Do it yourself

Addressing the Student’s Union of London School of Economics and Political Science in 1923, Bertrand Russell said, “One of the peculiarities of the English-speaking world is its immense interest and belief in political parties. A very large percentage of English-speaking people really believe that the ills from which they suffer would be cured if a certain political party were in power. That is a reason for the swing of the pendulum. A man votes for one party and remains miserable; he concludes that it is the other party that was to bring the millennium. By the time he is disenchanted with all parties, he is an old man on the verge of death; his sons retain the belief of his youth, and the see-saw goes on.” After more than 100 years, his words not only remain true, but also equally applicable to the democracies which are not English speaking; Indian subcontinent being a classical case in point. In the past 75 years, the citizens of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal ha...

“Policy paralysis” of the preceding Dr Manmohan Singh led UPA government was one of the main planks of PM Modi’s election campaign in 2013-2014. The business community, middle classes, and poor, all were convinced that the UPA government suffers from a severe degree of inertia in policymaking and is therefore responsible for the poor growth of the Indian economy. It was alleged that large-scale and blatant corruption, nepotism (lack of meritocracy), and weak leadership are the primary reasons for the “policy paralysis” and poor execution. The campaign against the incumbent government was so effective that it swayed the big industrialists and SMEs which directly benefited from the government’s developmental efforts; the poor who benefited tremendously from the transformative social initiatives; and the middle classes who were protected from any potential collateral damage from the global financial crisis and events in its aftermath, against the government. In their disappointment wi...

Last month the incumbent NDA government completed nine years in power with BJP having full majority in the Lok Sabha on its own. In the 2014 general election, it was after three decades (post the landslide win of the Congress party led by Rajiv Gandhi in 1984) that a single party (BJP) had secured over half the seats in the Lok Sabha. Obviously, the people had great hopes from the new government that has won their confidence on the promises of a corruption free regime with equal opportunities   (Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas). For the 5years (2014-2019) the Indian economy (Real GDP) grew at a CAGR of ~7.4%, slightly better than the CAGR of ~7.1% during the previous five-year term (2009-2014). In 2019, the BJP returned to power with an even larger majority. During the first four years of the current term, the Indian economy has grown at a CAGR of 3.1%, the slowest pace of growth achieved by any government in the post liberalization (1991) era. The best growth trajectory was seen during UP...

Last week, I mentioned that unemployment in India is a multidimensional problem and it would require a multipronged strategy. The traditional “industrialization” strategy may not yield much significant results in the modern Indian context as the industries are now mostly capital and technology intensive and offer significantly lower opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, which form a large part of the Indian workforce. Implementing the traditional Keynesian model of creating employment through public spending is also challenging due to stressed fiscal conditions, focus on privatization of public enterprises, and diminishing labour intensity of construction activity. In the past fifteen years MNREGA (Rural capacity building) and PMGSY (Rural roads to improve accessibility) have been extremely successful in generating rural employment. These two schemes have not only supported the rural economy during the period of stress, but also created much useful capacities in the r...

The government finally released the broad contours of New Education Policy. The last such policy was formulated 34years ago in 1986. Since then the socio-economic and technology context have completely changed. We are perhaps 25years late in effecting the necessary changes in our education, training and skill development system. Nonetheless, the new policy proposal is a strong positive move and needs to be welcome. In fact, it is arguably the best thing that has happened to India since MNREGA and RTE were implemented more than a decade ago. The new policy is a "reform" in true sense, as it aims to change the status quo materially. The new proposals mark significant departures from the extant methods & practices of teaching, curricula, learning objectives, assessment procedures, regulatory framework, and other related aspects of the education system. The strong emphasis on accessibility & affordability, vocational training, value system, ethical orientation, natio...

Continuing from yesterday ( see here ) Before planning for any reform in the India's form sector, it is critical to understand the key characteristics of the India's farm sector. To be successful, any strategy, plan, policies and programs must be in congruence with such characteristics. Unfortunately, most of the policy initiatives and programs implemented in past couple of decades have not been congruent with the characteristics of the farm sector. The following are some of the typical characteristics of the India's farm sector which have been hindering the growth and profitability of the sector and large proportion of population associated with the farming and allied activities. Farm sector of India As per the 6th Economic Census (2014) and Agriculture Census of India (2017), and NSSO (2013) data the following are the broad contours of the farm sector of India: Non-farm activities 1.     There are about 3.5cr rural commercial (no...