A book on Economics is
prone to be one that can be classified as a serious bit of study, and a truckload
of hard complex reading, full for jargon and indecipherable terms {even to
economists, ,no joke there}; a subject
to be broached only in a particular mood and mindset. One does not normally
look to find anything but the above, especially if the book has been penned by
one of India’s better known economics writers on Business Media. Well, the
above is just about exactly what this book – ReStart, Last Chance For The Indian Economy – written by Mihir S Sharma, is not.
THE BOOK
This is a book that
approaches it the core question – how do we genuinely grow – in a refreshing
new look, basis hardcore fundamentals, devoid of jargon and needless
complexities. It is divided into 5 parts : Why We Fail, When and Where We
Failed, The Real Reasons Behind What Went Wrong since 2011-2012, How and Why
Private Companies Have Failed To Be Innovative & Failed to Drive Growth, The
5 Bad Choices We Made That Must Be Corrected and the 5 Steps that Need to be
Taken.
Within each part, the book
lays bare some of the fundamental issues that caused the situation where are
now, asking some tough questions in hard language. It looks at the key causes,
issues like infrastructure and our
inability to build it; honesty and its lack in India; Unfinished reforms and
their cascading impact; Corruption; The scepter of top-level growth on the base
of a comparatively weaker foundation; it looks hard at the curse of Jugaad, and how Private Enterprise
in India has failed to truly innovate; and sums it up by looking at 5 bad
choices we made :
1.
PPP
2.
Special
Exceptions to Rules
3.
Energy
4.
Distrust
Market Prices
5.
Environment,
and the 5 steps we need to
take :
1.
Flexibility
in Land, labour, Capital & Entrepreneurship markets
2.
Black
Money
3.
Government
Expenditure
4.
Agriculture
5.
Cities
THE ANALYSIS
There is a little that is
wrong in the book; but I would rather look at the pluses which far outnumber the
minuses by a large margin. Given the fact that we are a developing nation, let
me keep a positive approach. For starters, it was refreshing to read an author
who made the connect between honesty, corruption, black money and true
inclusive growth. This is, beyond any doubt, one of the key issues facing our
nation in this modern day. While others like Bibek Debroy have given a numbers
based analysis of the impact on the economy, this is a more base-level blunt and hard-hitting attack on this most
key and fundamental of issues that
confront us.
The book also makes no
bones, pointing out the failure of private business to innovate in India. A
rough look at any industry today will prove the point unequivocally; the
majority {in some cases, all} brands / products are of foreign origin. There is
an abyss and an absence of Indian Leading Brands. Sure, we may have a bustling consumer market,
for example – but the brands and the intellectual capital are from outside India. Add to this the truly Indian
concept of Jugaad, which is in reality a curse, leading to cutting corners; and
the sorry habit of ours of making exceptions to each rule, as well as crony
capitalism.
The book also does a bang-up
fantastic job of anaylsing the business environment, looking at the issues of
doing business in India, in its former inspector raj, its regulatory framework,
the unfinished reforms and the land, labour and capital markets and the need to
reform them – as well as the Infrastructure Scenario and crony capitalism, in
addition to Education and its problems. But the most nuanced and thoroughly
stunning part is the short and sharp deconstruction of the issues emanating
from our handling of the Environment, and the costs it has imposed.
The longest part of the
book is the analysis of how do we grow from here, taking a look at the five bad
steps and the 5 steps needed to grow. Here is where the first problem appears –
as the section on Agriculture does not go to the full correct analysis. There
are other issues, but not too many; even in Agriculture, it does identify some
of the right issues – it just doesn’t go far enough in my opinion. The panorama it touches in this segment is
breathtakingly vast, spanning cities, GST, Taxation and the need to increase
its base, Judicial reform and much more. Far too vast to summarise in a review.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this is a book that asks some hard and accurate
questions, and successfully punctures any false impressions and balloons that might
be residing in your mind about the Indian Economy, painting a picture that asks
way too many questions. The author himself offers a way we can achieve this;
social reform. Reform Ourselves. If that sounds strange, I invite you to read
the book; it isn’t strange. It is, in fact, the only way for us to really sort out our problems. If you look at the
list of what is wrong above, you will note the presence of internal societal
habits and factors standing side-by-side with Economic Factors. The proof of
the pudding is in the simple fact of the state of Private Enterprise and the
absence of Indian Brands as leaders in quality in any number of consumer or
industrial markets…
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