Apart from a few other key issues, Dr. Raghuram Rajan has touched upon the following six major ones with remarkable lucidity: (i) the open bullying of a flagship corporate body, (ii) the distortion of the "economy" in favour of the "big" and to the detriment of the "small", (iii) the deliberate subversion of the "federal" aspect of the obtaining governance structure, (iv) very much in tandem with that, over-centralisation at the Centre itself and its economic cost, (v) the need for a sort of cash transfer scheme in the urban areas, broadly on the lines of the MGNREGA, in order to jack up "demand" so as to give a push to the stuttering "economy" and, finally, (vi) the suicidal short-sighted aloofness of capital vis-a-vis "democracy".
<<[I.] Would the Central government be dubbed anti-national for its alleged poor performance initially on the Covid vaccination front, former RBI governor Dr Raghuram Rajan asked on Tuesday. He was responding to the attack on Infosys by a weekly affiliated to the RSS for the IT firm's supposed inability to fix some glitches on the tax-filing website. A number of private sector firms have in recent months faced the ire of individuals in the government or entities close it, the most recent instance being that of Infosys. ... [II.] He pointed to a shift in the economy: larger, more formal firms are experiencing significantly more profit growth as compared to the smaller firms, even among the listed firms. This, he said, is one reason why the stock market is doing so well. It is also why tax collections are increasing -- GST collections jumped 30 per cent annually to Rs 1.12 lakh crore in August. "We are seeing a forced formalisation of the economy. We haven't supported our small and medium businesses to the extent that other countries have," Dr Rajan said. ... [III.] Besides, the rising revenues aren't being shared with the state governments, Dr Rajan said. "State government finances are in a pretty bad way. The Centre has, sort of, swallowed up a significant part of the revenues through central cesses," he said leading to the issue of federalism. ... [IV.] "India is getting too big to be run exclusively from the Centre. And that too not just from the Centre but from the 'Centre within the Centre'. This kind of over-centralisation holds us back." Decisions, he said, aren't being made until very late. On this front, he cited the example of appointing CEOs of government banks. ... [V.] Referring to the effect of a stuttering economy on people, he pointed to the reported increase in gold loans -- people in India, he said, sell their family gold only when in dire straits -- and the marginal fall in consumption. To alleviate their condition, he recommended cash transfers. Highlighting the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as a cash-transfer scheme of sorts for villages, he said something similar is needed for urban India. ... [VI.] To a question on investors considering the changes in the texture of Indian democracy as a factor in their business decisions, Dr Rajan said businesses usually don't care as long as it doesn't affect them. They realise often late that when a government operates without checks and balances, it affects them eventually, according to him. Arbitrary decisions can then be taken with respect to the businesses, too, he said.>> "Would You Call Government Anti-National?" Raghuram Rajan On RSS Magazine's Barb At Infosys - NDTV https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/raghuram-rajan-on-rss-attack-on-infosys-indias-economic-recovery-states-finances-cash-transfers-2541064?amp=1&akamai-rum=off -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZj15smKjXEpcSxUV9f7843D_RRgYkv5VmxQ4yU_aUu__w%40mail.gmail.com.
