India must pivot to a new set of economic & trade policies that values human beings
economic policy framework for the next generation of reforms. That is a sensible move.
India has compelling reasons to move away from a textbook framework of open economy macroeconomics. It strives for strategic autonomy in a geopolitically riven world, in which one superpower sits astride the northern border, has built supercharged industrial muscle that can smother Indian industry, and casts a covetous eye on Indian territory.
India can find ready support, vis-a-vis China, in the US. However, if the US finds that India is reliant solely on American support, it would have it where China has Pakistan — by the scruff of the neck. India would have to give up all dreams of strategic autonomy.
If India wants to countervail China's ambition to dominate the Indo-Pacific, it must be able to draw strategic support from the US, Europe, Russia and Japan, based on its own strength in terms of overall economic heft, technology and military-industrial capability. Fiscal action, trade policy, industrial policy, education — in terms of structure, quantity and pedagogy — must dovetail into building the wherewithal of strategic autonomy.
Rising yields around the world have persuaded many that global savings are drying up. This is premature. Rates are responding to inflation-targeting monetary policy, not crimped supply. Retirement savings of the rich world and its largish elderly population still scour the world in search of high returns. India can, and should, safely target to draw in external savings to the tune of 2-2.5% of
