Unease of doing business: Normalising social turmoil could affect economy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India Inc dislikes more than experiencing unease of doing business, it is publicly acknowledging unease of doing business. Like negotiating a tricky marriage, it prefers to keep its difficulties and frustrations ‘inside’, lest an admission of facing impediments is construed as ‘weakness,’ or even ‘failure’. So, while internally there may be much handwringing — whether pertaining to sectoral GST slabs, or other policy bumps on the road — externallyfacing, it is business as usual.

Or even ‘business is swell as never before’. There are times, though, when extreme unease of doing business comes in such a tangible form that this attempt to maintain a gung-ho face in very gang-ho circumstances becomes nigh impossible. One such case has been the communal violence and rioting that broke out on Monday in Haryana’s Nuh district and then spread to more recognisable places like Gurgaon the following day.

Riots, including the communal kind, have a paradoxical quality to them. While being commonly seen as ‘stray anomalies’ not just by authorities but even by most of the populace, they are almost normalised. Economic effects of these flare-ups and conflagrations are largely seen as happening ‘out there’ — shop shutters are downed, mohalla businesses are shut for the duration of the threat perception, the media treats it as ‘local coverage’, and small shops and businesses report their losses if and when asked.