Ajay Shah On 4 Pillars Of Industrial Policy, And Why They're All Bad | Ep 8 | Growth Is Good

Ajay Shah, economist extraordinaire and author of the finest primer on public policy in India - 'In Service of the Republic' - believes everything is everything! It's more than just the 'catchy' name of his insightful podcast with Amit Varma. Ajay explained when he joined us for our own humble endeavour - FED Dialogues - that while the phrase is borrowed from Bruce Springsteen, it speaks to a deeper philosophy held by Ajay and Amit. "The whole world adds up to something together. We wanted to give a flavour of that interconnectedness about the world".  His conversation with FED Director Rahul Ahluwalia was a lot like that — everything! They touched on a myriad of topics, from looking at the private sector's flagging appetite for investment to categorising industrial policy into four pillars (and why he's unenthusiastic about all four) to what we can learn and what we must not learn from the China and Japan growth stories.  Watch the full video. Video Chapters (00:00) - Episode Highlights (02:20) - Ajay's personal connect with economic growth (05:10) - What is wrong with India's growth story? (07:50) - Too much central planning and private investment (10:20) - Four pillars of industrial policy (15:03) - Government placing bets with public money (18:37) - "I just want to question the arrogance..." (20:27) - Ethno-nationalism (21:20) - Indian firms vs global firms (30:04) - On Production-linked Incentives (PLI) (39:03) - Competition with China (43:33) - China's macroeconomic collapse (44:00) - Rise of Xi Jinping (59:00) - Story of Japan's growth and perils of industrial policy (1:07:00) - South Korea's unique growth story (1:10:00) - Why exports matter! Subscribe to our newsletter: https://fedev.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3a4e56aeafa412e3509f7836b&id=a1c923f615 Follow FED on Twitter: https://x.com/fedev_india LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/foundation-for-economic-development Video Editor: Aditya Varier