India’s Economic Woes Are Piercing Modi’s Aura of Invulnerability
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[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/world/asia/india-modi-economy.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article"]source[/URL]
[QUOTE]SURAT, India — The immense popularity of Narendra Modi, India’s most dynamic prime minister in decades, has always rested on two legs: [URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/world/asia/in-indian-candidate-hindu-right-sees-a-reawakening.html"]Hindu nationalism[/URL] and his tantalizing promises to build on the country’s go-go economy.
That second leg is now looking a little shaky.
In the last two years, India’s [URL="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-08/from-farms-to-factories-india-s-facing-a-risky-drop-in-demand"]consumer confidence has plummeted[/URL], construction has slowed, [URL="http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2016-17/echapter.pdf"]the fixed investment rate has fallen[/URL], many factories have shut down and unemployment has gone up.
Fingers are pointing at Mr. Modi. Just about all economists agree that two of the prime minister’s biggest policy gambles — abruptly [URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/business/india-bans-largest-currency-bills-for-now-n-bid-to-cut-corruption.html"]voiding most of the nation’s currency[/URL] and then, less than a year later, imposing a [URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/asia/india-tax-narendra-modi.html?_r=0"]sweeping new sales tax[/URL] — have slowed India’s meteoric growth.
“Things have been worsening, worsening, worsening,” said [URL="https://scroll.in/article/850496/interview-this-is-a-kind-of-economic-collapse-the-first-step-to-tackle-it-is-to-acknowledge-it"]Himanshu, an economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University[/URL] in New Delhi, who uses only one name.
Still, the economy here is far from failing. The stock market continues to soar, major rail, road and port projects are unfolding across the country, and foreign investors poured $25.4 billion into India from April to September, up 17 percent from the period in 2016.
The government on Friday [URL="http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/PRESS_NOTE-Q3_2017-18.pdf"]predicted that the country’s gross domestic product would grow by 6.5 percent[/URL] in the 2017-18 financial year. While that is the lowest number the country has seen in four years, India’s economy is one that most countries would love to have.
But it does not feel that way to the huge number of Indians negatively affected by Mr. Modi’s policies, and the grumbles are growing. So are social tensions, especially those that divide Hindus from Muslims, and upper caste from lower caste. The fear is that Mr. Modi is already beginning to lean more heavily on that first leg of his, Hindu nationalism, now that his economic strategy is losing some of its sheen.[/QUOTE]
Superpower by 2020
India is such a chaotic mess that even if they had a recession the y probably couldn't tell
Its what happens when you have a strongman in power who can only talk but not get the job done.
I'm happy I got out when I did, this guy wrecked the country.
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