A wise thinker once said, “By seizing the opportunities that disruption presents and leveraging hard times into greater success through outworking/ out-innovating/out-thinking everyone around you, this just might be the richest time of your life so far.”
Demonetisation has been among the boldest and most disruptive gambles of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and we at BW Businessworld laud the step. I am glad to mention that the step has also been welcomed by our readers. In a survey conducted jointly by C-Voter and BW, more than 87 per cent of the respondents welcomed the step taken by the PM. Its implementation is seeing course correction on a daily basis, which is but natural for a disruptive measure.
Yes, there is short-term pain and real evidence supports it, but we at BW and I personally believe that in the long term, the gamble will pay off handsomely. Many economists believe the move will slow down the GDP in the short term, but will prove beneficial for the national income in the longer term. We believe that the GDP will decelerate by a per cent or two in the short term, but are optimistic that by 2019, it will gallop at a pace of 10 per cent because of the steps taken now.
BW also brought together India’s top economists and thinkers for a roundtable to discuss the short-, medium- and long-term impact of demonetisation on the economy and the GDP. We had a divided house, where some saw demonetisation as a political gambit, while others considered it an economic game changer. The assembled experts however agreed that both retail trade and market sentiment had been drastically impaired and that the rural economy had been thrown out of gear for the moment.
In view of the gravity of the task undertaken by the government, experts and our reporters delve into various sectors to gauge the impact of demonetisation on the economy. Deputy editor Suman K. Jha garners a cross-section of views on demonetisation through interviews including those with Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal, M. Veerappa Moily, chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, Anil Bokil of think tank ArthaKranti Pratishthan, one of the first to recommend demonetisation to Modi, and others.
In my personal opinion, demonetisation is an important tool in the hands of the government to curb black money. I have in my article in www.businessworld. in elaborated on five good reasons to support demonetisation. Remember, disruptive policies lead to disruptive changes. I quote Ryan Kavanaugh, “The key is to embrace disruption and change early. Don’t react to it decades later. You can’t fight innovation.”
In other sections of the magazine, do read senior editor Ashish Sinha and correspondent Arshad Khan’s in-depth report on Hyundai Motor India’s plans of becoming the market leader by 2026. Marketing and advertising editor Noor Fathima Warsia chats with Dell Technologies chief Michael S. Dell, for whom India is a strategic market. She also speaks exclusively with Mindshare Worldwide global CEO Nick Emery and Mindshare South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar. India turns out to be the fastest growing market for the world’s largest media planning agency, too. There is a new normal in the Indian economy and we must recognise and embrace it.
BW Reporters
The author is the Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the BW Businessworld Group and the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the exchange4media Group
