The 10-year UPA/NDA government scorecard

I am not saying that focusing on the GDP growth rate and the fiscal deficit is a bad thing. Not at all. Both are important. But obsessing over them is stupid

Since the 1991 balance of payments crisis, which was caused by a huge fiscal deficit, and the subsequent IMF bailout, India’s various governments, at least on the face of it, have been obsessing over two things. One is the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and the other is the fiscal deficit.

They have sought to increase the former and reduce the latter. But all of them have failed spectacularly because it is impossible to do so, especially for India with its billion poor and welfare programmes.

This much we should have learnt by now. But thanks to the power