THE HINDU grants generous editorial space to “Princeton Professor. Mody” to make Tom Thumb seem like Godzilla!

I am not convinced this Editorial published in today’s The Hindu is any great macro-economic insight. It is however very timely of course. 

It is a stern reminder to the banking sector of course on prudent lending norms and practices. 

More importantly, it is a a timely and cautionary warning to households and families (lower and middle classes) not to rush headlong into debt driven by aspirational adrenaline coursing through their veins. It is simply a call again for traditional and conservative Indian family values of frugality. 

This Princeton University PhD economist (a professor who has the distinction of sharing a surname with our PM)  is merely repeating what my grandparents and parents had always taught me in life: Live well always but never live beyond your means.

So, I for one am willing to accept this editorial being a sincere homily addressed to millions of “aspirational”  households and families of India today … But I won’t elevate it to the status of a prescient indicator of the gravity of the debt situation of the Indian economy. If I did give it that status, I would be putting up with this Mody from Princeton trying to make it sound as though a molehill has already grown into a mountain, or Tom Thumb is Godzilla. 

Sudarshan Madabushi