The Starting Line

What should the next government do to keep India on the growth track? A lowdown from four experts on the state of the economy.

- Prosenjit Datta

A GOVERNMENT’S performance depends to a certain extent on the cards it has been dealt with when it takes charge. The cards are dealt to a certain extent by his outgoing predecessor, as well as the overall condition of the global economy. The first UPA government led by Manmohan Singh was lucky in that sense. The domestic economy was gaining momentum because of the steps taken by his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. To add to that, the global economy was on a tear (which ended in 2008 with the Lehman Brothers collapse, which in turn triggered off the global financial meltdown). So for the first four years of UPA’s term, the Indian economy showed some astounding growth, though the government itself had relatively little role in pushing that growth. The second UPA government had to deal with the prolonged slump in the global economy caused by the financial meltdown, wh