Yesterday prime minister of India, Mr. ManMohan Singh in his address to CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) emphasized on ‘inclusive’ nature of the growth. He said “India has made us. We must make Bharat...vulgar display (of wealth) insults the poverty of the less privileged” His assessed that rapidly rising income inequality in India is a source of concern and it may lead to social unrest in the future. I can’t agree with Mr. Singh on this point more. He further said that people with money should not flaunt their wealth and there is a need to limit the executive pay. But somehow I smell political motive and hypocrisy in his statements. He was the best finance minister India ever had and he is fast turning into the worst prime minister India will ever have.
There is no doubt income gap is rising at breath taking speed in India. People who are working in the IT sector are earning unprecedented amount of sum. Whether their pay is unnecessary is not a question here. It’s simple supply and demand graph and right now, Indian IT is in high demand. Secondly, people living in the cities are earning far more than people living in villages. With service sector rising rapidly, it is no brainier that there are more opportunities in the cities than in country side. But even in cities, people with education are earning far more than uneducated. And, uneducated in the cities are earning far more than uneducated people in countryside. But I don’t think we can change wealthy life style of middle class or rich class. Last time I checked India was still a democracy and more ever, with adaptation of western style capitalism it is next to impossible to keep check on people’s life style. I mean, increasing spending and lavish life style is the solid rock on which western style capitalism stands.
I strongly believe that we should adapt any foreign concept according to Indian life style, culture and ethos. So, what Mr. Singh fits well with me but the thing that I don’t understand is that his government failed to do basic stuff that government was supposed to do and now he is asking middle class to curb on their life style. That’s moronic. No wonder that the industry in its report card gave this government mere 30% . The infrastructure work has literally stopped. The road building is going no where. The SEZ’s have become political fire balls. Dismantling of legacy government industries has been stopped. The inflation is going up way more than government statistics suggests. We are heading towards electricity shortage chaos. The security of the country is in jeopardy with recurring bomb blasts across the country. His frivolous affirmative policy is surely going to wreck havoc in coming generations. The list just doesn’t stop.
Indian economy is emerging challenge to China and US. The Indian government should work in tandem with Indian industry and stop foreign domination of Indian markets. In case if Indian industry start using predatory tactics in order to make profits then yes, government should intervene. But right now they are still growing and instead of helping them grow, this government is sabotaging the future of Indian industries. More ever, there is lot of stuff that government is supposed to do and it’s not doing. For example, government should concentrate on providing better primary education, better roads connecting villages to cities and better health care to children. It should work towards betterment of higher education. To believe that five or six IIT’s and IIM’s is going to take India to next century is dumb. If anything, government can ask industries to work towards establishing some sort of business model that will stop constant flow of people from countryside to cities. Or should start something like Gramin Bank to make villages independent of city economies. Dang! This list doesn’t stop either.
Rather than blaming conspicuous consumption of middle class and asking executive to earn less, government should work more actively towards stemming inflation. If Mr. Singh is yapping to gain politically then I am ready to understand his logic but if not then someone needs to tell him that he is an economist!
2 comments:
interesting!
......difference between socialist and a capitalist country, with the left leaning attitude I guess socialism comes as a package deal..
One thing that should be noticed here is that with the incoming capital and high amount of revenue generation, the social structure of cities like banglore, hyderabad has rapidly changed.. Bombay and Delhi which have been business hubs since early days did succumb westernisation slowly as the growth was gradual...
well, the social & cultural fabric of India I feel is more important than anything else albeit economy and needs to keep up with world are equally vital.
Its ineresting to note that u keep such a good tab on the daily happenings in India....which we also fail to notice sometimes. OR...have we learnt to ignore???
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