India’s Coronavirus Risks Collide With A Sick Economy

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald ... [+] Trump in Biarritz, southwest France on August 26, 2019. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty ImagesThe coronavirus crisis has been a harsh wakeup call for the globe’s most ardent nationalists. In May 2019, when he was sworn in for a second term as prime minister, Modi was riding high on a wave of ebullient public sentiment. Much of that energy reflected an economy many figured was booming by global standards, and one destined to leave China’s in dust in the years ahead. All the spin about Modinomics and “Make in India” project can’t hide the fact Modi isn’t solving big economic problems. In 2014, Modi made a simple pitch to voters: He’d do for India what he’d done in western state of Gujarat, which he ran for 14 years. Voters looked past the Hindu nationalist’s failings—including deadly religious riots on his watch in 2002—and hired him to apply the “ Gujarat model ” more broadly. Fanciful or not, the $3 trillion Modi hopes to spend upgrading airports, roads, bridges, ports, power grids and other infrastructure hardware sounds grand. Indian vendors wearing masks sit idle as they wait for customers, in a deserted market amid ... [+] coronavirus outbreak on March 19, 2020 in New Delhi, India. But his government lost economic momentum at the worst possible moment –as a pandemic grounds airplanes, imperils trade flows and precipitates a global recession (or worse).