Notes: Raghuram Rajan’s essays

Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba wrote a couple of pieces for the Times of India. He shared these pieces on LinkedIn.

1. The End of Free Lunch Economics
2. An Alternate Vision for India’s Growth

He also spoke about the idea behind these articles with Karan Thapar for The Wire.

The following are my notes from the second essay:

• It provides an alternative path to India’s Growth Path than following the Manufacturing and Infrastructure development path we have chosen now.
• What has worked for India?
  • Clear Economic Vision
  • Roll-out of well-thought-through frameworks that harness the energy of our people.
• The vision in the 1990s was to separate the government from the economy.
  • Allow more private entry
  • Competition
  • Innovation
  • Opening up to the world through trade and investment.
• Government would
  • Provide regulatory frameworks
  • Infrastructure
  • Safety Nets
• Civil Society’s role in governance was enhanced through RTI.
• India seeks to copy China’s plan to become a manufacturing export powerhouse.
• India is a democracy, unlike China. We will not be able to do the things China did like suppress worker wages.
• Alternative Vision
  • Draws on India’s people, their minds, and their creativity.
  • We should continue to build out infrastructure and encourage our manufacturers to seek out new global markets.
  • We should particularly increase our presence in global services by strengthening our human capital.
• To pursue services-led growth:
  • Recognize and remedy the damage done to children’s schooling by the pandemic.
  • Build on India’s democracy:
    • Protect data privacy
    • Limit the government’s ability to intrude on privacy.
    • Be respectful towards its minorities.
  • This makes the world want to trade with and invest in us without hesitation.
  • People everywhere will want to visit, study or work in India.