A Navaratri (Nine-Point) Economic Re-Boot For A Puritan Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unexpected, stirring commendation of “wealth creators” – most tellingly, by using popular English terminology, instead of conjuring up a Hindi equivalent like poonji utpadak (as he is wont to do), he was signaling a reach-out to new-gen entrepreneurs and elite business-people who have gotten estranged from him. And by obliquely acknowledging that his regime may have treated them with contempt/suspicion – mark his cutting words in Hindi, heen bhavna – he was being as contrite as Modi can ever be on a public platform.
After finishing an energetic 94-minute speech from the Ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi is understood to have driven straight into a brainstorming session with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her band of policy-men on how to fix the economy. I am sure he asked sharp questions, somewhat along these lines
Men’s Underwear!? Err…
Alas, PM Modi must have asked the first eight questions, and got mumbling answers about a “temporary slowdown that we shall neutralise with sector-specific sops” – i.e., the prosaic prescription when bureaucrats don’t have a clue about how to fix an endemic crisis.
Unfortunately, I am equally sure that he did not ask the last/ninth question, which would have been inspired by Alan Greenspan’s famous ‘men’s underwear index’ conceived nearly half a century ago. If Modi had indeed asked that question, Finance Minister Sitharman and her band of policy-men would have had to go scurrying to see the sales performance of the top four innerwear firms, who have posted the weakest sales performance in a decade. The best known, Jockey, grew by just 2 percent. While Lux’s sales were flat, Dollar and VIP fell by 4 and 20 percent respectively. As per Greenspan, this is an undeniable sign of a debilitating economic slowdown. But would Raisina Hill bureaucrats even admit to such a “bizarre and distasteful, ugh” data point? Especially to a puritanical PM?
Anyway, whether in underwear or Maruti cars, the economic funk is stark and challenging.
If Modi continues to rely on his babus (bureaucrats) for solutions, he is going to plunge deeper into the quicksand.
On the other hand, I can hear the echo of his resounding assertion from Red Fort...
So I am going to give our Prime Minister the benefit of all doubt.
Perhaps his instinct is now telling him to break free from earlier shackles.
Perhaps he is ready to shed the statist mindset that has bedeviled his economic policies until now.
And since I know how fiercely/devoutly he believes in the bi-annual Navaratra tradition of fasting to reinforce his sankalp (determination), I shall give our puritan Prime Minister…
Nine Ideas To Re-think, Re-boot And Turn Around India’s Economy
Pardon my colloquialism, Prime Minister, but Just Do It, This Navaratri!
Raghav Bahl is the co-founder and chairman of Quintillion Media, including BloombergQuint. He is the author of three books, viz ‘Superpower?: The Amazing Race Between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise’, ‘Super Economies: America, India, China & The Future Of The World’, and ‘Super Century: What India Must Do to Rise by 2050’.