"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, .... it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

These immortal opening lines of the novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens seem to be relevant in contemporary India.

Economic Gains And Hope

Over the past decade, the Union government has done some creditable things to give us hope. Among large economies, India is almost alone in managing the Covid pandemic and the turbulence of the Ukraine and Iran wars reasonably efficiently while at the same time exhibiting unusual fiscal responsibility.

There has been an impressive balance of short-term individual welfare to address the immediate needs in a largely poor society and the long-term requirement of economic growth in the form of a massive infrastructure push and promotion of investment and trade. The Union’s fiscal deficit, which had stood at a record high of 9.2% in 2020-21, was brought down to 4.8% in 2025-26 and is targeted at 4.4% in FY 2027. Despite the enormous strain on the public finances on account of the Hormuz Strait closure, the fiscal deficit in FY 2027 will be manageable.

Financial Sector Recovery

The financial sector, which was perilous a decade ago because of indiscriminate lending practices and a high ratio of non-performing assets, has been stabilised with a significant infusion of capital and impressive improvement in recoveries. As a result, public sector banks, which registered an aggregate loss of over Rs 85,000 crore in 2017-18, have now recorded an........

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