Our 2002 cover on the economic boom

It's not very often that we get a chance to say we told you so, but we did tell you about the economy. In 2002, India Today had predicted that the country's economy was at the threshold of a boom. Three years later the stock market is at a high and India is poised to witness a record fourth year of 7 per cent GDP growth. The boom is all around us.

India's economic indices reveal that we have achieved record levels of growth. In the past few years, it was difficult to ignore the couple of clouds despite the silver linings. Around 2002, it was feared that the growth in India would be jobless and manufacturing would languish. Those fears have proved to be baseless. This economic surge has a heart. Every sector has expanded its employment numbers and there are new investments across the board. What is more encouraging is that the growth is not restricted to it and other services sectors but has spread to traditional industries like textiles, steel, even readymade garments.

When celebrating any economic progress, all Indians wonder how our great rival China compares by the same standards. An increasing number of economists are beginning to bet on India. The reason is that unlike China's investment-driven economy, India's is consumption-led. Today, for the middle-class Indian affordability is no longer a function of price. The Indian consumer's spending has moved from worrying about the MRP to quickly calculating the EMI. His urge to splurge has been accelerated by flexibility in pricing, the availability of easy loans, and product innovation, such as a pc for less than Rs 10,000 or a Rs 10 phone recharge.

When an economy reaches its best-ever levels, there is always anxiety as to whether a slump is around the corner. We called together the Board of India Today Economists (bite) last week to get their take on the issue. It was the ninth bite meeting and I do not recall them being as optimistic about the economy in the previous eight meetings. For our cover story this week we wanted a still clearer picture. So we spoke to investors, CEOs, head hunters and consultants to gain their feedback. They were even more bullish about the future. This week's cover package on the economy looks at the reasons for the boom, the role of the Government in it and also offers a jobs and salaries projection for 2006. Executive Editor Rohit Saran who put it together with Assistant Editor Malini Goyal and Principal Correspondent Puja Mehra says, "Pessimists seem to be an endangered species in the economy today."

That apart, although the infamous Hindu rate of growth may have gone, there is what I would call the Hindu paradox affirmed by our bite: The economy clocks in unprecedented continuous growth, but the fundamental problems remain-high fiscal deficit, insufficient infrastructure and abysmal public services. Wonders never cease in India.

Index