As you look at the economy days before you might actually be in a position of having to handle it, do you see green shoots of recovery or do you see an unmitigated, continuing crisis?
I think the government has underestimated the adverse impact of the global economic crisis. They started off by saying that our fundamentals are strong, and then came the gradual realisation that things are not so good. I think that for a pretty long time we’ll be faced with serious problems in our economy. The government claims that in 2009-2010 the economy could grow between 6 and 6.5 per cent.
I think the government is again underestimating the crisis … so the growth will be lower. And more dangerous is the fact that they are not recognising the serious loss of jobs in the country. I think in the last six months we’ve lost over 20 lakh or 25 lakh jobs and they’re not talking abo
