Modi's economic reforms: a mixed picture

ELECTED in 2014 on a platform of economic reform, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, three years on, is attracting a lot of debate on how successful he has been in driving the reform agenda. Business newspapers are not optimistic. Recently, The Economist ran a cover story arguing that Mr Modi is not much of a reformer and lamented the missed opportunity (namely, low prices of oil, an important component of India's import basket).

Similarly, a recent issue of Financial Times argued that the economic boom of the past two years is wobbling and one major reason is the serious structural problems from which the country is unlikely to recover rapidly.

Understandably, government officials disagree. Amit Shah, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently said : "The BJP government that took power three years ago has completely transformed the thought process of the people and has been successful in creating brand India". Arun Jaitley, the Finance Minister, claimed that "no government…