The solution India's economy wants (Not)

In the annals of economic policy, India has tried everything from fiscal stimulus to monetary tinkering. Yet, the true path out of the crisis it may be facing lies in the most counterintuitive of strategies: producing things nobody wants. Forget demand curves. We need supply-side surrealism on a war footing. Consider the multiplier effect of manufacturing unwanted goods. Factories churning out glow-in-the-dark staplers or mittens in May employ workers, generate wages and spur ancillary industries - packaging, advertising, therapy for confused consumers. Keynesian demand management is replaced by Keynesian bewilderment. People buy not because they need to but because they are incredibly intrigued. Think iPhone, if it didn't serve any function.

This model is immune to recessionary cycles. When demand collapses, the unwanted thrives. No one needed bell bottoms in the 1970s. Yet, they became a booming industry. India could replicate this with, say, transparent umbrellas or pencil-shaped erasers. Economists call this 'creative misallocation'. Resources are deployed inefficiently. But the inefficiency itself creates jobs, taxes, even exports. In a nation where rational planning often stalls, irrational production might just grease the wheels. The prescription is clear: stop making what people (think they) want. Start making what they don't.