Guy Sorman, one of the foremost classical liberal thinkers in the world has praised the policies of the Modi government. The acclaimed economist said that consistent and positive policies, including many facilities and financial incentives, of the government, have provided a stable environment for the entrepreneurs for pursuing their ventures. Recently the government announced that ‘angel‘ investment in startups would receive tax exemption.
Guy Sorman said, “One should never expect economic miracle from any government. This being said, Modi’s policy has been rather consistent and positive. He has provided for entrepreneurs a rather stable environment, with lower inflation and a bit less corruption.” He also compared the performance of Modi government with previous government and called it better than any other government in the independent history of the country. “Modi Economics has been positive, much better than any former government I remember,” Guy Sorman observed.
Guy Sorman is a French American economist and public intellectual. He has written more than 20 books including ‘Economics does not lie’. He has also held many prominent positions in the French government and is the global advisor of the South Korean President.
Guy Sorman also approved the government’s programme to directly transfer the cash of 6,000 rupees to the bank accounts of the farmers. Cash transfers are being perceived as the best way to pull people out of extreme poverty, argued Sorman. In the interim budget 2019-20, the Modi government announced to transfer a direct benefit of 6,000 rupees per year for landholders up to 2 hectares. The total amount allocated to this scheme named Pradhan Mantri Samman Nidhi is 75,000 crore rupees for the year 2019-20. This is to be implemented retrospectively from December 1, 2018.
On the poor job data collection in India, Sorman said that being a rural country there are many difficulties in data collection and there should be competition between private and public sector over statistics. “And the most meaningful figure should be the per capita income, not the national GDP. Also, it would be wise to push for competition between the public and the private sector in order to gather more reliable statistics,” said Sorman.
Arvind Panagariya, former Vice-Chairman of the Government of India think-tank NITI Aayog also praised the Modi government for economic reforms and credited Vajpayee era policies for the healthy economic growth during the first term of the UPA era. He also criticized the socialist economic policies such as ‘licence permit raj, distribution and price controls, and autarkic trade policy’ adopted in the post-independence era and blamed them for what was termed as the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ by some stupid economist. He credited the economic liberalization for the tremendous growth of the country in the last three decades.
Previously, many industrialists and investors from India and across the globe had shown faith in Modi government. Ratan Tata, the ace industrialist and former chairman of the Tata Group, had shown confidence in Prime Minister Modi in an interview with columnist and author Suhel Seth. On being questioned about the Prime Minister, Tata said that Modi is capable of delivering the ‘New India’ that he has promised to the people of the country.
N. R. Narayana Murthy, the pioneer of Indian IT industry reasoned for another term for Modi government. In an interview with ET Now, Murthy said, “We must be grateful that there is at least a national leader of Modi’s calibre who is interested in improving India. Looking at last 5 years, I feel that having a leader who is focussed on nation, focussed on discipline, cleanliness, and economic progress is a good thing. Continuity of govt would be a good thing.”
In the last four and a half years, PM Modi has taken many path-breaking steps to modernise the Indian economy. The steps include demonetization, GST and IBC. The Modi government has been able to take forward the economic development along with the development of the people at the grass-root level. Also, steps like the construction of toilets, Ujjawala Yojna etc. have received praises from the corporate leaders and people across the political spectrum.
