Is India Trailing Indonesia with Sinking Economy?
PM Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Probawo Subianto. (Image credit X.com)
Modi’s Past Economy Aides Ring Alarm Bells on Sinking Economy
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 17: Mundane Union Budget discussion in parliament ended without gaining popular attention. Electoral verdicts throw signs that the people are nonchalant about the state of the economy.
Former close advisors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government are ringing alarm bells on the state of the economy. Billionaire Sridhar Vembu believes that India is staring at a major economic disaster with US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariff.
Vembu offered prescription to avert the impending disaster by stating that India must substantially cut down on the Chinese imports of the electronic goods. Two months ago, a Chinese economist chastised an Indian panelist in a discussion for suggesting that “China’s export of overcapacity to India was killing the Indian economy”.
“China is five times the economy of India, and we must have done something substantially right in the past to gain the status,” said the Chinese economist in a heavy American accent to silence the Indian panellist.
Financial Times, a UK-based business daily, revisited a well-known trend in Indonesia, of shrinking middle class. The Raisina Hills reported five months ago of loud warning for India from the shrinking middle class in Indonesia in a report.
The daily quoted Chatib Basri, an ex-Finance Minister of Indonesia, saying: “The culprit for this (shrinking middle class) is the inability to produce jobs in the formal sector. From 2019, most of the jobs created were basically in the informal sector.”
His statement may sound familiar in India, as experts here are regularly warning of vanishing jobs in the formal sector. Besides, the Economic Survey this year admitted of wage stagnancy while blaming corporate of profiteering from the reduced corporate tax.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebration. “With a population of 278 million, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, after India, China and the US,” added the FT in its report.
“Just a few years ago, it seemed India was actually growing — you could sense the momentum. Now, whatever I see around me makes it like we’ve actually gone 50 years backward. Filth, stampede, pollution, broken infra, or whatnot. What the hell went wrong,” asked Anuradha Tiwari, a social media influencer, well-known for her viral post in which she castigated bashing Brahmins for social ills.
Arvind Subramanian and Rathin Roy were the poster boys of Modinomics. Subramanian told Karan Thapar in an interview recently that a “change of DNA” is necessary for rescuing the Indian economy. Roy is vengeful in his utterances on the state of the economy, suggesting there’s no hope left for the economy.
Subramanian was the Chief Economic Advisor of India recently. Roy was member of PM’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC).
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