Dear BCAS Family,
We have been hearing about the government’s protracted efforts to bring about “Ease of Doing Business” in India for the last few years. However, do we know that this is a country where apart from agriculture, business was regarded as a holy cow? India was one of the leading exporters in the world, with various Indian kingdoms giving due respect to its businessmen vying to make things easy for them to facilitate trade and commerce. It will be interesting to examine how the wheel has turned a full circle from the ugly past of colonial rule in terms of ease of doing business in India.
I recently stumbled upon an authoritative report from an eminent British economist Angus Maddison who established India as the wealthiest country in 1 AD, with 34% of the world’s GDP. In 1700, plundering and exploitation sent India’s share down to 24.5% -- interestingly UK’s GDP then was a minuscule 2.1%. By 1800, India’s GDP declined to 20%; in 1900, it had plummeted to 1.7%. The systematic wealth stripping and exploitative initiatives by colonial powers and invaders, interspersed with a string of severe famines, took a deadly toll on India’s economic exuberance. Ease of doing business? Yes, but only for the trade that was against the interest of India and her citizens.
Decades of an exasperating freedom struggle, coupled with the unwavering adoption of socialist policies, kept India’s economic growth lacklustre
