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Macro Economy
Sankalp Se Siddhi- the Dr Manmohan Singh’s Way
- Published on 01 February 2025
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(Image Courtesy: archivepmo.nic.in)
Now that the BJP-Congress spat over the cremation ground and memorial for Dr. Manmohan Singh has subsided, it is time to write another facts-based chapter on him as finance minister (FM). ( https://bit.ly/3WY5LQE).
Dr. Singh would remain eternally as India’s Anmol Ratan (priceless diamond), irrespective of the prospects of his being honoured with Bharat Ratana in the near or distant future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi confessed in Lok Sabha on 25th June 2019 that Dr. Singh deserved Bharat Ratana.
In his ‘Reply on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address’, Mr. Modi stated: “Dr. Manmohan Singhji should have received Bharat Ratna award after his first term.”
One can presume he meant Dr. Manmohan as FM. Foreign Exchange crunch or balance of payments (BoP) crisis remained India’s chronic ailment till he took reins of the Finance Ministry on 23rd June 1991.
Dr. Singh resolved this problem that even three popular PMs, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi could not solve, even when they held finance portfolio briefly in their respective tenures.
Same is the story with Mr. Morarji Desai, who served as FM and PM at different points in his political career. All these four leaders shied away from structural reforms even when faced with imminent emptying of foreign exchange reserves.
Unlike Indian polity, multilateral institutions and other entities were quick to recognize & laud Dr. Singh’s success as FM in their documents. The World Bank (WB), for instance, hailed the success of five years of reforms as “economic revolution” in its report dated 8th August 1996.
Don’t let ‘Developed Nation’ Vision Turn into Grand Illusion, Again
- Published on 25 August 2022
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(Image Courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stirred the development cauldron with his clarion call to make India a developed nation. He described the national resolve to be the “Developed India” by 2047 as a “Big Resolution”.
Big it is. But much bigger is the challenge of turning this dream into a reality. And Biggest challenge is to learn from past, failed attempts to break into League of developed nations.
Earlier regimes & law-makers day-dreamt the ‘Developed Nation’ vision periodically since the days of Nehru. This, however, requires a separate, fascinating story.
Now that Mr. Modi has pulled out this Big Idea from graveyard of failures, it is time to give it a serious and determined look. It should be exciting for all Indians in making a fresh attempt at big leap over the next 25 years.
And the best way to do is this to learn from the recent failures and partial successes in dozens of vision documents prepared by Modi Government since May 2014.
World Needs Marshall Plan V.2 to ward off Catastrophe
- Published on 04 May 2022
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Levy Innovative Global Taxes to fund the Plan
Marshall Plan. cartoon Image Courtesy: loc.gov
The world is fighting multiple wars with third world war (WW-III) looming on the horizon. The major battle fronts are 1) galloping debt & resulting risk of sovereign defaults and hike in interest rates; 2) alarming rise in global inflation and risk of socio-political turmoil as exemplified by Sri Lanka and Pakistan, 3) soaring poverty & hunger since the arrival of Covid-19 virus.
According to the World Bank's latest poverty estimates, the combined impact of Covid, inflation & Ukraine crises “will lead to an additional 75 million to 95 million people living in extreme poverty in 2022, compared to pre-pandemic projections”.
As put by a team of WB’s economists in a blog, “If the more pessimistic scenario plays out, 2022 could be the second-worst year in terms of progress made in reducing extreme poverty this century—behind only 2020, when there was an actual increase in global poverty”.
Government money in 'magical' Footnotes - Truth lies hidden here
- Published on 22 December 2021
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( Image Courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)
“If it is government money, then why should I care? This thinking had become the biggest obstacle in the balanced and all-round development of the country” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11th December 2021.
Mr. Modi made this apt & valuable observation while claiming that this thinking kept hanging Saryu Nahar National Project in Uttar Pradesh for decades. “We have done more work in the Saryu canal project than what was done in 5 decades in less than 5 years. This is a double engine government. This is the speed of work of the double engine government, our priority is to finish the project on time,” he added.
Hard facts about this three-phase projects, not mentioned by PM, would convey a different image from the political spin that he gave to Saryu Nahar. This is, however, a separate cup of tea.
We would, thus, here focus on the indifferent thinking about the government money. It is still raging like Covid-19 and its variants across the country. And it is happening right under the nose of powers that be.
Macro Economy