The Indian economy is in bad shape with GDP projections down, markets plummeting and core sector growth hitting a low of 2.1 percent. Concern over the country's economic health has sparked widespread debate.
One of the most prominent voices criticising current economic policy is that of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. He wrote on Twitter that India's economic policy-makers today lack both the boldness and knowledge to save the economy from a crash.
‘In an Economic Tailspin’
BloombergQuint’s Kaushik Vaidya talked to Swamy about India's economic policy and his concerns about the direction in which it is headed.
According to Swamy, the economic slowdown is something that has been coming for a while.
“I have been warning since 2015 that we are beginning to get into a tailspin and by 2019 we will be in serious difficulty,” he said.
Talking about his tweet, he said that every economic indicator that the government relies on is negative, and that the growth rate has been dropping since 2015. “All this puts you further and further away from the targets (5 trillion dollar economy),” he said.
Asked about the distance between his suggested reforms and current government policy, Swamy said that he didn’t think the government has an economic policy, adding, "Consolidating banks, is that a policy?”
“We have done extremely well on the other, non-economic front. That’s why we got such a huge mandate... But that’s not macroeconomics. In macroeconomics we are in a tailspin, heading for a crash.”Subramanian Swamy
Swamy also criticised the government’s appointment of advisers such as Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian who, he feels, were unqualified and unfit for their jobs.
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