<b>T N Ninan:</b> At the two-thirds mark

Double-digit growth promise fades, but key schemes must work so that Mr Modi gets his talking points

There is a paradox at work. The Modi government gains in political strength and popular support even as the economy swings downward. Can the two continue to move in opposite directions? For a while, certainly. Indira Gandhi remained hugely popular for many years even as the economy slipped into its lowest growth phase since Independence. What helped her was that she sold people the dream of removing poverty, and took a number of populist steps: nationalising the banks and giving below-cost loans to the poor; raising income tax rates to 97 per cent in a Robin Hood scenario of taking