Don't Believe the India Hype

Indians are going to the polls to elect a new government. The Congress party is standing on the record of the government it has led since 2004. But elections are taking place when the Indian economy has taken a sharp turn for the worse, in a climate of global economic crisis. This exposes the pathetic, do-nothing, zero-reform record of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government. More generally, it lays bare India's huge reform gaps and its brittle, decaying institutions. Finally, it deflates the "India Hype" peddled by smooth-talking, upper-caste politicians, ambassadors, businessmen, management consultants and indeed some academics.

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