A free-market system based on consumer sovereignty, with the state confined to essential public functions would generate much faster growth, Shenoy wrote in 1963.
Our brand of socialism did not result in transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor but only from the honest rich to the dishonest rich, lawyer-jurist Nani A Palkhivala said in 1991.
Planning Commission couldn't tackle unemployment because new job opportunities in large-scale industries producing consumer goods were not created, wrote GN Lawande in 1963.
‘If socialism does not serve the purposes for which it was intended, that is, moving towards a freer and more equal society, is liberalism the alternative?’ wrote Minoo Masani in 1966.
‘The tirade against capitalism is wholly unfounded. Capitalism as it has shaped during the past quarter of a century is a far better method of developing the economic resources of any country,’ wrote DN Hosali in 1956.
‘Nationalisation of the Imperial Bank and recently nationalisation of life insurance have dealt further blows to Private Enterprise and made capital more and more shy', wrote AD Shroff in his 1956 essay.
Political authority and economic power are now concentrated in the hands of ministers and bureaucracy. Democracy is bound to degenerate into dictatorship, wrote MA Master in August 1960.
‘A British economist has said that to try to stop prices by controls is like a lady going to a surgeon to remove her double chin—the thing comes out at the back of her neck in a bump,' wrote Minoo Masani in November 1966.
‘There is no such thing as free education. Money paid to teachers comes ultimately from people, as taxes if not as tuition fees,' wrote Professor Om Prakash Kahol on 1 January 1959.
With 20.2 percent of its total loans in default by the end of last year, Bangladesh had the weakest banking system in Asia. Despite reforms, it will take time to recover.
This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.
Long live the free market. Long live Shenoy.