Patna : I came across an article “To fix economy, change mindset: Moody’s and other assessments of India’s economic outlook must set alarm bells ringing” written by Mr. Chetan Bhagat and carried by the Times of India, Patna Edition, on June 6, 2020.
Mr. Chetan Bhagat opens his article by stating : “This week, international ratings agency Moody’s downgraded India’s sovereign debt ratings and made the outlook negative. The same agency had upgraded India’s ratings in 2017. The government had highlighted this achievement back then. This time, the downgrade met with radio silence……” The downgrade comes as no surprise to Mr. Bhagat. He endorses the assessment made by Moody’s and goes on to analyze the key reasons for Moody’s negative views on India. He feels that even after the corona crisis is over India will just trudge along. He also analyses the reasons why we Indians never fix our economy.
The three reasons given by Mr. Chetan Bhagat why Indian economy has not been fixed till now and shall not be fixed even after the corona crisis is over, made me think hard about the topic.
If (as Mr. Chetan Bhagat so emphatically states) the Indian citizens don’t care about the economy; the Government, whichever the political dispensation, is anti-business; and the Indian industrialists lack and shun innovation, risk taking and don’t reward talent and if their main interest lies in promoting their children to top jobs (regardless of capabilities or talent), then who is left to take care of the economy ?
Finding fault with all the Indian citizens, the Indian Government and the Indian industrialists is a very easy thing to do. It is equally easy to preach that all of us – people, government and business owners – have to make drastic changes to our mind sets if we want to bring India’s economy back on track.
This kind of analysis has a great advantage – If things do not improve, the analyst can always turn around and say – “Hey, did I not tell you in advance that even after the corona crisis is over, India will just trudge along?”
If, by any chance, things do improve, the analyst can always say with a smile – “Hey, did I not tell you that if we want to bring India’s economy back on track, all of us – people, government and business owners – have to make drastic changes to our mind sets. People, Government and Business owners fortunately paid heed to what I said, and just look at the results!”
Heads I win, Tails you lose!