IT'S a pity India is slipping it has lost much of its magic. I see two Indias over the past 40 years. The first is the economy of old which brought forth slothful growth in the face of a suffocating bureaucracy and politics as usual. The statist model seen in the 1970s dragged along an economy stuck with the sluggish 4% “Hindu rate of growth.”
The second evolved gradually after the 1990s liberalisation, and surged with a burst of optimism by the mid-2000s portraying a democracy that was vibrant, open and fired by entrepreneurship that overcame a slowly retreating public sector, but undeterred to grow fast, supported by favourable demography, enthusiastic firms willing to save and invest, and prospect of a vast consumption-driven new middle-class. The economy has since expanded at turbo-charged pace, culminating in 9% plus growth rate in 2007 and 2008. Growth averaged 8.5% over 2004-2008.
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