Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: It is single Best Idea and a special edition of
Speaker 2: Single Best Idea. I'll be honest, folks, we're making it
Speaker 2: up as we go. Lengthy meetings. I mean the meetings
Speaker 2: they go forever, four minutes, three minutes, seven minutes. What
Speaker 2: are we going to do on single best Idea? We
Speaker 2: are making it up as we go. And today we
Speaker 2: have a special edition where we focus on one treasured
Speaker 2: guest and he really delivered. He is Rogin Rogen of
Speaker 2: the Bus School, Chicago. His book fault Lines is one
Speaker 2: of the few books of the great financial Crisis is endured.
Speaker 2: He is one of our great thinkers on community and
Speaker 2: he has a new book coming out on his India.
Speaker 2: He's a former head of the Central Bank of India.
Speaker 2: A new book coming out, Breaking the Mold, which is
Speaker 2: a primal scream towards a new India. And just as
Speaker 2: a man, I'm speaking as a complete amateur. Thank you
Speaker 2: to Lord Desaiath the London School of Economics for schooling me.
Speaker 2: But basically there's North India which is modi emotional, conservative, political, religious,
Speaker 2: and yes, all the same in South India over to
Speaker 2: Sri Lanka, Ceylon, except that's where the technocratic elites are
Speaker 2: and think of Sacha Adela coming out of Microsoft on there.
Speaker 2: So we had a wonderful conversation which we would devote
Speaker 2: entirely to today with Ragan Rajen of the Bust School, Chicago.
Speaker 2: Here is the professor on the election, the stunning results
Speaker 2: so far tempering a Modi certitude.
Speaker 1: I think it's a splendid result because it tells the
Speaker 1: government it needs to change course. The old course was unviable.
Speaker 1: But I think what is happening today is really, in
Speaker 1: the long run, really good for India because it forces
Speaker 1: India to choose a different course from the one it
Speaker 1: has been on, a course which has led to much
Speaker 1: wider unemployment and distress than needed in the country. It's
Speaker 1: actually a win for democracy and that's good for India
Speaker 1: because what democracy does is it allows the different paths
Speaker 1: to essentially express themselves and to negotiate. The problem earlier
Speaker 1: was India was trending towards a more autocratic country, a
Speaker 1: country with one leader who was who are a larger
Speaker 1: than like image, and that unfortunately meant that the BJP
Speaker 1: leadership wasn't listening, wasn't listening to the economic news on
Speaker 1: the ground that people were actually suffering hardship. Wasn't listening
Speaker 1: to the broader sense that the weaponization of various instruments
Speaker 1: of the government to put you know, opposition party leaders
Speaker 1: in jail was simply not jelling and it would have
Speaker 1: taken India down a court which was ruinous in the
Speaker 1: longer run. Maybe in the short term benefits to the big,
Speaker 1: big business groups, and that's why the market is reacting adversely.
Speaker 1: But I think this is good.
Speaker 2: One of the great themes here has been and this
Speaker 2: is from Professor Rogen and others as well on India,
Speaker 2: and I thank Derek Wallbank for his commitment out of
Speaker 2: Singapore driving all of our South Asia coverage at Bloomberg News.
Speaker 2: Is the similarity the analog exercise of China is compared
Speaker 2: and like India and all really push against this. And
Speaker 2: so much of this is because of how demographically they
Speaker 2: are so different. Whether it's the latitude above the equator,
Speaker 2: whether it's climate change, whether it's the politics as Damian
Speaker 2: Sasauer is talking about today on the northern border. But
Speaker 2: so much of this is polygot India. Here ragu Rajin
Speaker 2: on an India of twenty languages.
Speaker 1: It's more than that. It's twenty official languages, which means
Speaker 1: they have enough people speaking it, but there are six
Speaker 1: hundred additional dialects and languages. It's a vast complicated country
Speaker 1: and the only way it's unified is through democracy, because
Speaker 1: democracy allows each community a voice. You talked about twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six in India, that's when the parliamentary seats get reapportioned,
Speaker 1: when there will be a move to have new seats
Speaker 1: in parliament for the more populous areas. That has to
Speaker 1: be done by consensus. And what I'm so glad about
Speaker 1: is that it will be done by consensus because democracy
Speaker 1: has re established itself in India and they will have
Speaker 1: to negotiate how that reapportionment helps. So India is more
Speaker 1: politically stable as a result of this election, is also
Speaker 1: going to be a greater friend for the democracies of
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: And you wonder how the US should step out after
Speaker 2: our election to rebuild and to enhance our relationship with India.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we have to ask a delicate question and sometimes
Speaker 2: we get a delicate answer. Ragarajin on public service to
Speaker 2: the next Modi government.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's an unlikely prospect. You know, my
Speaker 1: sort of inclination is whenever there's a government I can
Speaker 1: agree with, I'm happy to work with them. I've always
Speaker 1: been open with advice. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2: That was a short answer to say the least. But Raga,
Speaker 2: thank you so much. Ragarajin there, and I just can
Speaker 2: say in front, I full disclosure. I've seen a pdf
Speaker 2: of the book coming out Princeton University Press. Ragaraja's next
Speaker 2: effort is completely devoted to what his India needs to
Speaker 2: do to prosper forward and decidedly on their own unique path,
Speaker 2: not like China. We are out on Apple car play,
Speaker 2: on Android as well on YouTube. I just can't say
Speaker 2: enough about the informed live chat on YouTube. Subscribe to
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