'And so, despite demonetisation, people in business feel safe with Mr Modi,' points out T N Ninan.
Change will have to begin with Mr Modi, who by all accounts has shown little active interest in macro-economic issues, preferring instead to focus on the effective implementation of projects and programmes, points out T N Ninan.
For the group's top firms, return on net worth is now 27 per cent, compared with 17 a decade ago.
'The Budget will have to be substantially re-cast as soon as a new government takes charge after the elections.' 'Both revenue and expenditure numbers will have to be trimmed -- and then may better reflect the deceleration of economic activity caused by slowing consumption trends,' points out T N Ninan.
Niti Aayog's plan to create a 'New India' in less than four years should invite scepticism, argues T N Ninan.
'Persisting with the inequalities, indeed seeing them get worse, is no one's prescription for national unity,' notes T N Ninan.
'Will Mr Jaitley listen, or is that expecting too much in pre-election season?' asks T N Ninan.
'No matter how many government schemes there are for the poor, the system works more for the privileged, less for the little guy,' notes T N Ninan.
'Once we are past this electoral season, during which all promises are presented as free lunches, could we bring such non-populist issues into focus?' 'Like fixing the problems of the public sector?' points out T N Ninan.
'Course correction today would be good politics and also good economics,' notes T N Ninan.
Whatever the claims about the new GDP numbers being technically superior to earlier estimates, their public credibility depends on their passing some reality checks, argues T N Ninan.
'Though the prime minister has talked somewhat needlessly of pilot projects and the real stuff to come, India cannot be sure of a clean victory in any full-fledged conflict -- even if there is reason to engage in such,' points out T N Ninan.
Who is to take their place? Will a new generation of entrepreneurs start up with better business sense, or at least better luck? But the so-called unicorns are mostly copy-cat entrepreneurs whose cash flow is funded by overseas (including Chinese) money, notes T N Ninan.
'If he were to ask me, I would tell Mr Modi that the real Congress legacy he has to undo is not Nehru's social and political philosophy -- which fits India perfectly -- but his daughter's economic philosophy,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'Should you give a man fish, or teach him how to fish?' 'Lurking hidden in the new bout of welfarism seems to be an admission that the State can't deliver for the poor anything other than cash,' notes T N Ninan.
'Unless cash has ceased to be king, the issue is the same in the aviation, telecom and ecommerce sectors: Sustainability,' notes T N Ninan.
The cartoonist fraternity of the country on Monday mourned the death of R K Laxman calling him the 'original god of cartooning' and an 'institution'.
'Even if the Congress bags two of the three heartland states in the assembly round, the BJP may still get the majority of Lok Sabha seats in these states,' predicts T N Ninan.
'A sustainable growth rate of 8 per cent is evidently some distance away,' says T N Ninan.
'Coalition governments, sometimes assumed to mean years of political instability, actually saw key institutions emerging with greater strength -- the Election Commission, the judiciary, the press, and civil society at large, among others.' 'The question now is whether the clock is being turned back in a new political phase,' asks T N Ninan.
'If the RBI board forces the management's hand on all the key issues, it should be prepared for resignations by the governor and the key deputy governor, Viral Acharya,' warns T N Ninan.
How much are others responsible for the Trump presidency moving in the directions it has, asks T N Ninan.
'The failures of private businessmen have set back the process of market-oriented reform, though that is the only way forward,' argues T N Ninan.
'The rupee has lost value against all other major Asian currencies, including that of Bangladesh and, of course, China.' 'Why should this be the case when the Indian economy has been growing faster than these economies, other than China?'
'All but one of the previous oil shocks brought either a change of government or a political crisis.' 'Is the government braced for stormy weather?' asks T N Ninan.
'You look with hope at a politician who comes along and promises to change all that: 10 million new jobs every year, no need to touch someone's feet to get an introduction to an employer. And fix the corrupt guys who have made the system what it is.' 'But five years later, the reality has changed little or not at all,' says T N Ninan.
'The middle class you can hurt anytime. For revenues, politics, pleasure, anything,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'As he goes down, he will almost certainly drag a few others down with him.' 'Once the mutual mudslinging has died down, collateral damage will probably include more bankers than politicians, given the nature of how things work in India,' says T N Ninan.
'India has jackboot laws legislated by all parties, a State prepared to stomp all over you, and citizens who don't often realise how easily they can be crushed under both,' says T N Ninan.
'Nationalism built on divisiveness cannot strengthen the country, or help the economy improve its performance,' points out T N Ninan.
'The air force continues to be short of planes.' 'So, more than a decade after the last selection round got under way, the same process is about to start again for the same kind of aircraft, naturally with the same likely bidders,' points out T N Ninan.
'We are not talking pennies. The milk business is as large as the automobile industry (about Rs 4 trillion in sales),' points out T N Ninan.
'2019 now looks like a real contest.' 'It will not be a repeat of 2014 if the BJP has to deal with erosion of its already low vote share of 31 per cent, and also faces a united Opposition,' says T N Ninan.
'Else they will form a growing 'hospital sector' -- and the taxpayer will be asked to pick up a mounting bill,' warns T N Ninan.
The boom in organised retail will set the tone for major economic overhaul. The ripple effect will be improved supply chains, volume output, integration into global commerce, and higher tax collection, notes T N Ninan.
'We are moving away from the Modi promise of less government,' says T N Ninan.
While the BJP has taken a beating, its leader still stands tall, points out T N Ninan.
Maruti, which is majority owned by Suzuki Motors of Japan, pays massive tax, generates huge employment (its staff are almost entirely Indians) and also makes its investors extremely rich. JLR, on the other hand, though owned by Tata has its factories in England and China and in every way (sales, employment, technology) has nothing Indian about it.
'The government must find worthwhile private owners for some of the banks, increase the share of private sector banking in the system, and then ask the remaining government banks to face the discipline of the market and compete, or shrink into irrelevance,' says T N Ninan.
"We are appalled to notice the recent trend in this state to sensationalise every case of inter-religious marriage as either 'love jihad' or 'ghar wapsi' even if there was platonic love between the spouses before," the court said.
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