Decoding the mystery of MNC exits from India  https://www.businesstoday.in/opinion/columns/story/decoding-the-mystery-of-mnc-exits-from-india-343768-2022-08-04
Companies have left India for various reasons. In the case of some companies, the decision to leave India was attributed to a multi-nation strategy to get out of non-profitable operations and focus on easier markets.

one would expect India to top the list of multinational corporations scouting for an investment destination...despite the red carpet, liberal policies and incentives, it is also true that India has not exactly been a happy hunting ground for several other MNCs. The government revealed in Parliament in December last year that as many as 2,783 foreign companies and their subsidiaries ceased operations in India between 2014 and November 2021. Some of the notable exits include Cairn Energy, Holcim, Daiichi Sankyo, Carrefour, Henkel, Harley Davidson and Ford... In India,, MNCs have exited due to arbitrary tax regime, accumulated losses, over capacity, land acquisition issues and lack of expected growth due to market anomalies. In case of some companies, the decision to leave India was attributed to multi-nation strategy to get out of non-profitable operations and focus on easier markets. Then, there were some auto players that set up base in India and brought technology and products that had stopped selling in global markets. While they received initial success and paid little attention to upgradation, the domestic firms started making better products slowly and steadily. As a result, the MNCs were eventually pushed out.

there are also some rare cases.. the latest such case is that of German wholesale giant METRO Cash and Carry. The company has grown in a robust manner, forged strong partnerships with local kiranas and made steady investments in store expansions and digitalisation. Its deep commitment to domestic customers can be gauged fact that it has stayed in India for the past 19 years despite running losses for 14 consecutive years. Having turned the corner, it’s reportedly making profits for the past four years and its B2B operations across 31 stores have immensely benefitted small retailers...In balance, considering METRO has done all the hard work and now understands the Indian market and customers at par with its rivals, stitching up a partnership with a strong local player seems to be a better option since it can now expect strong returns on its past investments. Whatever the outcome of the strategic review, the company will face headwinds, even though it is obvious that the public rumours and attacks do not have any basis.

Why did Make in India drive fail? https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/opinion/news-analysis/why-did-make-in-india-drive-fail-786441    Dr M Suresh Babu Hans News Service | 7 Mar 2023

India has lost its position as a destination for portfolio capital.

There was simply no way that FDI could create millions of jobs every year in India... while Indian labor is cheap, it's not productive enough dues to many constraints. Plus, the Union government's support for foreigners coming in is somewhat reluctant. So, the Union government now wants Assemble in India. That too will have limited impact.

4 policy failure can be identified: overly optimistic expectations, implementation in dispersed governance, inadequate collaborative policymaking, and the vagaries of the political cycle

Overall, the Make in India campaign failed to create an international niche market as promised and lost its position as a destination for portfolio capital. The policy was overly optimistic and lacked proper implementation, resulting in limited impact and failure to achieve its objectives.

Hindutva, Economic Neoliberalism and the Abuse of Economic Statistics in India Jayati Ghosh https://doi.org/10.4000/samaj.6882  https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/pdf/6882

Economist Jayati Ghosh, in a piece titled Hindutva, Economic Neoliberalism and the Abuse of Economic Statistics in India, explained how the Narendra Modi government’s efforts at implementing the Hindutva agenda adversely affects economic activity.

Quoting examples of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, she said, “Riots – often instigated cynically by proponents of Hindutva for political and other purposes – are clearly not economically beneficial in the aggregate. However, they can sometimes lead to benefits for part

Five Issues That Are Hurting the Indian Economy https://thewire.in/economy/indian-economy-inflation-adani-press-freedom-politics Apart from economic issues such as high inflation and crony capitalism, mental health, majoritarian politics and press freedom also impact the overall growth of the economy.
Five Issues That Are Hurting the Indian Economy

India’s ‘developed’ status by 2047 depend on empowering its blue-collar workforce https://price360.in/articles-details.php?url=indias-developed-status-by-2047-depend-on-empowering-its-bluecollar-workforce Dr. Rajesh Shukla September 14, 2023

Data from PRICE’s ICE 3600 surveys (2016 and 2021) provide some major insights into the current status of this population.

In terms of size, they form a third of the country’s population: 500 million people equivalent to 100 million households who earn their livelihood through daily wages. Nearly half of them are residents of just five states - 15% are residents of Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (11%), Bihar (9%), West Bengal (8%) and Tamil Nadu (7%). If the effect of population is removed, the top five states with the highest concentration of labour are: Bihar (50%), Madhya Pradesh (46%), West Bengal (42%), Jharkhand (40%) and Odisha (38%).

The labour households have an average annual income of Rs 126,000 (2020-21) which is one-eighth of the national income. Undoubtedly, a large segment has been able to extricate itself from grinding poverty, but their economic condition continues to be precarious at best. For the overwhelming majority of these households, savings is minimal. They spend almost all of what they earn and regularly borrow to meet their routine expenses. In 2016, 28% labour households reported that they were in debt and by 2021 this figure had risen to 40%. The share of indebted households (ranging from 13% to 57%) is highest in Bihar, Maharashtra and Telengana where more than half of labour households were reported in debt in 2020-21.

The significance of financial support and subsidies to this population cannot be over-emphasised. The pandemic threatened to push them back into crippling financial crises. Nearly 72% of labour households surveyed by PRICE revealed that they had received food or free rations from the government during the lockdowns. Another 58% reported receiving subsidised rations. NGOs provided food support to 14% of households while for 19% of such households, food support came from friends, relatives and neighbours.

Cash transfers from the government helped mitigate the financial crunch for nearly 32% of households and free medical aid was a much-needed resource - 23% received this from the state government and 15% from the central government. Another 23% confirmed that they had benefited from LPG subsidies.

While hailing the contribution of the workforce in our quest for economic development, we need to reiterate our commitment to building the skillsets, and social and economic well-being of this very large and significant segment of our population. Only then will we truly realize the potential of the “trinity of demography, democracy and diversity” in fulfilling our objective of becoming a developed economy by 2047.

DECODED - Is India's Economy Really Booming? | What do the numbers say? | Akash Banerjee & Manjul  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVgo5DFza4A The Deshbhakt Oct 18, 2023 JPMorgan’s MD today made a 'bold' forecast - that India will become 3rd largest economy in the world by 2027 & size of our economy will reach $7 trillion by 2030. While much of that will be driven by the massive size of our population - what does this spectacular achievement mean for the average Indian who's only seeing shrinking savings / lesser jobs / more inflation / less manufacturing. Even if India does a 8% growth for 4 years in a row and becomes No3 in the world - Where will it take you?

https://www.thequint.com/news/india/poor-in-india-lose-half-their-income-in-last-5-years-rich-got-richer-survey A new survey, which highlights the economic impact of the pandemic on Indian households, found that the income of the poorest 20 percent of the country declined by 53 percent in 2020-21 from that in 2015-16. The survey, conducted by the People's Research on India's Consumer Economy (PRICE), a Mumbai-based think tank, also shows that in contrast, the same period saw the annual household income of the richest 20 percent grow by 39 percent.

How Congress is changing with a non-Gandhi at the helm  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np2uQvYUIJE   24th Oct 2023 D K Singh ThePrint

Kharge is rebuilding Congress brick by brick, taking a leaf out of Prashant Kishor’s playbook https://theprint.in/opinion/politically-correct/kharge-is-rebuilding-congress-brick-by-brick-taking-a-leaf-out-of-prashant-kishors-playbook/1815318/    D.K. SINGH 23 October, 2023
This harmony with the Gandhis marks a positive in Kharge’s first year as the party chief. But his real achievement is using his equation with the Gandhis to implement what looks like poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s ‘4 M’ formula to revive the Congress—Messenger, Message, Machinery, and Mechanics.

As it is, the Congress doesn’t have a coherent message yet — it’s largely banking on anti-incumbency by focusing on failures of governance. But it seems to be working on a message now. It is experimenting with Other Backward Classes (OBC) politics through caste census demand, rich-versus-poor narrative through attacks on big businessmen and industrialists like Gautam Adani, freebies to match welfarism, love-versus-hate, and Kamal Nath-style I-am-a-bigger-Hindu campaigns to counter Hindutva. Jury is out on whether this message can counter Modi’s or the BJP’s in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

The Court's 'no fundamental right to marry' is wrong - Anand Grover  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-courts-no-fundamental-right-to-marry-is-wrong/article67450210.ece   The Hindu

There is no fundamental right to marry, it holds. On that account, the Court decided that same sex persons cannot marry. In my view this is a wrong decision. However, to the credit of the Court, it directed, unanimously, that same sex couples have to be protected from any harassment

https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/the-courts-no-fundamental-right-to-marry-is-wrong/ The LGBTQI community’s call for equality in marriage is not just a legal battle but a societal transformation. A correction of the recent judgment is a step towards ensuring that no citizen is deemed “not fit for marriage” based on their sexual orientation.

Comment & Notes:
S S: Right to marry = Right to obtain social and legal legitimacy for a stable social-sexual partnership of  ne's own choice. Earlier, same-sex relationship was decriminalised.
In the teeth of vicious opposition from the regime and diverse religious establishments.
But, that was before Modi 2.0.

The Quest to Reclaim Lost Humanity: Anticipating the Next Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC-0nxOtFas We are all infected by a virus eroding our humanity, as our minds become enslaved to memes that generate more violence in society and harm the environment. If you've ever questioned whether your choices and the memes you've shared contribute to injustice, my dialogue with environmental and human rights activist Medha Patkar offers an alternative perspective to ponder.