BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has often criticised the government’s economic policies, believes only people with solid grounding in macroeconomics can pull the economy out of its current tailspin. He is of the opinion that the government today needs a crisis management team of experienced politicians and professional but politically-savvy economists who are rooted in Indian ethos and not compliant to institutions like the IMF and the World Bank .
Dr. Swamy has come out with a book in which he takes a critical look at various aspects of the Indian economy, both past and present.
Structural flaws
Today, the economy suffers from clueless economic stewardship, cloaked in spin, and media management, while the economy is debilitated by serious multiple structural flaws that make this current slowdown unlike any other we have experienced in India since 1947, he writes in “Reset: Regaining India’s Economic Legacy.”
He also believes that many members of government subcommittees have no formal training in quantitative economic logic to be applied in a macroeconomic framework like recognising components of the crisis, identifying optimum measures and enthusing stakeholders.
Form of deflation
He is also of the opinion that the slowing of inflation cannot be celebrated as an achievement in the absence of robust demand signals and weak purchasing power among the masses. It is a form of deflation .
However, Dr. Swamy is hopeful India will come out successful, as it has in all crises in the past 72 years and suggests that the situation should be dealt with squarely by means of reforms that incentivise the people.
He is of critical of the UPA governments (2004-2014) saying it saw some of the most senior ministers committing gigantic corruption.
Manmohan Singh, though an accomplished economist, remained a marginal figure of no consequence in his own government, and accidentally a prime minister, he writes in the book, published by Rupa.
Manmohan-Modi comparison
Comparing Narendra Modi with his predecessor Dr. Singh, Dr. Swamy says, “He is the exact opposite of Dr. Singh. He is not the person of letters, and one who has an unstudied familiarity with microeconomics but not macroeconomics and its intricacies of inter-sectoral economic dynamics,” he writes.
