Markets Are Embracing India’s Modi for What He Won’t Do

In late 2013, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. turned optimistic on India after a sharp slowdown in growth, the bank titled its report as, “Modi-fying Our View.” The reference was to Narendra Modi, by then the market’s favorite to become prime minister. As if to prove that investors were right to back him as an agent of change, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party peppered its 2014 poll manifesto with 22 references to “reform.”

Ten years later, very little remains of that zeal. The BJP’s 2024 manifesto still promises to “reform, perform, transform.” But the few specifics it offers on the economy are modest — such as automatic approvals for standard housing designs. Gone are the days when Modi pledged to change everything from inefficient markets in labor and farm produce to entire sectors like banking.