It's no secret that Indian economy is screwed right now; so screwed that the #ass is barely recognizable. Amongst other things, what's most worrisome is that domestic consumption has declined so much that it seems like Japanese Minimalism has taken over this country. While it might be good for spiritual reasons, it's bad news for the economy. I heard Dr. Subramanian Swamy promoting his book on the issue and I thought, "Okay, I'll buy this and help the economy".
Swamy begins talking about Medieval India and its economic heritage. We were terrific. The story turns very sad with the episodes on British loot and post independence Soviet-style economic planning and its dismal results. Swamy runs a chronological, peer-to-peer analysis with China and shows how and when India squandered potential and is now left far, far behind. He highlights 1991, when India began to grow fast and started showing great potential. Interestingly, Swamy claims to have drafted the entire reform plan which led to the liberalization revolution.
Some disappointing years after, Swamy reaches the present and tells us how a lot of things Modi Govt has done have backfired in epic proportions.
Example:
Modi Govt realized that India is a largely tax non-complaint nation. Small businesses here do "Kaccha kaam" and evade taxes to attain happiness. While it was cool for previous govts, Modi wanted "badlaav". This led to efforts of bringing informal sector in the mainstream economy by various moves including Demonetization and GST. While Indians navigated through demonetization in the most snaky way in human history, they haven't been able to adjust to the whole GST thing. Small businesses have dwindled leading to job losses, reduction in purchasing power of the masses, decrease in spending, and finally mass unhappiness. There's a lot more to the story but it's beyond the scope of this article. Also, who pays me for this shit? No one.
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