India's economy skids as leaders sleep at the wheel

If there was ever a sign of rudderless leadership and misplaced priorities over economic policy, it was Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's trip to Delhi airport this month to meet yoga guru Swami Ramdev, who was protesting against the government's inaction on graft.

The highly criticised trip, which initially emboldened the guru and then backfired when police tear-gassed his rally three day later, underscored a sense of distracted leaders fruitlessly trying to put out fires.

Critics would have preferred Mukherjee focus more on dealing with a confluence of worrying economic trends - accelerating inflation, declining foreign investment and slower growth and domestic investment - that policy inertia will only make worse.

Asia's third-largest economy is still set to grow around 8 percent this fiscal year, faster than any major economy except China.

However, there are ominous signs, from weaker car sales to a dip in steel imports, that have coincided with global worries that emerging markets could soon hit a financial bump.

Text: Alistair Scrutton, Reuters

Images: PTI/AP/Reuters