Deepak Nayar on foreign debt
From Conversation with Deepak Nayyar · · Library of Congress
“We had a short term debt that had built up to 5 billion. We were borrowing $2 billion overnight, every night in international capital markets, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. So it was essentially for a time about crisis management, which looked very close for about a year and a half to a default on international debt obligations.”
On , Deepak Nayar, Senior Vice President & GM of Electronics Business at LITTELFUSE INC, spoke about foreign debt during Conversation with Deepak Nayyar on Library of Congress.
About Deepak Nayar
Deepak Nayyar, Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at the Kluge Center and emeritus professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, participated in a conversation at the Kluge Center on September 17, 2023, titled "A Life in Two Worlds." During the event, Nayyar discussed his role in India's 1991 economic reforms, describing the macroeconomic crisis that preceded them. He stated that the government and country had "lived beyond its means" for a decade and that a crisis was inevitable. Nayyar recounted that the reforms, including a 45% devaluation of the rupee and a budget, were implemented within 30 days, and noted that he wrote a note for the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs because the prime minister and finance minister did not have the authority to approve the devaluation alone. He said his motivation was to avoid a default that would lead to hardships for the poor. Nayyar also criticized the current state of economics, saying its concerns have become "much narrower" due to "analytical abstraction and a technique fetishism." He called for rethinking the orthodox worldview and noted that heterodox economists are being dismissed by the orthodoxy. He identified inequality, climate change, and the state of the world economic and political order as key challenges for the 21st century, observing that economies are in difficult times, politics are polarized, and geopolitical divides are sharper than in decades. He compared the current global situation to the 1920s and 1930s and said that addressing it requires "enlightened political leadership" and international cooperation, which he described as "distant dreams."