The shameless lies of the freeloading press knows no end. A headline in the Times of India today reads ' Govt share in total debt dips to 26%.' The figures are given under the heading ' Managing It Well ' and it shows that external debt has risen from $ 224.5 billion in 2008-2009 to $ 261.5 billion in 2009-2010. So in absolute terms external debt has increased by $ 37 billion and the decrease in percentage terms may be because of increase in corporate debt. External debt is only 11% of total debt which means total debt is $ 2377.27 billion, 89% of which is domestic debt. $ 261.5 billion is 18.9% of GDP which means that India's GDP is $ 1383.60 billion dollars. Thus our sovereign debt is almost double the GDP. This explains why the government has been frantically increasing taxes and why it will not allow the Reserve Bank to raise rates to control inflation. A survey of 139 countries by the World Economic Forum ranks India at 115 in public debt and at 123 in inflation. Since our fiscal deficit is expected to be more than 6% this year our total debt will surely be more than double the GDP next year. The Great Economist leading the government has no clue on what to do. The Congress is banking on increased growth leading to increased tax collections to bring down the deficit but increased growth means that inflation will continue unchecked and may rise to unsustainable levels. The newspaper has tried to mislead its readers with false headlines hoping no one will read the details but the figures clearly show that our economy is built on quicksand. We can only pray for a soft landing and not a catastrophic one. God help us.