"It is the
knowledge that all men have weaknesses and that many have vices that makes
government necessary."
—James Monroe (American President, 1758-1831)
Word
for the day
Minatory (adj)
Menacing; threatening.
Malice
towards none
As per the latest
Cleanliness rankings, MP emerges as the cleanest state in the country and the
neighboring UP as the dirtiest.
First random
thought this morning
Sometime I wonder whether we live in a democratic country
or feudal village.
National media prominently shows, as a novelty, how the
president of ruling party and vice president of principle opposition party eat
food with poor people. Prime Minister visits temple, of course as a VVIP, but
takes off his shoes himself. CM of a large state himself performs Kanya Pujan
during Navratri. All events are reported as hallmark of the benevolence and
humility of leaders.
A different view is to see how a minister gets out of his
office. The driver brings the car 20minutes early, runs the AC to cool it. One
person carries the briefcase and files. One person runs and holds the gate of
lift so that minister does not have to wait. Some ministers like someone to
hold their mobile phone too. This is true even for most of the Hawai Chappal
wearing Delhi ministers.
Shed the colonial past
India became an independent political union 70years
ago. However, it continues to remain far from becoming an economic and social
union till date.
In past two decades, some notable
efforts have been initiated to make India a strong economic union. The most
pertinent being development of golden quadrilateral of national highways,
development of dedicated freight corridors, a uniform goods and services tax,
and more recently proposal to develop a national market for agriculture
produce.
Many efforts have been made to
promote cross state investments through tax concessions, e.g., tax holidays for
setting up new industry in industrially backward areas, subsidies for new units
in SEZ, Agro processing zones, Software Technology Parks, to reduce regional
inequalities.
So far, these initiatives have
brought some incremental changes in the direction and trajectory of economic
growth. These measures are usually found inadequate in bringing any structural
change in the economy, something we need desperately at this point in time of
history. It remains to be seen whether GST will bridge the inequalities of
widen these.
The economic model adopted post
independence era, which was mostly an extension of the exploitive colonial
model used by British Empire, has promoted inequalities, injustice and
unsustainability. This is the economic paradigm we need to change by
instituting fundamental reforms. Improving efficiency of the extant system is
just not sufficient.
It is pertinent to take note some
basic data points, before I extend my argument any further.
(a) The four largest populated states, viz., UP, Bihar, MP and West
Bengal are amongst the poorest ones. These four states account for almost 40%
of total population of India. Whereas their contribution to India's total GDP
is just ~20%. The annual revenue gap (the difference between the revenue earned
and revenue expenditure) for these states is much higher than the national
averages. Bihar earns just 31% of its revenue expenditure requirement; UP 51%;
MP 46% and West Bengal 45%.
(b) The four richest states in India, viz., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,
Gujarat and Karnataka account for less than 25% the total population; whereas
their contribution to national GDP is over 40%. Maharashtra (72%), Tamil Nadu
(79%), and Gujarat (75%) are able to cover their revenue expenditure much
better.
(c) Five top states Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh account for close to 70% of total exports from India. Whereas
the resource rich states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha,
Punjab etc. lagged much behind.
(d) The economic inequalities are fully reflected in the social
parameters like child mortality, literacy, women health, availability of
drinking water and sanitation also.
The point is if we keep more than
50% of the population just at the sustenance level, how do we create enough
demand to grow faster and higher! ....to continue next week
Read with the following
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