Tamil Nadu’s debt comparison with Uttar Pradesh spread a failure vs discipline narrative. But this comparison is heavily misleading. Pooja Prasanna explains why in this week’s Let Me Explain.
After Congress leader Praveen Chakravarthy’s tweet, one economic comparison has gone viral: that Tamil Nadu’s total debt is now higher than Uttar Pradesh’s.
The claim is being used to suggest a simple story: fiscal failure in one state, discipline in the other.
But is that really how numbers are read?
In this episode of Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna puts the debt figures in context. Because debt, by itself, tells us very little. What matters is how large an economy is, how fast it is growing, how much revenue it raises, and what that borrowing is used for.
Produced by Megha Mukundan, Script by Pooja Prasanna, Camera by Ajay R, Edit by Nikhil Sekhar ET, Graphics by Dharini Prabharan
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