Since 2000-01, annual inflation rate as measured by Wholesale Price Index has averaged below 5 per cent, despite the recent oil price shock. The highest annual inflation, on a point-to-point basis recorded in the new millennium was for 2002-03 (6.5 per cent) when the growth rate was adversely affected due to drought conditions in some parts of the country.
It is this continuous churning, this so-called creative destruction, that has become so essential to the effective deployment of advanced technologies by this country over recent decades. In this regard, drift toward protectionist trade policies, which are always so difficult to reverse, is a much greater threat than is generally understood.