Politics and economics - How's it going?

First Published: June 2, 2019 (Facebook)

The last 10 days, I have given a lot of thought to politics, both at what I now call home and the home of all my former life. It so happens, that big events clustered around May 23 in both the UK and India - the European elections, Theresa May's long pending resignation on the exceptionally hard to manage Brexit situation and the results of the Indian General Elections.

My many years of work on the Indian economy, allow me to depend on a quick rating methodology I had developed to assess performance, which is exacty what I just did as soon as the resuts were announced. There is no opinion bias in this, only an objective measure.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been as critical of some of the government's policies (Demonetisation) as I have appreciated others (GST) over the past 5 years. My rating measure, clearly shows though, that there is more right than wrong that has taken place in this time. Growth has been better, inflation is controlled and the stock of long-term foreign investments is only rising higher. The rating is at 4.5 out of a total of 5 points, which, to put it succinctly, means that the economy is better off on almost all parameters covered compared to where it was in 2014. The entire rating table is in the picture.

So far, so good.

But I know that all my hawk-eyed, economy observing friends would be quick to point out that the latest numbers that have rolled in since are abysmal, what with the sharp growth decline.

And I agree.

A one off measure is just a sliver of a whole. So it will be my earnest attempt to be more regular with this. Fingers crossed. (Shout out to all those of you who have enquired about the disappearance of my updates - thank you for your patience!). And not just India, but the wider economy too, especially the UK. After all, no country's an isolated island, yes?