The level of deluded romanticism PM Nehru had regarding foreign ideologies such as socialism and communism harmed India more than Curzon, Morely, Minto, William Churchill, etc. ever could. The reason being such a deluded, incompetent person wielded unprecedented power for over 16 years and he and his daughter set a precedent and an ecosystem that thrived on India’s misery. This ecosystem still exists to this day. India’s leadership ignored the Indic views of Kautilya, Guptas, Vijaynagara and imposed imported socialist junk because of which our country went into a state of perpetual poverty and misery. But things are changing and Bharat is moving towards becoming Atmanirbhar. Here is a quick diagnosis of some of the deep-rooted problems of the Indian economy.

Economic outputs of a nation are measured by GDP. GDP is a quantitative measure but it is influenced by both qualitative as well quantitative, internal as well as external, human as well as non-human factors. India’s economic problems are rooted in such factors many of which are deep-rooted for few centuries.

The financial year 2020-21 was an unprecedented year which saw a massive decline in Indian GDP by over 8%. This year, the decline was understandably due to stringent lockdown measures taken to control and prepare for Covid-19 pandemic. While this was a once in century challenge, other external factors such as Brexit, US-China trade wars, India-China border conflicts and protectionist policies around the world also had negative effects on the Indian economy. But this also presented an opportunity to implement long-pending reforms which Modi government utilized to its fullest whether it was production linked incentive scheme or the new revolutionary farm laws to give true economic independence to the Indian farmers.

Indian economy also suffers from structural issues. While 1991 liberalisation paved way for economic freedom in many businesses; our government institutions, legislative, laws, acts and judiciary hasn’t been able to move forward and achieve reforms at the desired pace. India has still many archaic, business-unfriendly laws and when you also consider the state laws, things start getting really complicated. Our judiciary is also massively under-staffed and enforcement of laws, resolution of disputes is a major issue. India’s problem of bureaucratic red-tape and corruption has been one of the major concerns of foreign investors. While our governments have been constantly struggling with increasing capital expenditure of the budget, at the same time many inefficient PSUs are sucking money off the taxpayers and have become white elephants. Clearly, disinvestment is the way forward.

India has the world’s largest working-age population. But lack of development of human capital is a big hindrance in realising the benefits of demographic dividend. Lack of investment in R&D, education, health is a major issue.

India’s financial system is lagging far behind Asian tigers such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea. India’s corporate bond market is massively under-developed and the cost of capital in India is particularly high. This makes our businesses uncompetitive in the global market. There has also been the issue of transmission of monetary policy to interest rates.

Recent reforms bought by the government concerning farm laws, labour laws are a much-welcomed step. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has been a game-changer. India is showing massive improvements in ease of doing business rankings. However investments in human capital, R&D is still far from the desired levels, though the progress made in the current budget is commendable. Judicial reforms and bringing down the cost of capital coupled with investments in human capital and constant reforms with time will solve a lot of India’s economic issues. India is poised for a V-shaped economic recovery and the time is ripe for implementing and going forward with the economic reforms. Aspirational India cannot wait.

When you really diagnose the roots of economic problems in India and then look at the policies of Modi government such as IBC code, GST, labour reforms, disinvestment, massive capital expenditure, agricultural reforms through new farm laws, investment in health, education, R&D, junking archaic laws and the whole idea of Atmanirbhar Bharat, it becomes clear that they have the correct diagnosis of the deep-rooted economic problems.
But we also have a thriving protest economy supported by anti-India elements directly targeted to disrupt every reforms and policy of the government with the major aim of hampering India’s economic progress (along with the usual anti-Hindu narrative that is the hallmark of every such protest). Enemies of Bharat don’t want her to become Atmanirbhar. This protest economy, we have to destroy and dismantle. Andolanjeevis, your time’s up.

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