What could be.

"Dalal Street had a roller coaster ride in 2024," reaching record highs as, "The first half of the year saw robust corporate earnings, a surge in domestic flows and a resilient macro landscape." However, there has been some correction in the last two months but still, "As of December 27, the BSE benchmark Sensex has gained 6,458.81 points or 8.94% while the NSE Nifty climbed 2,082 points or 9.58%." BS. Growth in the manufacturing sector has been just 2.5% annually from 2017-18 to 2022-23 and as a result, "the share of manufacturing in national income in 2022-23 is lower than it was in 2017-18." Wages have increased by 1% in the unorganized sector and in the organized sector by a paltry 0.42% between 2014-15 and 2022-23, wrote Prof Himanshu. "India presently has more than a quarter trillion dollars of essential imports. These include crude oil, coal, edible unrefined oil, fertilizer, steel and copper." Inward remittances brought in $129 billion while software services earned $200 billion this year. "Both can be said to be de facto exports of skilled or semi-skilled labor." Tourism exports could create huge employment but India received only 9 million foreign tourists compared to 85 million for Spain and 29 million for Thailand, wrote Ajit Ranade. There were 27.8 million outbound tourists from India in 2023 and the number is expected to grow in 2024 at a cost of $19 billion and projected to hit $55 billion in a decade, wrote Rahul Jacob. In 2023, "Construction activity has picked up now and public expenditure is crowding in private sector participation here." "The construction sector grew 13.3% in the September quarter of 2023-24 from a year earlier in terms of gross value added (GVA)." "In India, construction activity in housing and third-party logistics is growing faster than infrastructure at the moment," wrote Madhurima Nandy. Perhaps, the biggest problem with running a business in India is the predatory and repressive taxation. The investigation arm of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) authority has issued over 20,000 notices pan-India for assessment year (AY) 2017-18 to AY 2021-22, involving tax demand of over Rs 800 billion." Maximum number of notices were for AY 2017-18 because there is a time limit of 5 years for such notices. Taxo. Whether the reasons are genuine or an effort to bully companies into paying something to rid themselves of the hassle is not known. No wonder, "India's model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and the finance ministry's firm stance against amending it are becoming significant roadblocks for trade negotiators." "In 2016, India introduced the current model BIT following its loss in the White Industries arbitration case in 2010." ET. Because of the Indian government refusing tax benefits to Nestle the Swiss government has suspended the Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for India which means that Indian companies will now have to pay tax at 10% instead of at 5%. Netherlands and France may also follow suit. ET. Indians are helpless against 'we-will-do-whatever-the-hell-we-want' behavior of the government but other nations will not tolerate. Maybe that's why our stock exchanges have gone up by 8-9% whereas the Pakistan Stock Exchange has soared 80% from 62,052 last year to 11,351 points on 28 December 2024 (Tribune). India is a story of what could be. But will not be. Ever.