Bailout. A term which till recently was alien to India.
It was something the West did, to save their big financial institutions which had grown too big too fast and had squandered their cash positions while betting on complex instruments that even they did not fully understand.
India, and largely Asia, was rather different. We were the growth engines of the world. The Asian giants would prevent the global meltdown from getting worse and would reverse it eventually, or so went the perception.
Three years on and as the Greek crisis looms, the major Asian economies and their counterparts from around the world are still pondering on how to prevent the problems in Europe from spreading worldwide.
India, meanwhile, is facing economic and policy conundrums of its own.
From record prices of fuel, food and other essential commodities and multiple rate raises by the central bank, to a growth slowdown and a government struggling to meet its deficit targets.
Bailouts may now become a reality for Asia’s third largest economy in the post-Lehman world. The most prominent example which comes to mind is of course that of the troubled national carrier, Air India.
