A view to remember

 

 

For Indian economy, February is not just the shortest month of the year, but also the hottest. Climatic changes aside, temperatures spike north (quite literally!) towards the epicentre of action, the North Block, home to the Ministry of Finance and the Union Budget. As the country observers gear up for the annual February bash (in more ways than one), formidable flagbearer of India’s holy financial trinity, P. Chidambaram exudes not just characteristic composure of spirit, but the noble intent to teach previous as well as future governments (read FMs) a lesson or two when it comes to handling a politically propelled and yet burgeoning economy that is at once the land of cheapest mobile tariffs and countless farmer suicides. In that context, our Finance Minister’s latest volume, A View from the Outside: Why good economics works for everyone, presents a compendium of columns that examine the troths and truths of the NDA regime between the period 2002 to 2004.

Meticulously timed, if one were to consider political hindsight at play, the collection of columns from various dailies analyse issues of commerce that matter most to the nation from the perspective of the man at the helm. Chidambaram, former and current FM, provides insightful details into the proportional nature of economics and politics, and its subsequent impact on critical areas of reform. PC’s essays convey a deft understanding of the problems underlying the Indian economy and the element of politics with which it lies inextricably enmeshed. From the pen of a globally venerated expert economist, this is the elusive ‘Clarity on Reality’ combine…