In a recent remark, Amit Mitra, the finance minister of West Bengal, claimed that 35,000 high-net-worth individuals had left India during 2014-2020. The claim is that in terms of this exodus, India ranks first in the world. India, however, ranks sixth in the number of millionaires and billionaires — 330,000 with net assets over USD 1 million and 120 with net assets of over $1 billion. According to Mr Mitra, one possible reason for this flight of entrepreneurs is the fear psychosis that has increasingly gripped the nation during the rule of the National Democratic Alliance. A few weeks back, a Union cabinet minister stated in public that the business practices of some Indian companies were not in the national interest. This was a strong and sweeping claim that would not make any business owner or manager either happy or proud. Worse, there was no rebuttal or even a qualifying comment from the prime minister. There is also the discernible trend of using tax authorities and other Central agencies against business houses and even well-known individuals. In most of these cases, the charges are seemingly flimsy or unsubstantial since it takes enormous time for the authorities to frame charges and bring the cases to court. It is argued that the most preferred destinations of those who left the nation were the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. It is clear that Indian capital is not looking for new opportunities in emerging markets, but competing in well-established, mature market economies.

Mr Mitra has called for a white paper on the matter to be placed in Parliament. It is important to know why this has happened and exactly to what extent. It sends a poor signal about the state of doing business in India to the rest of the world. The World Bank’s ease of doing business index showed an improvement for India, which moved sharply from a rank of 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019. Even this ranking has come under the scanner with the World Bank suspending further publications of this report pending inquiries into irregularities regarding data quality and some ethical issues involving its staff members. Indeed, after discounting the jump in ranking, what has now emerged is the disquieting prospect of the flight of capital under the present regime. Meanwhile, the Central government continues with a fuzzy set of economic policies and maintains an uncanny silence on serious economic issues.