Economist: “Since December 2019, real GDP has grown by 4.2% at an average annual rate, meaning that India, like many other countries, has not recovered to its pre-pandemic trend. Corporate and foreign investment remain weak. But looked at since December 2021, India’s overall economy seems robust, having grown at 7.1% annually. Alternative indicators, from electricity use to freight traffic, are strong; surveys of purchasing managers for both manufacturing and services have hit their highest levels in over a decade. Forecasters expect 6.5% annual growth over the next five years. Although real GDP growth from 2011 to 2019 was also officially 6.5% a year, the underlying rate was probably lower, implying genuine acceleration may be under way. The data is noisy, the picture is mixed and yet most government economists would be satisfied with that outcome.”
FT: “How can nativist populists be beaten? Before anyone dismisses the label as meaningless, let’s define it. Populists divide the world into a “pure people” and a “corrupt elite”, says the scholar Cas Mudde. Nativists add the notion that “the people” are the majority ethnic group…A broad anti-populist coalition, united by a story, can claim (in the slogan of East German protesters in 1989) “We are the people.” This requires defining “the people” (which is populist code for “the majority”) in a non-nativist way: everyone can belong if they subscribe to the guiding values…The lesson: don’t let populists choose the battleground. Anti-populists should choose their own, unapologetically. After all, populists do, and they understand communication.”
David Brooks: “Nobody writes poems about middle managers. Nobody gets too romantic about the person who runs a department at a company, or supervises a construction crew, or serves as principal at a school, manager at a restaurant or deacon at a church. But I’ve come to believe that these folks are the unsung heroes of our age…America’s founding fathers understood that when private virtue fails, then relationships fail and the constitutional order crumbles. The crucial struggle of our time is not merely the global macro struggle between democracy and authoritarianism; it’s the day-to-day micro-contest between the forces that honor human dignity and those that spread dehumanization. The democratic fabric is held together by daily acts of consideration that middle managers are in a position to practice and foster. The best of them don’t resolve our disputes but lift us above them so that we can see disagreements from a higher and more generous vantage point. Democracy is more than just voting; it is a way of living, a way of living generously within disagreements, one that works only with ethical leaders showing the way.”
WSJ: “The act of sacrifice holds an elevated and sometimes sacred place in societies across the globe. While sacrifices may be rare in a person’s daily life, they happen as a matter of course in a large number of chess games. Many positions cannot be won or saved without something of value being given away, from a lowly pawn all the way up to the mighty queen. Certain types of sacrifices happen so frequently that to an experienced player they might be considered routine, almost boring, and it often takes an unusual sort of sacrifice to quicken the pulse of jaded grandmasters who have seen tens of thousands of them in their lifetimes. It is this “moral value” that separates some sacrifices from others.”
Bhaskar Chakravorti: “I would argue that given the number of people who need employment, multiple job-creation vectors are essential. They need policy support, co-investment — especially in education, skill-building and jobs-preparedness — and tax and regulatory incentives to employers…Given the size of the jobs deficit [in India], we cannot afford to slam the door on manufacturing. We must look beyond the high-profile plans for manufacturing iPhones, Teslas and semiconductors and enable small-and-medium manufacturers, who are likely to be less automation-intensive and more reliable labour absorbers. India’s digital public infrastructure — possibly using the Open Network for Digital Commerce that connects market players on a single protocol — can be leveraged for access to credit, resources, logistics, warehousing and customers. This can help small-and-medium manufacturers replicate the benefits of larger players.”
