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It is single Best Idea and a special edition of Single Best Idea. I'll be honest, folks, we're making it up as we go. Lengthy meetings. I mean the meetings they go forever, four minutes, three minutes, seven minutes. What are we going to do on single best Idea? We are making it up as we go. And today we have a special edition where we focus on one treasured guest and he really delivered. He is Rogin Rogen of
the Bus School, Chicago. His book fault Lines is one of the few books of the great financial Crisis is endured. He is one of our great thinkers on community and he has a new book coming out on his India. He's a former head of the Central Bank of India. A new book coming out, Breaking the Mold, which is a primal scream towards a new India. And just as a man, I'm speaking as a complete amateur. Thank you to Lord Desaiath the London School of Economics for schooling me.
But basically there's North India which is modi emotional, conservative, political, religious, and yes, all the same in South India over to Sri Lanka, Ceylon, except that's where the technocratic elites are and think of Sacha Adela coming out of Microsoft on there. So we had a wonderful conversation which we would devote entirely to today with Ragan Rajen of the Bust School, Chicago. Here is the professor on the election, the stunning results so far tempering a Modi certitude.
I think it's a splendid result because it tells the government it needs to change course. The old course was unviable. But I think what is happening today is really, in the long run, really good for India because it forces India to choose a different course from the one it has been on, a course which has led to much wider unemployment and distress than needed in the country. It's actually a win for democracy and that's good for India because what democracy does is it allows the different paths
to essentially express themselves and to negotiate. The problem earlier was India was trending towards a more autocratic country, a country with one leader who was who are a larger than like image, and that unfortunately meant that the BJP leadership wasn't listening, wasn't listening to the economic news on
the ground that people were actually suffering hardship. Wasn't listening to the broader sense that the weaponization of various instruments of the government to put you know, opposition party leaders in jail was simply not jelling and it would have taken India down a court which was ruinous in the longer run. Maybe in the short term benefits to the big, big business groups, and that's why the market is reacting adversely. But I think this is good.
One of the great themes here has been and this is from Professor Rogen and others as well on India, and I thank Derek Wallbank for his commitment out of Singapore driving all of our South Asia coverage at Bloomberg News. Is the similarity the analog exercise of China is compared and like India and all really push against this. And so much of this is because of how demographically they
are so different. Whether it's the latitude above the equator, whether it's climate change, whether it's the politics as Damian Sasauer is talking about today on the northern border. But so much of this is polygot India. Here ragu Rajin on an India of twenty languages.
It's more than that. It's twenty official languages, which means they have enough people speaking it, but there are six hundred additional dialects and languages. It's a vast complicated country and the only way it's unified is through democracy, because democracy allows each community a voice. You talked about twenty twenty six in India, that's when the parliamentary seats get reapportioned, when there will be a move to have new seats in parliament for the more populous areas. That has to
be done by consensus. And what I'm so glad about is that it will be done by consensus because democracy has re established itself in India and they will have to negotiate how that reapportionment helps. So India is more politically stable as a result of this election, is also going to be a greater friend for the democracies of the world.
And you wonder how the US should step out after our election to rebuild and to enhance our relationship with India. Sometimes we have to ask a delicate question and sometimes we get a delicate answer. Ragarajin on public service to the next Modi government.
Well, I think that's an unlikely prospect. You know, my sort of inclination is whenever there's a government I can agree with, I'm happy to work with them. I've always been open with advice. Let's see what happens.
That was a short answer to say the least. But Raga, thank you so much. Ragarajin there, and I just can say in front, I full disclosure. I've seen a pdf of the book coming out Princeton University Press. Ragaraja's next effort is completely devoted to what his India needs to do to prosper forward and decidedly on their own unique path, not like China. We are out on Apple car play, on Android as well on YouTube. I just can't say
enough about the informed live chat on YouTube. Subscribe to Bloomberg Podcast search for Bloomberg Podcast there from New York with this special edition an Apple Podcasts single Best Idea