There is an unusual combination of good news just now, with macroeconomic stability and renewed momentum. But Jaswant Singh would be well advised to ask himself how much of the credit accrues to him, and how much to the rain gods.
In the areas where the minister has direct responsibility, what the country sees is failure. Subsidies are running out of control, tax collection is poor, and budgeted spending is not happening. If credit is due, it is to the Reserve Bank, which has managed the rupee situation well and lowered interest rates sufficiently (if belatedly) to engineer a series of positive reactions.
It is also possible to overstate the good news, because industrial growth in the first two months of the year is a very modest 5 per cent, and export growth (though a creditable 11 per cent) has slowed down.
If the economy was not pulling out of a drought-induced slowdown, and benefiting therefore from an exaggerated bounce in agriculture, this year
