November 4, 2019 was a sad day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to walk out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations at the eleventh-hour, admitting that India couldn’t compete with Asia, especially China. It was a big and painful decision as this is no ordinary trade agreement. Had India joined, RCEP would have become the world’s largest free trade area comprising 16 countries, half the world’s population, 40% of global trade and 35% of world’s wealth in the fastest growing area of the world.

Gurgaon was a sleepy backwater with no local government, no industry, no railway line, and impoverished farmers, but in 2012, it has become the epitome of India's rise. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Capitalism has been on the defensive ever since the global financial crisis of 2007-08. Young people in the West have been turning away from the market system because of widening inequality, revulsion against high CEO salaries, and deepening distrust of business. By 2016, half of America between 18 and 29 years of age rejected capitalism in a Harvard study (with one-third supporting socialism.) Two years later, a Gallup poll in 2018 confirmed these findings when only 45% in the same age group expressed a positive opinion of capitalism.

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You never know what is going to turn up at La Mama, but at the very least it will be interesting, and at the most it will be truly exciting. It is fascinating that right now in London a La Mama troupe is getting extremely respectful reviews in the West End. What hope would it have on Broadway?