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‘Why does the government always push LIC to invest in loss making PSUs?’
‘Why is the government ignorant about the shocking state of our primary education?’
‘Parliament data reveals around 30 million cases are pending in courts across cities. Shouldn’t the government fill up the whopping 5,000 judicial positions that are still lying vacant in courts?
‘Was Budge 2015-16 a game-changer?’
These and many more questions came up from the audience gathered at Mumbai's Nehru Centre to hear what author Mihir Sharma had to say about the political and social scenario since the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.
Image: Investors look at a large screen displaying India's benchmark share index on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Photograph: Arko Datta/Reuters
Amidst the audience that had gathered at Mumbai's Nehru Centre on Friday, you can almost be certain that everyone had come to hear Mihir Sharma discuss his book Restart: The Last chance for the Indian Economy, with Sajjid Chinoy, chief India economist at JP Morgan, and Gaurav Gupta, the Asia director of Dalberg, a global advisory firm.
Sharma opened the session by introducing his book which delves into events post-1991 when India opened up its economy to the world.
Things were fine at that time as poverty rates fell, the economy started improving and India was well on its way to becoming a superpower, but then things fell apart in no time, Sharma said.
Sharma blamed archaic laws, red-tapism, premature rush to improve industrial development and a few more reasons for eventually derailing the economy.
In Restart, Sharma (image, left) minces no words in pointing out that faulty policies, the lackadaisical attitude of bureaucrats and a few wrong decisions of past governments have hampered India’s growth.
His suggestions are not at all comforting yet having the effect of motivating those present to think of what can and must change in India.
By this time in the exchange, the audience is super-charged by the witty, insightful conversation on the dais among Sharma, Gupta, Chinoy.
The trio have already hooked the gathering with their intelligent discussion on the state of the Indian economy in the first 20 minutes of the session.
Gupta then requested Sharma to read out an excerpt from his book and the latter happily obliged.
Understandably, Sharma chose to kickstart the session with his reservations about the current government, and the audience is impressed.
NDA supporters present in the audience did agree with Sharma that Modi is certainly the most dynamic leader that India has had but he is yet to turn around the economy. Sharma said Modi still has to start the process of delivering what he had promised earlier.
As the conversation progresses, Sharma recollects how a few days spent in Kanpur had appalled him after he found out about rampant power theft in the city. To one's dismay, things haven’t changed much even today, he remarked.
Without going deeper into the subject, Sharma urged the audience to watch a 80-minute documentary, Katyabaaz, on Kanpur’s power crisis, which he is sure will shock most of us.
“Katiyabaaz will remind you how distant the real India is from what we speak about in drawing rooms and at international events. The film shows the grim reality of India,” he says.
Once the floor opened to the audience, Sharma answered a barrage of tough questions coming up from people as diverse as a 55-yer old private sector official to a young analyst to a retired public sector employee, all of who have hopes from the Modi Sarkar, but on second thoughts are a little suspicious about how the government will address issues ranging from the abysmal state of education in rural India to GST implementation to the shocking state of our big-ticket infrastructure projects which are in limbo for want of equity.
Be it getting half-built highways projects on track, or not using LIC as the last and only resort to invest in divestment programmes of loss-laden PSUs, the government has to do things that are never done before, make a start from fresh policies and modern outlook, embed India in global economy, all of which looks difficult, is the conclusion at the end of the day. An outcome that leads one to ponder: Can the economy ever get back on track?