Report on India's transformation under Modi indictment of lost decade: MoS

Morgan Stanley's report on how India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed and gained a position in the world order in less than a decade is the "best and sharpest indictment" of the Congress-led UPA's "lost decade between 2004 and 2014", Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said.

Speaking to PTI on Wednesday, Chandrasekhar said the report reminds Indians how the Congress-led UPA had left "a shattered economy" in 2014. Nine years later, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world with record FDI, he said.

"This report that says how India has transformed in less than a decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, in my opinion, the best and sharpest indictment of the UPA's lost decade between 2004 and 2014," the minister said.

In the report, Morgan Stanley said significant skepticism about India, particularly with overseas investors, ignores the significant changes that have taken place in India, especially since 2014.

Rejecting criticism that India has not delivered its potential (despite it being the second-fastest-growing economy and among the top-performing stock markets over the past 25 years) and that equity valuations are too rich, the report said such a view ignores the systematic reforms in the last nine years.

Chandrasekhar said, "The report goes into details and it reminds Indians that how in 2014 the Congress' UPA had left a shattered economy, almost 14 quarters of runaway inflation, 12 quarters of decline in economy and industrial production, investors running away from the country, a broken financial sector that was characterised by crony corrupt lending by banks, and international big investors like Telenor, Nokia running away from India."

"That was the situation in 2014 that this report has rightfully captured," he told PTI.

The Union minister said India has come through the Covid pandemic, one of the "most disruptive times" in the history of the world, and emerged as a stronger nation that has earned "all the respect of the world".

"Whether it is the formalisation of the economy, tax rates that are comparative with the world, and infrastructure... We have become the largest infrastructure in the world today.

"We are the fastest growing innovation economy in the world. We are becoming a technology power in the world... Most importantly, from the 11th largest economy in the world, we have become the fifth in a short span of nine years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he added.

Chandrasekhar said the report indicates that Prime Minister Modi has not only been working for the growth of the nation but he has expanded the economy and brought stability and security.

"He has created good governance despite the fact that in 2014 the UPA and the Congress government had left a total mess for Prime Minister Modi ji to inherit," he added.