Uncomfortable Realities

Not pleasant, not popular, not diplomatic - just some food for thought

- YAGNESH THAKKAR

The India growth story has been narrated for decades, and the narration will continue for many more decades. The listener receives hope, excitement and projections. The storyteller receives fees, profits, followers, accolades and business opportunities.

In reality, India has a vast consumer base with insufficient and irregular income and pathetic (often negative) savings, a large labour force lacking appropriate education and skills, a growing talent pool forced to go overseas for education and opportunities, infrastructure that remains inadequate and grows at a snail’s pace, entrepreneurs who rarely think beyond domestic markets or undertake meaningful R&D, production capacities so small that we are price takers in most of the things we produce, a wealthy class flaunting foreign goods and services, corporates focused on valuations and risk minimisation, a political system preoccupied with freebies, reservations and non-economic issues, and a legal system that often takes decades to deliver justice. Unfortunately, little is being done to address these structural weaknesses.