As walls go up, a case for open hearts and open economies

Between tariffs and trade deals, 2025 has been a tough year for the global economy. As powerful nations barricaded economic borders and protected their own turf, the notion of an ‘open economy’ finds itself under severe attack. In response, all year long, stories and opinions critiquing or championing India’s growth potential have dominated the news cycle. In 2026, the need to deepen economic buoyancy within the country seems paramount. So, how do we support the health of our economy?

Instead of demonstrating my limited expertise or offering technocratic answers, allow me to draw on Joel Mokyr, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2025. The very first sentence in one of his books reads, “Economic change in all periods depends, more than most economists think, on what people believe…” His work chronicles how a “culture of growth” practised in everyday social interactions—especially amongst a country’s elite—spurs knowledge transfer and innovation in economic activity.

How can our beliefs help create a healthier economy? First, we need to focus on people rather than punditry. All too often, we frame economic health as the domain of expert economists, finance bros, and big business leaders. As policy debates on growth and its catalysts become podcast content, the role of the public in public policy has been diminished to discussing the price of onions during budget or election season. We cannot delegate economic decision making to Important men who write Important Books and run Important Businesses. Us deeply unimportant people need to participate through our everyday actions — inform ourselves better, stand up for workers we employ, make demands of our local politicians.

Second, it is high time that we stopped fetishising growth figures and stock markets in understanding economic health. An economy is not a graph. It’s a living, breathing story of people—their hopes, fears, and everyday struggles. Growth or market valuations are good, but the economy is as good as it feels to each of us. At a time of gnawing uncertainty about job cuts, incomes, air quality, school closures, and flight schedules, the idea of a consolidated economic growth estimate serving as the most popular measure of economic health seems completely disconnected from our everyday experiences, needs or aspirations.

None of us work to maximise the GDP. Most of us engage in the economy because we seek self-respect, dignity, love, pleasure and comfort through our employment and earnings. We need to radically reorient the public conversation on the economy to focus on more vital signals of economic health, those that capture the true story of our economic lives.

For example, a more people-centric conversation on the economy would start asking harder questions: Are wages rising? Do workers feel dignity in their labour? Are we all able to enjoy adequate leisure time?

Finally, it is time that our elite realise how closed the Indian economy remains because of our own close-mindedness. When we discuss the economy, we often blame government and regulations for barriers to opportunity and entrepreneurship. But what about the role we play as employers, colleagues and consumers? Can we regulate our caste or gender biases? Can we offer rewards and recognition to those very different from us? If the top 10% of earners capture 58% of national income, while the bottom 50% receive only 15%, can we reduce our appetite for and acceptance of such deep inequality? Corporate profits have hit a 15-year high, but wages in key sectors barely budged — 0.8% annual growth in engineering and manufacturing, 5.4% in consumer goods, according to a report by FICCI and staffing firm Quess Corp. Can we push for higher pay for vulnerable workers? None of these questions can be answered by policymakers alone.

The worst-paid jobs in India are often those that we need the most. We can certainly do with fewer billionaires — and a smaller set of podcasting philosopher kings from Bengaluru would certainly be welfare enhancing. But, measured through the distribution of salaries in the economy, our current compact seems to insist we can do with fewer well-paid teachers and carers. The rationale to justify this lopsided state of affairs is a theatre of performative technocracy.

While the country has taken a shrill pill, tribalism has also reached our technocracy —with ideological islands of libertarian buddies or leftist comrades or scholars performing rigor exclusively for powerful people they wish to impress. In 2026, one hopes that spaces debating and forging economic policy become more open and inclusive—moving beyond comfortable silos.

Closed hearts close economies. I don’t care if you love or hate ‘Dhurandhar’, I care if we can agree on improving wages. When we hoard opportunity within familiar networks, we shrink the space for new ideas. When we treat success as a zero-sum game, we suffocate collaboration. When we judge everyone for their choices, we stymie the trust needed for a healthy exchange of thoughts and technologies.

The way forward isn’t just policy, it’s norms. Cheer for strangers. Hire beyond your comfort zone. Value care and competition. Choose public service over private status. Pay workers above minimum wage. Calm the zeal to dominate and ‘win’ conversations.

These ideas will sound fuzzy to those who feel exhausted by the brutal hustle of the contemporary economy. But some of us remember the post-liberalisation romance of an opening economy. That romance soured for many without the right surnames and networks, but public action has led to important shifts in the past — be it laws enabling better wages or maternity benefits. Our beliefs and attitudes matter in making markets and shaping economic outcomes. Open minds and open hearts underpin open economies.

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