On India’s large farm subsidy bill (more than 4 per cent of GDP), he notes “some progress in trimming these subsidies has been accomplished on the edges,” but “a frontal assault will be difficult considering the leanings of the Congress Party and its twenty-three coalition partners, including the Communists.”

“Manufacturing in India, however, even high-tech, has been hobbled for decades by job-destroying labour laws, a decrepit infrastructure that cannot provide reliable electric power, and roads and rails that inhibit movement of manufactured parts and finished products between plants and markets. Owing to costly labor laws that apply to establishments of 10 or more employees, more than 40 percent of employment in all manufacturing takes place in firms employing five to nine workers. This compares with only 4 percent in Korea,” Greenspan notes, before stressing that for Indian manufacturing to become globally competitive, “a major scrapping of the remaining parts of the license raj,” is required.