Indian PM Narendra Modi will be heading to Australia next month, where he is expected to receive a warm welcome:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/red-carpet-to-be-rolled-out-for-india-pm-narendra-modi/story-fn59nm2j-1227089419028?nk=7cdb26b289eb41885711bc2e2851c6ea
I'm still worried that Modi is just using mere rhetoric to urge the world to invest in India, and meanwhile isn't aggressively pursuing substantive reforms which would automatically compel the world to invest. I'm seriously worried about a repeat of "India Shining II" given to us by the lacklustre Vajpayee-Advani years, which lost BJP the elections.
2 comments:
San,
It has only been 4 months. The economy is picking up and he has cracked the whip on the useless babus and forced them into line. FII funds are flowing into India just based on the fact that we do not have the dreaded Nehru-Gandhi clan calling the shorts.
The decision to turn around zombie factories may not be as bad as you make it to be. He did it in Gujarat. We can try on a national level. If we can revive these industries and boost manufacturing output (something we badly need) there is nothing wrong.
I am cautiously optimistic still.
Well, the world is a fickle place - one day they're with you, the next day they won't have anything to do with you.
As the economies of developed countries recover, they'll try to shift away from low interest rates, which will have an adverse effect on capital inflows into India. We can't afford to lag behind, because current windows of opportunity which we assume will always stay open may actually close.
As economy picks up, I hope that Modi won't waste too much time basking in glory, and will intead productively try to advance reforms as far as possible. Entrenched vested interests will have to be broken down, and lines will have to be crossed.
And most of all, the effects of reforms have to propagate down to the poor, who are the most fickle voters of all. We definitely don't want a repeat of the "India Shining" debacle suffered by Vajpayee and Advani, and we definitely don't want the crooked Congress coming back to power. If Sonia could get 2 terms in power, then Modi ought to be able to do it too.
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