The extension of single party rule in India is now clearly off our radar. The 2019 general elections will be won on the strength of alliances. Obviously, the ruling party will need to reboot its strategy while the opposition suddenly seems to have begun its preparation earlier.
As investors, we need not make much of these developments. What really matters is that the last five years have been slower growth years, with better macros, more structural reforms, better banking systems, and a growing equity culture.
The next five years will see a new approach from the government to all asset classes which investors bet upon. The RERA will have stabilised, GST will keep getting fine-tuned, and delivery mechanisms of welfare schemes will only get better. As an economy, we will transition rapidly towards new paradigms in automobiles, pharma, digitization of the economy, growing farm income, and raising production in all spheres. Broadly, this has happened over the past two decades and should continue to happen over the coming five years at a steady pace.
This clearly means that India will continue to be among the top three best performing economies in the world. Contrast this with the pessimism we hear everyday around us. What we need to remember is that the manufacturers of pessimism are not the people who grow our economy and invest in it. As an investor, we should know to filter out the noise, list the facts that count, and make assessments that are our own.
The coming year will certainly create a very wide divide between those who make the effort to think clearly beyond the noise and those who don’t. There can’t be a better time for the diligent investor.