While the heat wave continues to raise death-toll, India evaluates the first year in office for Mr. Prime Minister. Did Modi do enough to secure the confidence of his voters? Did the Modi wave power India’s GDP? While it is too early to assess his overall performance, the overwhelming sentiment across India is that “achche din,” or the good days still loom large on the horizon.
Reviving the Economy
Modi took his office with an aim to kick start India’s deficient economic growth. His economic policies aimed at overhauling the long due structural reform necessary to attract foreign investment. While his words of “red carpet, not red tape” reverberate in his “Come Make in India” campaign, thus far, the results have been mixed at best.
The last twelve months have witnessed PM preside over general improvement of the economy, where the inflation rate has been cut in half and deficit has been reduced. These numbers however have low relevance to PM Modi assuming his chair, than with falling oil and gold prices worldwide. Even the revised estimate of India’s GDP growth of 7.5%, is a result of changes made to the rate of calculation, than a curb at inflation. The first quarter of this year has witnessed sluggish exports and volatile stock exchange. However that being said, not all is lost for Modi!
Growth in FDI
Prime Minister Modi has fared much better in his efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties and attract foreign investment in India. He has raised the FDI cap across different sectors, including: defense, telecommunication, infrastructure and insurance, in a bid to bring more money, encourage economic growth and employment generation.
Minimum Government, Maximum Governance
Modi’s philosophy of “minimum government and maximum governance” has created the most centralized, top-down, bureaucracy-driven, one person centric central government system since Indira Gandhi’s term in mid 1970’s. Those that had concerns on “red-tapism” and “hinderance in decision making” now face a completely different kind of concern, as files keep piling up in PMO (the only central decision making authority).
Senior positions still stand vacant, such as the three-member independent election commission, leaving vital decisions clogged-up. With Modi too busy to keep up with all affairs of decision making, the NDA-government needs to find a solution soon to remain adrift.
In his one-year report card, one should assume that PM Modi’s foreign policy has been phenomenal and represents an indisputable bright spot among different problems that still persist in governance.
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