Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Long road to development - The collapse of the Modi Mania!

The past 20 months have seen a huge roller coaster of expectation. First came the frenzy towards the Magical Modi Mania, then came the exuberence over his coronation, then people started talking about giving him "time", and now, off late, even the most ardent supporter is turning incredulous whenever he sees or hears about Modi or BJP!

Now,lets turn our attention towards other parts of the country:

a) North West : Saw upsets in Haryana & Delhi, challenges in Punjab(Akali Dal?), UP(Akhilesh?), MP(Vyapam?), Chattisgarh(Dr Raman Singh?), Maharshtra(Local issues), Rajasthan{Lalit Modi(who is the bad M now eh?)}, Delhi (Self Immolation)

b) South : Talk about Amma(Exoneration), Chandrababu Naidu (Exasperation) to DMK's (Decimation)

c) East : Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar - (Undergoing baptism by Fire), West bengal (Catch 22), the famed North east (getting a raw deal it seems)

Lets look at the financial indicators :

a) Taxation & Doing business has become tougher
b) Inflation, while under control is trying to rear its Ugly Head.
c) RBI still not toeing the Govt line, and keeping it under a leash
d) Collections still not pretty, and world is still under a lot of Stress
      (or is it Euress leading to Chess? (China's stress))

So all in all, a pretty topsy turvy year under the Modi regime till now.

However, there is a silver lining to all this. India's position in the world stage is more secure, and upright. PM Modi's foreign visit & Swachh Bharat has given a leg up to cross country travels, Better quality FDI and FII is expected within the ecosystem and Defense & Electronics manufacturing is sure to get a fillip.

But the view from the east is this :

1. Structural changes take time : Changes to NITI Aayog, National Rejuvenation Programs, restructuring of policies etc are all going to take atleast 2-3 more years to start being visible.
2. Subsidies are gone : Brace for high growth in exports and world trade when Oil increases and the common man is burdened with heavy burdens of unsubsidised fuel & gas.
3. Large scale cleanup of books effect short term funds availability hitting short term growth.
4. Cautionary stances adopted by Amma and Didi bode well for future legislations and remain to be seen how future work relationships are curated.
5. With above in mind, the author is convinced it will take atleast till October 2016 to even start seeing on ground activities on new projects, funds release in good flow and feel good stories.

But all said and done, one thing is for sure, people have finally realised(or slowly realising) that Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi is after all, a Human being. And with this, the people are feeling cheated. Everyone thought he was a Superhero (With the famed comic videos circulated through Namo's marketing team still fresh in everyone's mind), and wanted him to perform as he promised.

One fervently hopes the present BJP government and its office bearers are keeping this in mind while performing their daily duties. However, recent interactions by section of Business & Industry with several high profile senior ministers felt that the mood is high handed, and the result feather lite.

A very dangerous combination indeed.


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