Modi’s economic performance falls flat

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru/New Delhi: As the second phase of Lok Sabha elections gets underway on Friday, a look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic performance in his two terms shows a great many deficiencies.

Recently, International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesperson Julie Kozack repudiated her own executive director Krishnamurthy Subramanian’s projection of eight per cent growth rate for India’s economy.

She added that the IMF's projection for India remained at 6.5 per cent. Subramanian, a former chief economic advisor to Modi, had hit back at Kozack.

The exchange is interesting because it hinders Modi’s image as a miracle worker.

India has leapfrogged the UK as the fifth largest economy and is expected to overtake Japan and Germany to reach the number three spot in another five years.

However, those countries have much smaller populations. According to the World Bank, India’s economic growth rate fell from 6.8 per cent between 2004 and 2013 to 5.6 per cent between 2014 and 2022 but this is in keeping with global trends.

However, Modi’s second term saw India’s lowest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth since the country liberalized its markets in the 90s.

Joblessness remains high

The Modi regime has been wary of the skyrocketing unemployment rates in the country, especially among the youth.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in the country breached 10 per cent in October last year, the first time since the pandemic.

Joblessness in the 15 to 34 age group stood at 45.4 per cent in 2023.

Women dropping out of workforce

The Internal Labour Organisation (ILO) pointed out that the share of women in the workforce declined since Modi took the reins in 2014 from 25 per cent to 24 per cent in 2022, which was lower than neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Poverty decline cited

India, however, had drawn praise for poverty alleviation, digitization and the like. The percentage of Indians using smartphones went from 15 per cent in 2014 to 66 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, the figure for internet smartphone users went from 18.3 per cent to 47 per cent in the same period. India’s Infant Mortality Rate has fallen sharply to 30 per 1,000 live births.

R&D spending cut

India has seen a decline in Research and Development (R&D) funding from 0.7 per cent of the GDP to 0.65 per cent.

This is despite India’s reputation as an Information Technology (IT) hub. Moreover, Reporters Without Borders dropped India’s press freedom ranking from 140 in 2014 to 161 in 2023.