Start me up

INDIA’S richest man may also be its most optimistic. On June 6th Mukesh Ambani, the boss of Reliance Industries, addressed an auditorium in Mumbai watched by his glamorous wife in the front row and bodyguards with oiled submachine guns in the wings. India’s economy, he said, was in a funk but his faith was “unshakable”. Soon the country would “trigger a major transformation of the world order”. The audience rose in delight.

Such bullish talk is rare these days. It is a year since markets got jittery about the risk of an economic crisis in India and nine months since the government responded with reforms meant to kick-start growth. Officials, business folk and economists hunting for signs of life have been disappointed. Asia’s third-largest economy expanded by 5% in the year to March, a decadal low and far shy of the 8% its leaders still claim is its potential growth rate.