The Stream - Is India's boom about to go bust?

Part one: Is India's boom about to go bust?

The economy of the world’s largest democracy is slowing down, but is it a blip on the path to boom, or is the start of a bust?

Prime Minister Modi and his right-wing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014 and over the next few years the economy grew at close to eight percent. But demonetisation in 2016 and the recent implementation of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), have led to protests and criticism from both political opponents and allies. Demonitisation was introduced by the Modi government as a way to clean up corruption and “black money” from the market. GST is a plan to replace a multi-layered, complicated tax system, that has faced incredible teething troubles since it began in July.

Part two: Prime Minister Modi campaigned on a platform of “acche din” (good days) but is that being reflected in the state of the economy three years later? We’ll get into both sides of the debate.

Catalonia declares independence - what's next?

Catalonia's parliament declared independence from Spain on Friday in defiance of the central government in Madrid. The Spanish government responded by approving direct rule in the breakaway region and dissolving the Catalonian government, calling for fresh regional elections on December 21. In an unprecedented move, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy triggered Article 155 which allows to Madrid to rule Catalonia directly, escalating the constitutional crisis This is just the latest in the Catalonian story that has unfolded over the month of October.

On Monday we’ll take a look at what’s next in Catalonia’s fight for independence.

Join the conversation:

[mohitmishra]

i was reading comments seems like nobody cares about catalan issue..another thing dont worry about india we know how to take care of ourselves..

[rtshchand]

India's economy is pretty unique. Other countries rely on outside exports, like China. India's economy is more like based on local trades between the states. Every state in India has it's own Macro and Micro economy. Case in example during the 2008 crisis, India came out good, because it was not manufacturing goods and shipping it to other countries like China does.

[Gaursebro]

India jumped 30 rank in ease of doing making it to top 100 and aiming to get in top 30 by from 2022 to 2030

[DailyFail]

15 minutes.. are you serious, you believe that, you can explain or debate on Indian 🇮🇳 GST and Spain 🇪🇸 issue

[farrukhrahoo]

As a Pakistani I realised that India is really waking down on the path of economic boom and success until demonisation. Narendra Modi's this verdict is definitely costing India.

[brianrichards]

Additional taxes in India might be OK, if there was proper infrastructure. But when people have to use the sidewalks, rivers and parks to defalcate, when the water is undrinkable, the streets in bad condition, then why should the citizens of India pay more taxes to a totally corrupt government?

[worldpeace]

what is the picture of the Indian economy today? Private investment has shrunk as never before in two decades, industrial production has all but collapsed, agriculture is in distress, construction industry, a big employer of the work force, is in the doldrums, the rest of the service sector is also in the slow lane, exports have dwindled, sector after sector of the economy is in distress, demonetisation has proved to be an unmitigated economic disaster, a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them and countless millions have lost their jobs with hardly any new opportunities coming the way of the new entrants to the labour market. For quarter after quarter, the growth rate of the economy has been declining until it reached the low of 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, the lowest in three years. The spokespersons of the government say that demonetisation is not responsible for this deceleration. They are right. The deceleration had started much earlier. Demonetisation only added fuel to fire.

And please note that the methodology for calculation of the GDP was changed by the present government in 2015 as a result of which the growth rate recorded earlier increased statistically by over 200 basis points on an annual basis. So, according to the old method of calculation, the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is actually 3.7 per cent or less.

Even the SBI, the largest public sector bank of the country, has stated with unusual frankness that the slowdown is not transient or “technical”, it is here to stay and the slowdown in demand has only aggravated the situation. It has openly contradicted what the BJP president said just a few days ago that the slowdown in the last quarter was on account of “technical” reasons and will be corrected soon. According to the SBI chairman, the telecom sector is the latest entrant to the long list of stressed sectors.

[GiGi-wglq]

Say what?
New Zealand owns Tasmania now...LoL
Whoever created that GST map needs to go back to school.

[rohanbansal]

India’s economy is full solid, not near to burst. Christine lagarde quoted the same recently. Credit, currency value, deficit, growth rates, everything is way better compared to last decade.
Though please debate on this if it’s good: are urban metro cities of India even near to western cities? I doubt about it and would love to know more on it if your channel can produce a research on it :)

[MrJayson]

India is going so downhill that UAE is investing $65 *billion* into the country 😂 makes sense

[apollodionysos]

Don quixote of India leading the innocent Indian to build a grandiose Indian fantasy!

[aniketpandey]

Our Economy is suffering from a Post Reform glitch, we shall recover the full growth rate back in no time. Thank you for your concern.

[amritbansal]

A nation whose population stops being critical of its government & starts glorifying the nation's achievements rather than accept & overcome its shortcomings is DOOMED !

[arhamhussain]

Believe me Qatar is going to burst and aljazeera about to shutdown start finding new jobs 😂

[atifkhan]

india will keep booming whether modi or manpower and competition will keep it moving

sadly the above forbes guy (nor could govt itself) could not justfy demonetization which was a big disaster no doubt
there is corruption and will remain, i dont know after our generation

[seelane]

Wtf? Isn't it India already gone bust?

[cnnnpc]

That's what happens when you don't invest in toilets

[lokeshaman]

The rates will get rationalized in long run. Government won't get enough revenue if taxes every goods & services at the same rate. It's just very unfair to judge a radical tax reform in initial phase of it's implementation.

[sadeeqakbar]

Congratulations Catalonia
Love and Respect
From Pakistan 💙❤💖❤

[azeez]

Nice program but misleading title. A better choice would have been "Is India's new GST tax plan a good idea?"