Deepak Mehrotra 617 days ago

The slowdown of India’s growth rate is not entirely unexpected as the economy has yet to pickup steam after the Demonetisation fiasco , followed by the faulty implementation of GST. These two hang like an albatross around the Indian economy. Rural distress has deepened with farmers taking to the streets. Industrial production fell from 4.7% to 4.5% . Manufacturing, a sector that generates employment, slowed to 4.6% from 5.1%. There was an outflow of funds by FPIs to the tune of $ 1.6 billion in July-September quarter of 2018-19. Interestingly, these are figures that are undisputed and reflect a slowing down in the economy. The Niti Aayog’s attempts to juggle figures to show that growth rates are higher under Modi government than the earlier MMS government by changing base years won’t change reality. On the contrary, it lowers India’s image in the eyes of both domestic and foreign investors.