“Reach out to sane voices.” With the Indian economy in the grips of a crippling slowdown, the normally reticent Manmohan Singh suggested a stern solution. But is the Modi government listening?
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00:00We are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown.
00:05Investor sentiment are in doldrums.
00:09India has the potential to grow at a much faster rate but all round mismanagement by
00:17the Modi government has resulted in this slowdown.
00:39It is particularly distressing that the manufacturing sector's growth is tottering at 0.6%.
00:47This makes it very clear that our economy has not yet recovered from the man-made blunders
00:57of demonetization and a hastily implemented GST.
01:03Domestic demand is depressed and consumption growth is at an 18-month low.
01:12Nominal GDP growth is at a 15-year low.
01:18There is a gaping hole in tax revenues.
01:23Tax buoyancy remains elusive as businessmen, small and big, are hounded and tax terrorism
01:34continues unabated.
01:37Investor sentiment are in doldrums.
01:41These are not the foundations for economic recovery.
01:46The Modi government's policies have resulted in massive jobless growth.
01:53More than 3.5 lakh jobs have been lost in the automobile sector alone.
02:00There will similarly be large-scale job losses in the informal sector, hurting our most vulnerable
02:11workers.
02:13Rural India is in terrible shape.
02:17Our farmers are not receiving adequate prices and rural incomes have declined.
02:25The low inflation rate that the Modi government likes to showcase comes at the cost of our
02:33farmers and their income by inflicting misery on over 50% of India's population.
02:42Institutions are under attack and their autonomy is being eroded.
02:49The resilience of the Reserve Bank will be tested after its record transfer of Rs 1.76
02:58crore to the government, which claims that it does not have a plan on what it will do
03:07with this windfall.
03:09In addition, the credibility of India's data has come under question under this government.
03:18Budget announcements and rollbacks have shaken the confidence of international investors.
03:27India has not been able to increase the exports to take advantage of opportunities that have
03:36arisen in global trade due to geopolitical realignment.
03:42Such is the state of economic management under the Modi government.
03:48India cannot afford to continue down this path.
03:53Therefore, I urge the government to put aside vendetta politics and reach out to all sane voices
04:02and thinking minds to steer our economy out of this man-made crisis.