As I had written in these pages several months ago, the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government, to its credit, made informal economic activity more difficult, but it has not made formal economic activity easier. If anything, it has become more difficult. The real barometer has to be the extent to which the government formalizes the economy and expands the formal economy. On that score, the government does not have much to show. Economic growth in the first quarter of 2017-18 confirms that. Estimate of growth in “Gross Value Added" at basic prices (2011-12 prices) has dropped to 5.6% (April-June 2017 over April–June 2016) from 7.6% in April-June 2016 (over April-June 2015). In terms of GDP, the fall is steeper—from 7.9% to 5.7%.