New Delhi: The Financial Times’ editorial board presents its take on the Indian economy—India needs an ambitious agenda for higher growth, reads the headline of the editorial piece.
“Economic liberalisation will help unlock the country’s vast potential,” it says.
The piece opens strongly: “In India, run-rates matter for the economy as much as they do in the nation’s beloved sport of cricket. To meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of turning India into a developed nation by 2047, the economy would need to hit close to 8 percent growth every year until then. Ambition is good but to stand a chance of achieving it, India needs to match it with an equally bold agenda of economic reforms.”
It’s not news that the Indian economy is losing momentum. Plenty of global publications, FT included, have been reporting on the slowdown, closely following every tweak and adjustment to the economy. High unemployment, food inflation, low consumer spending and drops in investment are holding India back as global economic conditions also become less supportive.
“If Indians were hoping for answers on how the government planned to crank up long-term growth, there weren’t many in last weekend’s budget,” the editorial commiserates. “Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman focused on propping up consumers.”
Policymakers are doing all they can, according to the editorial, but it’s not enough. “Rather than short-term jolts to demand, Modi’s government should focus on raising India’s growth potential through structural reforms,” it says, before offering its true opinion.
“Economic liberalisation is a budget-friendly way to raise India’s growth rate sustainably,” FT suggests, before immediately conceding that politics could be a stumbling block. It’s not just the coalition government that needs to be managed, but also industries that won’t be happy with tariff reductions. Opening the Indian economy up further would be like opening yet another can of worms.
“But if Modi is serious about putting India on an improved trajectory to become a developed nation, his government will need to make unpopular decisions, and prioritise policies that have a long-lasting impact on growth. Otherwise, India risks growing old before it gets rich,” the editorial concludes, rather damningly.
Meanwhile, India and Pakistan have a new bone of contention, the Washington Post reports: basmati rice.
Known as the region’s “scented pearl”, basmati rice has become a grain that’s coveted all over the world. “Yet its origins have never been more divisive or its future more uncertain,” the Post writes. Both India and Pakistan are sparring over whether basmati rice is part of the shared heritage of both countries or not—New Delhi is pushing for it to be granted protected status as a uniquely Indian product.
But basmati farmers don’t care about this fight between the neighbours. For them, there’s a different battle on the horizon—keeping the signature strain from disappearing as demand is set to double over the next few years.
The debate over who owns basmati is a complete waste of energy on both sides, the story quotes an ecologist as saying. The grain is facing a far more existential threat.
“In the 1980s, Indian and Pakistani farmers seeking a market advantage began growing varieties that matured faster and produced higher yields, but lacked basmati’s characteristic richness. As small farms gave way to large agribusiness over the following decades, quicker harvest cycles, processing shortcuts and soil degradation, partly caused by climate change, all contributed to a less fragrant rice,” reports The Post.
“But the new varieties are cheaper and easier to prepare at home. More importantly, according to exporters, most customers in the West can’t tell the difference.”
Basmati is rooted in the Punjab region, and used to be the food of emperors and kings, owing to its richness. But today, it’s a watered down version of the past. Its international success—owing to biryani’s global popularity—has put pressure on its production.
“From the start, India and Pakistan quarreled over who had the best basmati, and who had a rightful claim to the name. In the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war, Pakistani farmers accused Indian soldiers of stealing their seeds; India subsequently accused its neighbor of copying its most prized varieties,” reports the Post.
India has the undeniable upper hand today, outpacing Pakistan’s exports. The legacy of basmati rice might be in doubt, but it’s no surprise that India wants to claim the grain for its own.
The New York Times reports on one India’s internal battles—the one against Naxalites. Over 30 Naxalites and two policemen were killed in one of the biggest operations in recent years in Bijapur, and several assault weapons recovered by the police.
The insurgency was at its peak fifteen years ago, the report says, but “government operations have given them less space to manoeuver”.
“In recent years, civilian deaths have dwindled, after government operations shrunk the space for the insurgents to operate. The insurgency’s leadership has also struggled, analysts say, in the face of targeted operations, old age and illness,” NYT explains. “The Home Ministry told Parliament last year that the threat of leftist extremism had dropped significantly in recent years, in terms of the number of deaths as well as the amount of affected territory.”
The Maoists are at their weakest, the report adds, struggling to recruit new members after suffering territorial losses.
Meanwhile, FT’s view on Indian economy doesn’t seem to matter to the British establishment, which sees the country as a highly viable education market, especially as things don’t look too rosy closer to home. British universities are looking to open campuses in India amid financial woes in the UK, reports The Guardian, and are hoping to take advantage of both changing visa regimes and international competition to get ahead in the game.
India’s higher education market has more than 40 million students—a market that universities, like the University of Southampton, University of Surrey and Newcastle University, are looking to tap. Foreign universities weren’t allowed to operate their own campuses in India until 2023, when changes in regulations opened the door to foreign entrants.
“UK universities attracted more than 125,000 students from India in 2022-23, but shifting visa regimes and competition from international rivals make those numbers uncertain. By opening branch campuses in India, universities can reach an untapped domestic market that is unable to study abroad,” The Guardian reports.
Southampton is a case in point. “Indian students wanting to take a BSc in business management at Southampton’s home campus would pay £24,000 in annual tuition fees, plus hefty visa, travel and accommodation costs,” the report says. “But from August, the university’s new branch at Gurgaon’s International Tech Park, a special economic zone, will teach the same course for 1.3 million rupees a year, about £12,000.”
Surrey, too, is exploring opening a new campus in Ahmedabad’s GIFT City, “a special economic zone offering tax exemptions and profit repatriation for high-ranking foreign universities”.
The real question is how these international campuses will function when most of the universities are struggling domestically. But for now, British universities are hopeful that Indian enrollments will buoy them out of danger.
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