The food subsidy bill is rising...
26. Sep 2008 01:07, sonu42IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
Today it is of paradigm importance that this rural-urban divide is bridged and that every poor Indian is given the support system to come out of the threshold of poverty not through doling out of money, but through education and health. Yet 60 years after independence and nearly one and a half decade after embracing the economic reforms, caste and religion still remain primary parameters to determine as to who should get support and who should not. This budget continues with the same legacy starting from announcement of opening of 256 branches of public sector banks till December 2007 with pledge of opening 288 more by March end, to the pledge of induction of more minorities in central para-military forces (if the FM meant all minorities including Sikhs, then they already constitute a significant proportion of para-militray forces by tradition), to multi-sectoral development for 90 minority concentration districts, to modernisation of madrassa education. This in addition to thousands of crores being allocated for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Nothing wrong with any of these if one were to mention deprived Indians instead of classifying under SC, ST & minority.
In very few countries the annual ritual of budget creates as much interest as it happens in India because it is assumed that through the budget the government would put forward its vision towards charting a new paradigm. Yet over the years the budget has become more of an appeasement statement than a vision statement. India is crying for a plethora of structural reforms without which its growth story would soon become an illusion. Yet all that the government does is to merely acknowledge it but no one dares to bell the cat. The food subsidy bill is rising even when millions below poverty line continue to remain malnourished and foodgrains in FCI godowns keep rotting for months. The subsidy on LPG cylinders continue to benefit the rich more than the poor and yet no one want to bell the cat. The entire estimate of reducing fiscal deficit is based on the estimate of growth of Indian economy and more tax being paid by India Inc. but nothing in essence is done to help the performers.
Shocking when entrepreneurship is becoming the real catalyst in changing the economy, no directive is being issued to the banks to ease the lending norms for budding entrepreneurs. Rs.60000 crore can be waived for agriculture but for a new entrepreneur to get even Rs.60000 from the banks remain an uphill task. True, quite a few scholarships have been announced to encourage science education but so long as a scientist in government institution continue to get a comparable to that of a team leader in a call center, people would prefer to join the call center than to take the effort of becoming a scientist.
Coming back to where it all began. In the streets of Paris & Helsinki the type of cleanliness one finds, one can find the same in India in private places but not in public places. So, they can afford to write, ‘Say No to Capitalism’. But in our country where public institution remain subservient to the whims of the government, less of government makes better of it. Truly said perhaps that India is doing well in software because there was no Ministry of software. The same could have perhaps been true for agriculture too. If waiving of loan could have solved the problem of poverty & agriculture then by now India would have been the richest country of the world. Next time, how about continuing with the same policy and giving a crore each to every Indian? That might fetch more votes in an election year but would it make India rich? Well if wishes were horses, surely it would have… but would not simply because populism is not socialism.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read these article :-
‘This is one of Big B’s best performances’
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
