If you think that India is an economically stagnant backwater, think again. Many of us have outdated images of the Indian economy as a nightmare of third-world inefficiency.
Such images were, at one time prior to 1991, true. But the political leaders of India, like Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao, created a financial revolution by deregulating markets and industries, and by lowering taxes and simplifying tax codes. The result has been a power surge in Indian businesses, creating millions of upwardly-mobile jobs for people who previously had dead-end employment at the bottom of the service sector.
By any measure, the country of India has improved its monetary well-being.
Can America learn from this? Over the last twelve months, starting in mid-2009, the federal government has issued a long series of bad decisions, and has, by means of inane economic policies, created a toxic environment for economic growth. Can the USA save its economy from the ineptitude of its current leaders, both in Congress and in the White House?
Yes, we can, if we learn from India. America needs economic wisdom, not from Washington, but perhaps from Mumbai and New Delhi.
