Economy challenge: PM Narendra Modi’s search for talent

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The overhaul of the Union cabinet comes at a trying hour in the history of independent India. A number of economic challenges confront the nation, each of which by itself can cause major headache to policymakers. Unemployment, inflation, slide in GST collection, lack of aggregate demand, sustaining welfare programmes in the face of revenue shortages – the bouquet is intimidating.

To prepare for the post-Covid recovery, Modi has picked a younger team that is high on fresh talent and exposure. Several new faces who have been entrusted with responsibilities of different ministries have glittering profiles. For example, Ashwini Vaishnaw who has been entrusted with railways and IT, ministries with a more-than-a-minor bearing on the economic fortunes of the country, is an MTech from IIT Kanpur and did his MBA from Wharton, one of the top management schools of the world. He has also worked for General Electric and Siemens. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MoS electronics and information technology as well as skill development and entrepreneurship, was not only an entrepreneur himself but also is an MTech in computer science from Illinois Institute of Technology and has attended a management course from Harvard University. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has been put in charge of civil aviation, has a graduate degree from Harvard University and a management degree from Stanford. The MoS education has a PhD.

To help her with steering the economy out of the pandemic, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has got two deputies and one of them B K Karad has super-specialsed degrees in surgery. It appears that Narendra Modi has put emphasis on talent in selecting faces for ministries that would influence the economic future of the country.

If the Prime Minister has settled for fresh faces high on the talent quotient, the people can rightfully expect that the government can rise up to the gargantuan challenge it faces on the economy front.