Bangalore Rising

When you think of it, this fight over India's GDP numbers - whether it is 5% or 3.5% is not really relevant to the common man. What the common man aspires for is three square meals, a roof over his head, education for his children, an opportunity to stay healthy, and should the need arise, easy access to affordable healthcare for day-to-day health issues at a minimum, and an opportunity to work so that all of these can be provided to his or her family. These are not tall aspirations. Many of our parents ventured out of their villages into the big cities out of compulsion, because the family back in the village was finding it increasingly difficult to make two ends meet with the meagre opportunities that village and agriculture life provided. Our fathers sought greener pastures in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, or Kolkata, skilled themselves for clerical jobs, found themselves a job for life, raised a family, and just about managed to provide all those things to the family I mentioned...

I recently read an Economist article headlined “India’s prime minister is not as much of a reformer as he seems”. Coming from a reputed international newsmagazine, it was a bit surprising that such an impactful headline, was not followed up with depth or detail to make the point stick. From an economic standpoint, almost every ill - near bankruptcy of large PSU banks, poor tax compliance, massive bureaucracy in state sales tax (to a point that almost every state collected just about enough sales tax to pay the wages of the taxmen - yes, does it not surprise you?) that delivered zero meaningful revenue to the state, are a throwback of the past. Whether it was due to 63 years of Congress rule, 2 years of Janata Party rule, or 5 years of the previous BJP rule is not relevant; this, and every previous government inherited a plethora of problems that were/are extremely tough to untangle. It is a fact that every government of the past, especially the one with Janardhan Poojary as a min...