A BOLD NEW DEAL
THE SIMILARITIES ARE UNCANNY. In 1933, faced with the Great Depression that saw the American economy severely contract and unemployment soar from 4 per cent to 25 per cent, Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled what he called the “New Deal” that focused on the 3Rs—relief for the poor and unemployed, recovery of the economy and reform of the financial system that had all but collapsed. Apart from an expansive monetary policy and injecting liquidity into the banking system, Roosevelt launched a major programme to build infrastructure, including roads, schools, dams, airports and hospitals, to provide jobs and income to unemployed millions.
Cut to India in 2021. A once-in-a-century pandemic devastated most of the world’s economies and took its toll on India too. The country’s GDP growth turned negative for the first time in 40 years and an estimated 122 million workers found themselves without jobs in the ensuing lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had four examples of how his predecessors, when confronted with a negative GDP growth rate in the past—in 1958, 1966, 1973 and 1980—chose to play it safe and desisted from introducing new policy initiatives. Though, to be fair to them, the havoc on the economy then was not as bad as
