The Modi govt must forget pakoras and let the likes of Toyota create jobs

When India should be presenting itself as an alternative to China by making it easy for enterprises, we find the old and discarded Soviet-style statism creeping back

Narendra Modi says, “Make in India.” Toyota Motor Corp. says, stop treating cars as though they were drugs or alcohol.

The Japanese carmaker has a point about the tax structure being unviable for the industry, and Shekar Viswanathan, vice chairman of the India unit, made it forcefully in an interview to Anurag Kotoky of Bloomberg News. However, instead of trying to address the specific concern about the high sin levies on cars, the government turned it into a public relations issue. The minister for heavy industries, who also looks after information and broadcasting, took to Twitter to announce that “the