THE DWINDLING ECONOMY

 The shrinking Indian Economy in the recent past has been a point of debate worldwide. Let me take a bird’s eye view on this. According to reliable sources(https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/gdp-growth-rate), India’s GDP growth for the last 10 years has been as below –

India GDP Growth Rate - Historical Data
Year	GDP Growth (%)	Annual Change
2019	5.02%	-1.10%
2018	6.12%	-0.92%
2017	7.04%	-1.21%
2016	8.26%	0.26%
2015	8.00%	0.59%
2014	7.41%	1.02%
2013	6.39%	0.93%
2012	5.46%	0.22%
2011	5.24%	-3.26%
2010	8.50%	0.64%

As such, it can be clearly seen, that things have changed very insignificantly during Modi Government compared to the earlier scenario.

India’s Forex reserve touched a record high of USD $506.8 Billion in June,2020, while in of inter-country comparison, India stood at 6^th place in terms of forex reserve, while  China is at 1^st place and Japan is at 2^nd place.

Youth unemployment rate in India has risen from 20.3% in 2010 to 23.34% in 2020.

However, the 23.4% contraction of GDP in April-June, 2020 quarter has been a point for bullying the Modi Govt.

Now, let us dissect some issues –

(i)                Near stoppage of almost all economic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic ;

(ii)             Huge rate of layoffs and job termination during the COVID-19 pandemic;

(iii)           India-China border tension and several major but emergent investment in  defence sector during the same time;

(iv)            Loss of international trade due to all above three reasons.

Could they be responsible for the shrinkage? Well let us check globally vis-a-vis some world giants- The BussinessToday.in has produced a graphical representation of this as below –

Source- https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/which-top-economies-have-suffered-worst-gdp-fall-due-to-covid-19/story/414683.html

As such, the  message is loud and clear, that India is not the lonely loser for the pandemic. It has been a global phenomena. As such it will be rather harsh and biased to  label Modi Govt. responsible for the situation.

What remains to be seen, as to how and upto what extent Modi Govt. manages to tackle the situation vis-a-vis the  ever rising tension at China and Pakistan border.

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