Letters: Domestic growth solution

Rajeev Malik, in his article "Deciphering the new growth normal" (December 3) has come out with a simplistic theory linking India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to global GDP growth, and linking investment in India to global liquidity by omitting from his analysis India's high GDP-growth years of 2009-10 and 2010-11 when the economy grew at 8.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively, in spite of the global economy crashing around it.

India is now in a separate category where it will continue to attract foreign investment and grow even if the rest of the world is stagnant. This is because of its favourable demographics, large and growing market with unlimited potential and unmatched entrepreneurial and technological strengths.

All it has to do is stop shooting itself in the foot as it has done through repeated scams and the consequent disruptions in spectrum allocation, iron ore and coal mining. Interminable delays in securing and allocating land for steel plants and allocation of bauxite mines for aluminium production, and the hold-ups in road projects are not helping. The innumerable housing projects that are yet to find buyers are another drag on India's GDP growth rate. So, India's new growth normal depends on what we do here, and not on the global economy.

Alok Sarkar Kolkata

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