Modi’s ‘Thalinomics’ Is a Recipe for a Bad Economy

Indian food, when done right, comes in a thali — a metal plate with half a dozen or more little bowls of vegetables, pickles, and so on. The word of the week in India is “thalinomics”: The government’s official survey of the Indian economy, published a few days ago, introduced the word to talk about how food was getting cheaper for people across the country. But it is now being used to talk about the government’s entire approach to the Indian economy — a little bit of this, a little bit of that, all mixed up together till you are unsure what you’re eating.

What works for food doesn’t quite work when it comes to economic policy. Every year at the end of January the Indian finance minister presents the federal budget, which is not just a statement of revenue and expenditure but also a guide to policy-making in the coming year. Given the intensity of India’s slowdown — six successive quarters of slowing growth, taking it down from almost 8% to 4.5%, a six-year low — all that Indian investors and consumers really wanted from their government at this point was some clarity. What is its plan? How does it intend to reverse the slowdown and raise India’s growth trajectory? By that standard, the only one that matters, the government’s budget — presented on Saturday — was a failure. It tried to do too much, and ended up serving a mismatched platter of competing flavors.