Quality starts with the assessor.

"Driven by high growth in exports of 'aircraft, spacecraft and parts' and 'ships, boats and floating structures', Indian engineering exports continued its growth run for the seventh straight month to November 2024." Engineering goods exports grew 13.75% to $8.90 billion in November compared to $7.82 billion in 2023 and from April-November exports stood at $75.47 billion as against $69.32 billion in 2023. ET. "Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal...said despite global economic uncertainties, India's exports of goods and services are expected to cross USD 800 billion this fiscal, which will be a record." It was $778 billion last year. ET. "From plywood to door hinges and from footwear to furniture, ceiling fans, tyres, copper and steel products, there are over 200 items on which govt agencies have decided to impose QCO (quality control order), which are nothing but standards to ensure that goods are of international quality, both produced locally and abroad." TOI. "QCOs are apparently innocuous demands that imports into India satisfy quality standards. In practice, however, they have become over the past two years an instrument to restrict imports and minimize competition." "This country has had decades of experience with such import restrictions before liberalization," and "The inevitable consequences include inflation, the growth of monopolies, failing small businesses and a collapse in productivity and competitiveness," wrote Mihir Sharma. This is borne out by, "A bunch of top companies is hanging on to almost Rs 1 trillion of free cash that it has yet to find a use for," and an analysis of "the top Sensex 500 companies - with a few exceptions - shows that 66 of these companies collectively held Rs 2.7 trillion in cash and equivalents at the end of FY24," wrote Nehal Chaliawala. The average monthly per capita consumption expenditure in rural areas rose to Rs 4,122 in 2023-24, from Rs 3,773 the previous year. It increased from Rs 6,459 to Rs 6,996 in the urban areas." "Adjusting for inflation, consumption grew at 3.5%, but it should be noted that this was much less than the GDP growth rate of 8.2%." DH. With prices rising inexorably, goods and services tax (GST) collections hit Rs 1.77 trillion in December, 7.3% higher than Rs 1.65 trillion in December 2023. BS. "A pani puri (a street snack) seller from Tamil Nadu has gone viral on social media after receiving a GST notice for online payments of Rs 4 million in 2023-24." Zee News. At Rs 50 for 6 pani puris, it amounts to a sale of 2,000 pani puris every single day for a year. Seems a tad incredible. And if pani puri selling is so lucrative, selling pakodas (HT) should be in billions of rupees. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been asking for more investments from the private sector (ET) but private companies will expand capacity only when they see rising consumption and consumption is being eaten up by inflation. Sure, goods must have quality, but the orders have no quality. A case of cart before the horse. Can only go backwards.