The reforms hogwash

by confuzzled dude Sat May 16, 2015 7:10 pm

It is hogwash to say that Manmohan Singh was the architect of the reforms that won India its independence from Nehru in 1991.

Forget “desi” paternity. The Indian reform process sprang from the emphatically foreign loins of IMF mandarins. They imposed conditions on India in exchange for an emergency loan of $2.2 billion, secured by 47 tonnes of gold reserves which had to be hauled to the UK. Another $600 million was secured by pledging 20 tonnes to the Union Bank of Switzerland. Bharat wasn’t always “mahaan”.

Narasimha Rao unveiled some reforms a few hours before Singh’s maiden budget in Parliament. But the reason Singh was given “architect” status (as Swaminathan Aiyar has argued in a recent blog) was that he’d be the nerdy fall guy if things went awry. As a respected technocrat with no political base, there’d be little opposition to Singh’s recommendations.

India’s economic reforms have mainly sputtered since then, a tale of three steps forward and two back. Other than in sectors that didn’t exist before 1991 (such as mobile telephony and IT), the heavy hand of the State still grips most of the economy. Narendra Modi has shown few signs of letting go.

By privatising slivers of State-owned companies and allowing public-private partnerships, the government has been able to raise capital from the private sector; but very little real reform has happened after 1996. In most traditional industrial and service sectors, government- owned companies dominate. India has been fooling itself about both the architect and the extent of its reform programme for 25 years. Manmohan Singh has wrongly taken credit for a liberalisation that was half-cocked at its inception, and has been quarter-cocked ever since.

In India, entrenched political interests and crony capitalism always win.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reverse-swing-the-reforms-hogwash/

So, What should Indians do, let China or IMF run India?

by Hellsangel Sat May 16, 2015 7:34 pm

Sure Comrade, let's go by the opinions of an ultra leftie like Patanjali Varadarajan.

Hitskin.com

The reforms hogwash

The reforms hogwash

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