Deja vu: a series of economic shocks that's similar to the 1960s

Handing over control to bureaucrats in the 1960s strangled the Indian economy. The error must not be repeated, writes TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan.

Many people have compared Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. But such personal comparisons, though compelling and entertaining, don’t yield any lessons for economic management. 

What might yield some lessons, however, is a comparison of previous prolonged, successive and severe shocks to the economy, and how they were handled.

Viewed that way, the 1960s are a better guide and comparator to the period 2009-20. That Sixitues decade saw war, famine, political uncertainty, economic distress simultaneously. 

But there is an important difference. Unlike in the 1960s the last 10-12 years have not seen even a single political shock. We have to be