Industrial Growth turns negative, all eyes on farmers to keep the numbers floating.

India, a nation which once promised to be the world’s harbinger of growth and development, has now slowing and steadily turning into a laughable stock. All those clamouring of impressive growth in the last decade seem to be fading away, as India is fast falling into an arena of despondency and hopelessness with no exit route.


This is what became glaringly evident when Central Statistics Organization (CSO) came out with the industrial growth figures of India for the month of February. The figures read something like these

Industrial Growth numbers for the month of February.

	Feb (2013-14)	Feb (2012-13)
Overall Growth Rate	-1.9%	0.6%
Manufacturing	-3.7%	2.1%
Electricity	11.5%	-3.2%
Mining	1.4%	-7.7%

The Industrial growth of India for the month of February, 2014 came out to be -1.9% as compared to 0.6% in the same month preceding year. Yes, you heard it right. India’s Industrial growth has turned negative. Something which seemed impossible a decade back has been achieved quite smoothly and quickly by our government and leaders.


What is more shocking and outrageous is that India has reached such a dire state when two of India’s best economists, Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. P. Chidambaram, have been in charge of the proceedings. While India on the whole is struggling, there are a few states which are still registering impressive growth rates.

	Growth rate of 2012-13
Bihar	15.05%
Madhya Pradesh	9.89%
Goa	8.47%
Kerela	8.24%
Odisha	8.09%
Gujarat	7.96%

The chief ministers of these states are not any renowned economists. Some of them even hadn’t studied economics, still they are outperforming two of India’s best economists. So, the first question which arises in our minds is why this is happening.  


The answer to this may vary for others, but for me personally, it has been the lack of conviction and faith shown by the govt. in domestic entrepreneurs, while giving excessive emphasis to FDI. Indian Govt. needs to learn that FDI is no magic wand which would troubleshoot all economic problems. It can boost growth slightly, but during tough times it won’t propel growth. The focus instead should have been more on promoting and strengthening domestic entrepreneurs and companies, which we sadly haven’t done. If we consider the American growth model, this point would become quite evident. America didn’t grow because of FDI, it grew because of the advancement of the american domestic companies, which today are considered as the benchmark for others.

We might be able to save our-self from the blemishes on the back of record agricultural production this year, but to be frank, this is not the India which we have dreamt of.