Almost five years ago, we debated on what should be the most urgent economic priorities of the new government. The context of that time was a period of ‘policy paralysis’, corruption scandals, rising non-preforming assets (NPAs) at banks, high inflation and rising deficits for the fiscal, and trade balance.There was high expectation and the biggest resets that the new government would carry out to kickstart the economy were thought to be: resolution of the NPA situation in banks so that credit flow and entrepreneurial risk-taking could resume; making India a global manufacturing destination by offering tax and other incentives, such as cheap and readily available land, electricity and regulatory clearances; stimulating investment in Indian infrastructure, which was estimated as a $1 trillion opportunity.All this, many believed, if done, could lead India to achieve a 10% growth in the next five years. The prognosis couldn’t have been more wrong. Five years later, with a new government now set to be elected, the NPA situation still persists. ‘Make in India’ has made strides, but India is still not a preferred global destination. And the story of infrastructure investment is mixed, to say the least. However, India has changed in many ways, and mostly for the better.So, what were the few things that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did see and implement that many conventional economists couldn’t foresee? He seems to have realised that conventional low-risk measures lead to conventional mediocre outcomes. To upgrade India’s capacity, unconventional measures needed to be taken.Modi probably inferred that the production function of the economy is sub-optimal if corruption distorts incentives, causes pain and cynicism, and misallocation of capital and labour. The NDA government can credit itself with running a low corruption government. India’s 2018 Transparency International ranking for perceived levels of public sector non-corruption is 78 among 180 countries (compared to 85 among 175 countries in the 2014 ranking). India’s current ranking in the World Bank ’s ease of doing business is 77, versus 142 in the 2015 ranking data from 2014.This is what conventional economists couldn’t have anticipated in 2014 because of the then prevalent ‘chalta hai’ attitude. Demonetisation was another unconventional step GoI used to tackle corruption. In economics, this is referred to as the ‘moral hazard’ problem, the solution for which is unconventional measures.Further, despite all the teething problems, legislating and implementing the goods and services tax (GST) have reduced the numerous sources of corruption at the local and state levels, and consolidated the country’s fiscal architecture.The number of individual tax filings went up from 3.5 crore in FY13-14 to 6.5 crore in FY17-18, a massive rise of 86%. Growth is higher, inflation is lower, current account and fiscal deficits are lower than a decade ago. Only credit growth is down. GDP growth in the 2014-2019 period has been in the range of 7.4%, versus 7.1% in 2009-2014. Consumer price index ( CPI ) inflation has been at 4.6%, versus 10.1% in the corresponding periods. The mix of growth and inflation has also been better.Inflation, ultimately filters into interest rates, and consequently a lower inflation rate environment facilitates more credit activity. Realistically, we can, therefore, expect credit activity to pick up over the next few years.Low employment growth and rural agrarian distress have been challenges for the present government, the former probably being a function of the changing structure of the economy. With digitisation and urbanisation, more jobs have been created in the startup universe, and in the ecommerce and services sectors.However, this has meant that traditional businesses have been challenged with weak job creation. But with new segments opening up, job creation should also pick up and the benefits of ‘Skill India’ could start to yield results. It also seems that GoI has been increasing its headcount after several years of a hiring freeze. Rural agrarian crisis often stems from weaker spatial distribution of rains. But for the last four years, weaker global commodity prices too have played their part. The UN Global Food Price index declined by 3.3% annually in FY14-18 while it had been up 5.9% annually in FY0914.So, the agricultural situation must be understood in the global context. India may not have reached its intended 10% growth over the last five years, but it may have got something more durable — a stronger fiscal architecture, lower corruption, low inflation, and a much-improved environment to do business.There are considerable challenges in agriculture and job creation. But with a stronger balancesheet and a better economic setting, India is more capable to handle these challenges than ever before.(The writer is chief information officer, GNY Asia Fund, Singapore)