Dr. Manmohan Singh: A Decade of Decay

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This Book is a compilation of select articles authored by M R Venkatesh, mostly in Rediff.com. To the reader, his writings offer a ring side view of the debilitating state of affairs in India under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh. With a persuasive, passionate and powerful style of writing the author demystifies the challenges confronting India and Indian economy in a manner that is comprehensible even to the layman.

Making a strong case for a small yet effective government, Venkatesh canvasses for sweeping economic, administrative and judicial reforms while simultaneously pointing out to the gargantuan failures of Dr. Manmohan Singh's administration. Written between 2011 and 2013 these articles capture India's precipitous decline in various spheres caused by a singular lack of willingness and capacity to govern.

In a refreshing departure from the known suspects who end up merely being critical of the Government, he also offers various alternatives to the challenges confronting the country. Needless to emphasize, while his suggestions are eminently debatable, the fact remains that these proposals are sure to secure necessary traction in days to follow:

The Toynbee like sweep of the subjects dealt by Venkatesh in a precise, succinct and incisive manner makes this book a compelling read.

The foreword of this book has been authored by Dr. Subramanian Swamy.

MR. Venkatesh is one of India's leading Chartered Accountant who addresses the Business concerns relating to Commercial and Economic laws, Economic Policies and Business strategies. He passed Chartered Accountancy in 1992 with an all India Ranking and has been in active practice since 1993 as partner of GSV Associates, Chennai

M. R. Venkatesh brilliantly leverages his proximity to business as Chartered Accountant and advisor in understanding the implication of our economic policies, issues pertaining to governance and systemic weaknesses. Using a persuasive style of writing Venkatesh blends theory and practice as he demystifies complex issues, be it law or economics, for the common man. M. R. Venkatesh has authored A Handbook on Anti-dumping, which was released by the former Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001. He has authored a monograph on Capital Account Convertibility, which was published in July 2006 as well as one on inflation, which was published in 2007. In that very year, he authored a book titled Global Imbalances and the Impending Dollar crisis that foresaw the oncoming financial crisis of 2008 far ahead of others. In 2011 he published a book titled "Sense, Sensex and Sentiments". Considered as a scholarly work on the functioning of India's financial sentinels, this wok received wide acclaim.

In a way this book has already been read twice over first, when these artcles were published and second time when you read the title to this book. That begs a question why then this book? Thoroughly disturbed by the seemingly irreversible downward spiral in the affairs of the country, I had been attempting to faithfully capture them in my weekly columns in Rediff.com, without any personal bias. As I looked back on the collective thrust of my articles spread over between 2011 and 2013 the leitmotif in my writings the gargantuan failure of the Manmohan Singh Administration was clearly visible even to me, probably for the first time. Frankly I am amazed by the big picture that presented itself before me.

The failure in governance by the Manmohan Singh Administration has been extraordinary. Future histonans will note that these failures encompasses virtually every sphere of our public life from tax- administration to external affairs, from economics to environment and from defence to infrastructure. Surely, the rot is far deeper than is visible on a superficial examination.

The great management guru, Peter Drucker, perhaps in a clairvoyant reference to Dr Manmohan Singh's prime ministerial tenure, said that the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle. While the stench of the rot is becoming unbearable by the day, what adds to the consternation is the crass attempt by the elite to market his regime as a success. Obviously the state of affairs within the country calls for multipronged response to tackle the extant crisis. But where is the question of a diagnosis, much less an effective remedy, when this decade of mis-governance has robbed Indians of their collective will to think, analyze or for that matter fight back?

M. R. Venkatesh is a colleague of mine in the struggle against corruption in Indian economy and society. We are together in the Action Committee Against Corruption in India. Venkatesh may be a Chartered Accountant but he has already made a name through his writings as a scholar of the financial system. While we may wax eloquent on various economic growth theories, the bottom line is that if a nation does not have a sustainable financial system then its growth will not last.

In 1997-98, several of the most dynamic and fast growing East Asian economies suffered severe financial crisis that devastated them. It revealed that growing economies could not be sustained with a weak financial system. Many of the East Asian "tigers" have been emaciated to the point that even after a decade and a half, they have not recovered. Japan is one such example.

Economic history is strewn with examples of countries that grew promisingly at first, only to falter and fall behind because of a crisis, and then unable to regain the earlier momentum. Such examples are found in Latin America and in East Asia.

There are other countries such the US and of Western Europe, that in the modern period experienced sustained growth and matured economically to become developed countries.

Today we ask: Into which category will China and India find themselves in, say, two decades from today?

Hence, the question of some importance today is: Will China and India continue to grow at least at the same rate (of the last two half decades) or higher, during the next two decades? Or will either or both slow down or suffer a "bubble burst", a crisis from which the two countries will find it difficult to recover?

Book's Contents and Sample Pages