India’s political and social structures have preserved entrepreneurs, if not exactly cut them loose, observes Raghav Bahl in ‘Superpower?’ (www.penguinbooksindia.com). Even as the state invested in big-ticket capital assets in the early decades after Independence, land continued to stay in private hands, he reasons in the chapter titled ‘Entrepreneurs, consumers and English speakers’.
“India’s sprawling rural economy has always been entirely ‘capitalist’ in its orientation. Even the urban economy allowed private enterprise to grow under a somewhat draconian regime of licences and approvals… The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is among the oldest in Asia. Capital and credit have always been available, albeit for a ‘price,’ for private enterprise.”
Harshad Mehta episode
Of interest to finance professionals is a section in the chapter, captioned ‘the story of two stock markets,’ opening with how Harshad Mehta, who in his late thirties, ‘pulled off a stock market scam in India which would have put Bernie Madoff to shame.’ The year was 1992 and there was much excitement around a freshly minted, rapidly privatising economy, the author narrates.
Full report here Hindu
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