privateinvestmentto happen;in-
stead,theyplayedan activeroleby
notonlyinvestingbutby playingan
enablingrole.
Second, and crucially, these
countries hadmostlysorted out their
majorproblems of illiteracy, access
to health, malnutritionandthe other
majorfactorsthatnotonlyaffect
qualityof life but alsohavea signific-
antimpact on labourproductivity.
Subramanian’sabiding faithin ex-
ports—ata timewhentheinterna-
tionaltradingclimatefor exportsis
theworstin decades—is touching
bututterly misplaced.Onewonders
howhe missedthe wisewordsof his
doctoralsupervisor,RaghuramRa-
jan,at the Universityof Chicago, who
famouslyretorted to PrimeMinister
NarendraModi’s “Make in India”
mantra by calling for “Make for
India”.
Rajan,theformer Reserve Bank
of IndiaGovernor,hadremarked
thatModi’scallwas utterlyinappro-
priatein the contextof slackinterna-
tionaltradeandurged India to focus
moreon the domesticmarketto pro-
motemanufacturing-ledgrowth.
Throughout theSurvey,prob-
lems are addressedin a simple-
minded fashion.Ontheweighty is-
suessuchas pooraccessto health
care and education, persistent
gender biases,sanitationandmalnu-
trition,it has littleto offerin termsof
direction.
Instead,Subramaniancallsfor
“behavioural change,” which he
claimswerein evidencein Modi’s
SwachhBharat Mission,JanDhan
YojanaandBetiBachaoBetiPadhao
campaigns.He arguesthata similar
“behavioural change”can leadto suc-
cesson issuessuchas genderequality
anda march towards“a healthyand
beautiful India”,apartfrombolster-
ing savingsandimproving tax com-
plianceandcreditquality.
Themanagerial adviceto address
thesepersistentsocialandeconomic
problemsis completelynewin an
EconomicSurvey. Subramaniande-
votesan entire chapterto behavi-
oural economics,which has been
hypedin recent timesin a completely
different contextin societiescom-
pletelydifferentfromIndia.
Forinstance, the reality withre-
spectto theso-calledsuccess of the
BetiBachao BetiPadhao campaign
is thatit restson the anganwadiand
middaymealsscheme thatare partof
thewell-regardedIntegratedChild
Development Services scheme,
whichhasbeenaroundfor nearly 45
years.Of course,nudginga change in
socialbehaviourcanmakea differ-
ence,butthemuchmoreimportant
issue is about the state putting
moneywhereits mouth is.
Sadly,Subramanianmissesboth
the historical andsocialcontext and
thecriticalroleof publicpolicyin
furtheringsocialchange.DATA ASA PUBLIC GOOD
An apparentlyinnovative suggestion
in Subramanian’s Surveyis thead-
vocacyof a march towardsmaking
dataa publicgoodthatis “ofthe
people,forthepeopleandby the
people”.Whilethere maybe nothing
objectionableto thisatfirst glance,
the factthatthe suggestion comes in
the context of the Modiregime’sper-
sistently egregious approachto eco-
nomicdata onmanycounts—the
mostshockingbeingthedataon
GDP and unemployment—marks
thisoutas particularly ironical.
Thesuggestioncomesat a timeof
growing worries about citizens’
privatedataleaking copiouslyfrom
government departments. This is
enoughto indicate that it is an off-
handsuggestionwithoutregardto
theseriousconsequencesthatmay
lie in storefor citizens.
A similar lackadaisicalapproachis in evidence withhis suggestionto
the demographic transition that
wouldresultin a highershare of an
ageingpopulationin thenextfew
decades. SubramanianurgesStates
to preparefor sucha future,but how
andwithwhatrolefor publicinvest-
mentin health careis left open-
ended.Instead,he suggests thatIn-
dia ought to prepare for the
transition by raisingtheretirement
age in a phased manner.In doingso,
he is apparentlyunawareof oneof
the defining problems of India
today: the rising unemployment
amongeducated youth,bothmen
andwomen.Of course,he harpson
India’s “demographic dividend”
whenmillionsof youngIndiansare
stillasking, “Whereis my dividend?”
When Subramanianwasappoin-
tedCEA,manyweresurprisedbe-
causeof his relativeobscurityamong
economists.However,to the politic-
allyastute,it wasevidentthathe was
destinedfor highofficein theModi
regimewhenhe published articlesin
popular newspapers defending
Modi’s demonetisation move in
2016.He termedit a “revolutionary”
move in the fight against black
moneyandalsoargued, againstthe
currentof mounting evidence,that
demonetisation did not hurt the
poor.
Throughout the Survey, Sub-
ramanian calls for freshthinking
thatis freeof theprevailingortho-
doxyin economics.Buthe haslittle
to offerexceptcrumbsof advicethat
are the stuffof management schools.
Thepoliticalright-wingin Indiahas
always sought legitimacy in aca-
demicrealmseitherby usurping pos-
itionsin branches suchas historyand
archaeology,butsuccess haslargely
eludedit in economics.
Eventhosewhoareinclined to
supportthe BJPfearits Hindutvatag
andonlyofferoutsidesupport.Sub-
ramanian, by mouthinga curious
mixof swadeshilogicandvoodoo
economics, but withoutappearingto
hurtneoliberalsentiments,seems to
have tickedall theboxes in the
Hindutvaschemeof thingsat North
Block,whichhasbeendeclaredoff
limitsto journalistsby the Modire-
gime. $