India’s Democracy comes of Age and an Economic Juggernaut is Unleashed May 17, 2009
Yesterday the Congress party India’s ruling party under the helm of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won the biggest electoral win that any Indian party has had in over two decades. The impact of this election on the Indian economy cannot be overstated! For the past five years Singh’s party has been shackled by coalition politics that have thwarted economic reforms and inhibited the growth of the Indian economy. It also frustrated the Indian electorate as party politics, old style politicians and corruption stifled the aspirations of the Indian people.
Prime Minister Singh has now been given a clear mandate and with it a free hand to move the country forward at a rapid economic pace. In the coming weeks and months numerous economic reforms that had been stalled for years will quickly materialize. Among them will be the liberalization of the insurance and financial services industry to foreign investment and ownership, the sale of numerous state owned enterprises and the expansion of (for profit) private education at both the primary and secondary levels. This will only be the beginning as Prime Minister Singh will bring a new generation of political leaders into his cabinet with a focus on transparency and the reduction of corruption at all levels! The immediate beneficiaries will of course be India’s equity markets as foreign investment dramatically increases but the ultimate winner will be the Indian people who have waited for six decades for India’s democracy to come of age!
