Some pretty historical stuff took place in Indian politics today!

Okay...

How long before the nation turns back to that party?
How long would you like it to be?
Ans: The nation will eventually turn back to the other party. It's not reasonable to expect that he is gonna stay in power for the rest of his life. I'd like him to win one more term in 2019. The other party will have to reinvent itself by then. Like after Reagan and Busk 41, Democrats nominated Clinton who was probably the most fiscal conservative President from the Democratic Party ever. After 12 years of Thatcher and I think 7 years of Major government, The Labour Party nominated Tony Blair who led the New Labour movement to reform the party. Similarly, Congress and the others around them, will have to reinvent themselves.

And what direction is that?
Ans: To the fiscal right.

What would you like the see happen on the national economic policy level? Anything, something, nothing? Should the feds stay out of it?
Ans: For starters, we are languishing at the bottom of the freedom to do business lists among all countries. We have a ranking of 100+. That needs to change. There are many obstacles to starting a business in India. You have to get permission from a whole lot of bodies even today to start certain kind of businesses.

Secondly, inflation is out of check. We've had onion prices hitting Rs.80/kg for a few months in the last 3 years. They usually sell for Rs. 12/kg. Inflation needs to be managed. We've got a respectable RBI governor to take care of monetary policy. So, with decent fiscal and monetary policy it can be brought down. Our growth has gone down from 8.X% to 4.X% over the last few years. Sure some of it is to be blamed on the recession but it didn't affect us as badly as it did for the West. It is believed that if the economy had been better managed we could have sustained 6.X% levels.

We need to be an attractive location for foreign investments. Our Forex reserve levels aren't very good. We have to open up our markets more and allow foreign investments there.

The thing about Modi is he has done some of it before. He was the head of Indian state of Gujarat for three terms and has transformed the state. Until last year Gujarat was the place where most of the investments in India took place. It was the fastest growing state for a long time under him. The infrastructure in the state has improved vastly. He has put into motion various power plant projects many of them running on hydro-electricity. Gujarat was (and is still is) ranked highest on the Economic Freedom Index list for almost a decade I think. It was also the state where the Index grew the most last year.

This is the first time we have a 'been there done that' kind of Prime Minister.

What's the Indian nation's GDP? What's the national debt situation?
Ans: We have a GDP of more than a trillion dollar. The GDP to debt ratio is 66% I think. It is difficult to get the info though, because no one talks about these things over here. In the first term of Congress led UPA coalition (2004-2009), the debt increased like Rs. 200 crores/day. In the second term, the number was Rs. 1600 crores/day. This happened mostly due to the social/populist schemes (MNREGA, Food Security Bill etc) that the Congress government implemented in the second term. The business community started losing faith over the last part of the regime and our economy is in trouble ever since.

What would you do Mr. Future Prime Minister?
Ans: Well, I would do a lot of other things rather than liberalizing the economy. There are public sector businesses that are running at billions of dollars in loses. Those need to be privatized. Grants should be provided for small businesses and the government should strike off all laws that act as an hindrance to starting a business. I'll give you one example. In India, if you want to start a medical school (I don't know about other type of schools), you need to be a non-profit organization. That is just stupid. We lack what 3 million doctors and that's because we don't have medical schools to train them.

Apart from these, I have a lot of judicial (fast track courts, making Supreme Court an appellate court rather than a trial court, strengthening the powers of High court and lower courts etc.) and educational reforms (get rid of the reservation system based on caste and introduce a reservation system based on economic status and few others.) in mind. But, I don't think Modi is going to be implementing those. It was not on their agenda. But, neither was it on any of the agenda of other parties. So, I'll take what I get.

Hope that answers all your questions.

Sumit answered a lot of that towards the end of the post:

I imagine people were just sick of the old party. From what I have seen of india, it could certainly be better on the whole. I'm sure sumit would agree.

According to the CIA

National GDP? The CIA says it is equivalent to $4.962 trillion (2013 est.).
National DEBT? 51.8% and increasing. Apparently people startworrying when it gets to around 70%. The US is over 100%!
5.7% budget deficit.
9.6% inflation
7.75% federal funds rate
They have a maybe 30% trade deficit.
The currency is falling against the dollar.

What I gather, especially after talking to a lot of indians about this....

So they certainly have more ability to easily improve than the US does.

ANOTHER thing! I have heard that it is a lifelong endeavor to get to college in india. To hear some speak, you would think there is only ONE university you can really go to that is respected(though they have like 7 campuses and apparently or mythically respected). But it is very unlikely the average indian would ever be accepted.

ANOTHER thing! Apparently NOBODY, not even an ethnic indian fluent in hindi, english, etc... born to two indian parents born in india, can ever vote in india unless they were BORN there!

Steve

The term democracy is so OVERUSED, that it is ridiculous. A democracy shouldn't be so many millions of little dictatorships. It should be governing by INFORMED CHOICE of the PUBLIC for the COUNTRY! And country does NOT mean government! The governments job is to be a CARETAKER of the country to make sure it runs smoothly.

Case in point? The US government is working to pass a NEW bill to RESTRICT government flights to COACH!!!!!!!! That is LUDICROUS! Paying for first class, or on a special government subsidy for that, is CONTRARY to the health of the country. It costs more AND, for the carbon footprint conscious, ADDS to the carbon footprint! HOW? There are fewer seats per foot, and they weigh more. Also, there is more waste and preparation. The airline provides it as a service to make more money. IMAGINE! We have been paying 2-20 times as much to fly congress around. And WHY?

Yeah, you really can't simply refreeze ice cream. But that is one reason why I said hopefully the new government would work on infrastructure. In the US, I saw a LOT of streets torn up to do that. And most of OUR cities were BUILT with basic infrastructure. But OLD basic is now considered ARCHAIC here.

There ARE some VERY poor in the US. I mean dirty, searching for shelter, hunger pangs, and malnutrition poor. I think it is mostly due to desire, mental problems, education, etc... but it is there. There COULD be millions. As for politicians? THEY have redefined poor so that anyone making less than about $35,280 is POOR(top 58% What Percent Are You? - Real Time Economics - WSJ )! That is OVER $16.96/hour! HECK, my first SKILLED job didn't pay that much! Social security says that, in 2012, the average income was $44,321.67. (WSJ ranks as top 49%).

OK, that means that they figure that there are about 42% that are dirt poor. The dirty little secret is that even the top 92% could survive at a level that used to not be that bad.
A person making minimum wage used to be, about a year ago, in around $17160(top 79%). If the new rule, for a $10.10/hour minimum wage, passes, with the new rules, the average minimum wage earner will get about $15230.8(top 82%).

Still, the politicians talk about this level of poverty as if they WERE as bad as the worst in india.

Steve

I believe you are looking for 'power cut' or 'load shedding'. Those were some horrible days. Things have changed a little over the years, at least in the towns. We used to have 8 hours of power cut each day at one time. Half the town would have a power cut at one time and the other half at another. And these timings used to alternate over the span of the week.

I remember, I used to wake up at 7.30 in the morning when there'd be a power cut from 7.30-11.30. Then I'd have to go to school at 12.00. At school, there'd be power cut from 11.30-5.30 so there'd be no power there either (School left at 5.35). Then I'd come back home at 6.00, and we'd have power cut from 6.00-8.30. And this schedule would be followed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the summer. So, 3 days out of 5, I'd had to be with no power all day.

Things have changed quite a bit however. We don't have cuts that are as bad. Power goes off occasionally but it is not regular.