The finance minister's job is a difficult one. Arun Jaitley has tried to talk up the Indian economy, but facts are against him. For example, exports, on which the robustness of the economy depended have fallen sharply.

Over the last year, exports have dropped by 16.52 per cent. In November 2015 alone, exports crashed by 24 per cent or $20 billion. In the first nine months of 2015, Indian exports declined by 17 per cent, while world exports fell by 11 per cent.

What about increases in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which the finance minister claims? According to Emkay Global, FDI, instead of of increasing domestic manufacturing, has contributed to increasing imports.

Job creation, in the face of large-scale unemployment, is critical.

In April-June 2014, new jobs created in eight major sectors of the economy were only 1.82 lakh. In the next quarter, job creation dropped to 1.2 lakh. After that, in the following quarter, job creation slumped to 64,000 jobs. By April-June 2015, new job creation contracted to only 43,000.

Jaitley cites that the revenue collection has gone up. But this is because of a revenue target of 18.8 per cent, which in this economic context, could turn out to be inflationary.

What is the state of big business, which is often expected to indicate economic trends. In a word, very bad. Here's a look:

1) Reliance (Anil Ambani) in March 2015 was in debt of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.

2) Vedanta Group was in debt of Rs 1.03 lakh crore.

3) Essar owed Rs 1.01 lakh crore.

4) Adani Group was in debt of Rs 96,031 crore.

5) Jaypee Group was in debt by Rs 75,163 crore.

6) JSW (Sajjan Jindal) is indebted by Rs 58,171 crore.

7) GMR Group owes creditors Rs 49, 976 crore.

8) Lanco Group owes Rs 47,102 crores.

9) Videocon Group is in debt of Rs 45,405 crore.

10) GVK Group is in debt by Rs 33,933 crore.

What does this mean for the economy? Indian business is in serious trouble. It is yet another symptom of a stuttering economy which has severe problems. The current economic model has not delivered, despite economic "reforms."

From top (big business) to bottom (job creation) the outcome is very poor. It is not due to lack of incentives to big business. It is not due to lack of further openings to Foreign Direct Investment.

Despite all the tall claims from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley to the media, the Indian economy is not in a good shape. The time for course correction is long overdue.

"Make in India," has become "Make believe in India." But the people cannot live on promises alone. Some serious rethinking about the economy is desperately needed.

The current economic situation is grim, and a poor country cannot afford that.