total lack of appreciation of the uniqueness of our informal economy, its largely honest nature, it being the actual backbone of the real consuming section of the population and it being the actual edifice of the formal economy. All the past governments understood this unique feature of our economy and preserved that role. Not this government, which was bent upon formalising the total economy, for whatever the reasons. This was a totally unilateral approach, in total disregard for its experience. The country is now paying dearly for this ‘I-know-all’ thinking. It will take 10 years now to catch up with where we were in 2014.
M. Balakrishnan
E 103, Bren Trillium
Doddanagamamgala Road
Bangalore 560100
