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Hindu Rate of Growth

When finally made independent, the Indian state was poised to embark on a prosperous economic voyage. But disappointingly enough, this golden bird never took off on that miraculous journey. For decades till the 1990s, the growth was stuck below 4 per cent, churning more people into poverty than out of it. Countries like Japan, whose industrialization started almost as soon as India, had grown to become top economies when India languished to meet its balance of payments. Even after liberalising the economy, it was stuck with institutions and bureaucracy.

Let's look at two decisive steps that made a growth rate be named after a religious identity. In 1947, the economy planned for India was mixed, allowing corporate and public ventures. Business houses like Tata were materializing this promise of India. However, a solid socialist turn was stamped into the economic planning in 1955, the Avadi Congress sessions. Forcing state control over important industries and enforcing 5-year plans borrowed from the then USSR. The only outcome was that these large institutions grew ineffective and inefficient, and the other consumerist industries like automobiles, were trapped in license bureaucracy.

Many say the failure of this vision, along with the loss from China, left Nehru a broken man. An idealist defeated by pragmatism. The next decisive turn took place under the watch of his successor, Indira Gandhi, in 1970. She was upfront in dismissing the pretence of a mixed economy and transforming the whole economy to State control. NNationalizationof banks, insurance and even consumer goods production. Taxation policies that lead to a massive rise in corruption and black money. All putting India in the way to an economic debacle.

Although it's been over two decades of liberalisation, the biggest banks are still publicly owned and infamous for their apathy. In the 80s, it is believed that the IIT engineers fled the country since procuring a computer was banned under Indira Raj. At this juncture, it is essential to rrealizeif the current govt is heading towards such a debate with public appeasement. For what soothes the ear, may lure us to an uncanny fate.

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