My Open Letter to Hon'ble Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modiji
Dear Hon'ble Prime Minister,
Pranam !
Hon'ble Sir,
If the media has quoted you correctly, then you have said, 'we are an $8 trillion economy today...' ( http://www.newindianexpress.com/…/…/09/27/article3050542.ece ).
Hon'ble Prime Minister Sir, you have privy to many data that we do not have. But the sources that we can access give a totally different status. The World Bank in a report released this year had pegged the size of our economy at around $2 Trillion (http://www.thehindu.com/…/india-is-now-a…/article7380442.ece ) in 2014.
The Wikipedia too substantiated that. That page shows us assessment by various assessors. They all have pegged our economy between 1.83 to 2.06 Trillion US $ [ https://en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomina… ]. Sir, our government's Economic Survey also indicated the same size of our economy (the total GDP).
So, various souces inform us that our economy cross the $2 Trillion size in year 2014-15. That level was arrived after changes in the earlier method of calculating GDP. If we follow the previous method of estimatin GDP then ours is still below $2 Trillion economy. Whatever be the methods, it is well accepted now that our economy did cross $2 Trillion size last year and thus we accept that.
Did our economy grew 400% in last year, Sir?
Hon'ble Sir, we accept that our economy was $2 Trillion big. But we are astonished how it grew four-fold in just one year to become a $8 Trillion big economy. If we have really achieved that then, Sir, I admit from core of my heart, that you are a Messiah that no other modern society has ever seen or had.
Hon'ble Sir, there is another twist to the tale. The $2 Trillion estimation was made when by calculating $ rate at Rs 61.7. The $ has since appreciated from 61 to nearly 67 levels. That is nearly 10% drop in Rs value. Sir, such weakening of Rs against $ should rather reduce the size of our economy as the GDP growth rate was less than the rate of weakening in Rs.
Dreaming Big is Great, But?
Hon'ble Prime Minister Sir,
I do not know if you have kept a timeline for achieving $20 Trillion size. If there is a timeline to chasing that dream then that is great. But if there is no deadline to achieving that dream then, Sir - please pardon me, setting such dream makes not meaning. It is especially more important, as you must have known Sir, that being a $ 20 Trillion economy is not a small thing. There is no economy in the whole world that is currently $ 20 Trillion big. The US economy is $17.4 Trillion big, all of EU countries together are $18.5 Trillion in size, China is $ 10.4 Trillion and Japan is $ 4.6 Trillion big [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomina…].
Sir, dreaming big is a great thing and leader who propels people to dream big deserves my respect. Being a very small man of rural background, I may have been wrong in prima-facie perceiving that the facts you relied are probably not correct and the dream you tried to sow in us is probably a bit too big.
Hon'ble Sir, I will be immensely happy and glad if I am proven wrong and informed that the statistics I relied to cast doubt on our Hon'ble and popular Prime Minister is wrong.
With kind regards
Bimal Prasad Pandia
