DNA Edit: PM’s PowerPoint

In the last two weeks, economists, academics, and even BJP ‘elders’ have started taking potshots at the Narendra Modi government for its purported failure to arrest the slide in the economy. This debate, particularly, underscores a dialectic of optics and perceptions.

A brief slowdown has been magnified into a collapse; a gradual revival is being employed to predict a ‘hard-landing’. At a time when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP were facing flak on the economic front, PM Modi stepped forward and silenced the cohort of critics and garden-variety economists.

In a note released on September 25, brokerage firm Jefferies Group LLC said that sales of two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, power generators, cumulative steel production, airport traffic, and even fund-raising in equity markets saw a strong annual growth in India. Further, data from August shows there was a 10.29 per cent jump in exports to $23.8 billion this year. This hard data flies in the face of all pundits crying themselves hoarse about the economy going into a tailspin. Newsflash: It is not. Yes, there is a slowdown, and yes, the blame for it can be squarely laid at the altar of demonetization and GST.

However, before we naively subscribe to over-the-top diagnosis of a sinking economy, it is incumbent on all of us to take a breather, step back and assess the situation dispassionately. Rising sales of vehicles and airport tickets, increase in steel production and growth in exports — all make for the trappings of an economic revival. The dent caused to the economy was unavoidable. This is the way of all transitions, especially economic transitions. The GST reform would never have fructified under the UPA with their policy paralysis and political one-upmanship.

It has taken some of the most astute political piloting that this country has ever seen to bring numerous centre, state, private and public stakeholders on board for GST. It is next to impossible that such a monolithic exercise of implementing the GST could have been pulled off without a hitch. Currently, the Centre is ironing out the wrinkles from the GST infrastructure. Even otherwise, the government is receptive to criticism that has come its way. PM Modi has unveiled a Rs 16,000 crore scheme that targets bringing power to all, 24x7.

The Economic Advisory Council has been reconstituted to review the economic policy super-structure, while PSUs have been asked to step up their CapEx by tapping into the debt market. Earlier this week, PM Modi reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel, a signal that he is keenly tuned into the woes and demands of the people. There is a group of detractors out there who would willingly spin negative rhetoric on the economy than concede that the economy is, indeed, witnessing a revival. With his sharp reply, the PM has managed to dampen their zeal, and highlight the fact that the India growth story is intact and charging full speed ahead.