Our democracy benefits by criticism, but not by motivated fatalism by some “experts”, who seem more guided by their politics rather than academic rigour. In recent years, a genre of commentary has emerged that markets doubt as sophistication. It reduces the work of reform to caricature, treats every imperfect transition as proof of permanent failure, and offers a familiar consolation: India is supposedly doomed by its own policymakers. That posture has consequences. It weakens trust in statistics and markets, it encourages fatalism among entrepreneurs and investors. The refrain is familiar and sweeping: India’s data sets are unreliable, economic growth is not benefitting the poor, there is crony capitalism, India cannot manufacture at scale etc etc Each of the above assertions do not stand the scrutiny of facts. Under the leadership of PM Sh Narendra Modi Ji, India has chosen the harder path of execution, and it is the results, audited in numbers and felt in households, that will outlast any brief for despair. My piece in Indian Express today on why, as we step into 2026, public debate in India should begin with a little New Year discipline, not by packaging insinuations, assumptions and shoot & scoot assertions as economic analysis.




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