India Whining story

Odd academicians, economists particularly the pro reform economists got fed up with usual complaints in economics and occasionally visit book review by biting mixed words.

Professor Bibek Debroy writes in Business Today that “The Indian Renaissance is more anecdotal and less pedantic and places change in a broader sociocultural-civilisational setting. “However, there is nothing inevitable about India’s rise. Demographic change and growing literacy are but enabling factors. In the end, what matters is that India has the confidence to take advantage of the opportunity. This calls for a mental attitude that requires to be actively promoted. Human history is full of civilisational dead-ends and India’s own history shows how things can unravel. The decline of Kolkata, the city of my birth, should serve as a warning that even the most cosmopolitan of societies can lose their way.”

And not surprisingly “since most pending reform areas are state subjects. There is a point to the India Whining story, except that it misinterprets symptoms and prescribes wrong cures, having mis-diagnosed the disease. Any book on the Indian economy that doesn’t address these issues is likely to be accused of being pro-urban and elitist.”