Reforms galore since 1991, but execution weak: Ex-RBI governor Bimal Jalan
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According to Jalan, expenditure reforms should be the focus of the government now. The ex-finance secretary also urged the govt to keep fiscal deficit under control.
Governments should make policies, but the execution should be left to private and public sectors, Jalan added.
(This story originally appeared in on Jul 23, 2021)Bimal Jalan, a former Reserve Bank of India governor and ex-finance secretary, has been a key player in reforms unveiled over the years. A veteran policymaker, Jalan says in an interview with TOI that India has introduced enough reforms, and now the focus should be on implementation on the ground. Excerpts:
Lockdowns Donât Just Damage GDP; They Feed The Psychology Of Shortage And Promote HoardingÂ
by R Jagannathan - Apr 23, 2021 05:51 AM
GDP contraction in times of Covid-19.
Snapshot
They feed the latent psychology of shortage and lead to counter-productive hoarding.
Willy-nilly, many state governments are seeing limited or temporary lockdowns (also relabelled as âcurfewsâ this time) as the only way to contain Covid. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Karnataka are already well into it in some form or the other, and even the courts â the Allahabad High Court, for one â seem fascinated with the idea.
Lockdowns are a bad, bad idea, and in order to combat it we must understand why many governments (even in the west) like it. It is particularly true in India, and even more damaging to us when we see lockdowns as the magic bullet.
As the Rich Receive State Patronage, Modi Has Left the Poor to Be Atmanirbhar
Under Modi, the state bears the losses of the rich, with tax concessions and state subsidies. But, working classes have to live through complete doing away of fertiliser subsidies, and petrol and diesel subsidies.
Migrant workers walk with their children to their villages after India announced a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Reuters
Rights15/Mar/2021
Last year on May 12, in the peak of COVID -19-induced lockdown, when the poorest of the poor migrant workers were walking thousands of kilometres to their homes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the insight of an oracle declared that âthe state of the world today teaches us that
View: Some useful economic history lessons on how we manage to handicap ourselves
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View: Some useful economic history lessons on how we manage to handicap ourselvesBy Arvind Panagariya, TOI Contributor
Last Updated: Mar 03, 2021, 10:02 AM IST
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PM Nehru viewed economic self-sufficiency as necessary for the preservation of political freedom. He held that depending on imports for railways, airplanes and guns amounted to being slaves of foreign countries. “Whenever these countries wished they could stop sending these things … we would thus remain slaves.”
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Self-sufficiency required rapid expansion of the economy into a diverse set of products ranging from bicycles to automobiles to railways to airplanes, their components, as well as metals and machinery necessary to manufacture the products and components.
Not Suit-Boot, But Gandhi Topi Has Done Damage To India; Time To Stop Demonising Business
by R Jagannathan - Mar 1, 2021 06:00 AM
Rahul Gandhi. (Qamar Sibtain/India Today Group/Getty Images)
Snapshot
The burden of proof to show that dishonest businesses are behind this government is on the opposition.
It is time they stopped weakening Indian business confidence just when it is about to come good after being tested in the Covid
agnipariksha.
The discovery of an explosives-laden vehicle near the home of Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai should bring some sanity to the mindless demonisation of big business in India. If freelance or small-time terror outfits â a Jaish-ul-Hind has claimed responsibility for the bomb threat â can now act with impunity, it shows how far the demonisation has gone.