The plan has left economists wondering how this would be rolled out without breaching the budget deficit goal of 3.4% of GDP for the fiscal year starting April.
If no effort is made to consider how a minimum income guarantee is financed, then the expenditure would lead to cuts in public investment & higher borrowing.
India’s foreign policy today is driven less by Western alignment or global liberalism and more by domestic political imperatives — economic, ideological, and electoral.
Electronics—specifically smartphones—& energy & pharma products make up 30% of Indian exports to US. 25% tariff on India came into effect Thursday, extra 25% to kick in by August-end.
In short, idea is good but is not implementable in the manner it is conceived at the grandiose scale. Indians like miracle makers and magic wand solutions. The truth is that Rahul Gandhi knows NYAY is not doable, but he is not bothered. All he wants is votes, so that the Congress will have an outside chance of forming a government. Even if it doesn’t, the Congress will survive and so will the dynasty. Rahul Gandhi can have another chance in 2024, or may be even earlier than that if it is a hung Lok Sabha.
My only concern is : How will the economy pay for it ? There are concerns about how the beneficiaries will be identified, the inevitable fear of malpractices. Woh sab theek hai, sulajh jayega. On equity – or the column’s fear that it will erode the incentive to work – I would say the bottom fifty per cent of Indian families fully deserve to get six thousand rupees per month. Some of it may be spent on booze – again a stereotype – but most of it will pay for food, education, healthcare. It is just that the fisc cannot afford this splurge. 2. When Dr Rajan – who is now wearing his ambition to be FM on his sleeve – lacks the intellectual integrity / courage to point out that this scheme will wreck the fisc, don’t expect the family’s professional courtiers to speak truth to power. So they will trot out the explanations / justifications – this will be rolled out in phases, we will bring back high growth to pay for it, so much money being spent by the poor will boost the economy, etc etc. 3. Two things we should fear. The return of inflation. And a scrabble for resources, which starve other deserving claimants like education and healthcare, apart from tax gouging.
In short, idea is good but is not implementable in the manner it is conceived at the grandiose scale. Indians like miracle makers and magic wand solutions. The truth is that Rahul Gandhi knows NYAY is not doable, but he is not bothered. All he wants is votes, so that the Congress will have an outside chance of forming a government. Even if it doesn’t, the Congress will survive and so will the dynasty. Rahul Gandhi can have another chance in 2024, or may be even earlier than that if it is a hung Lok Sabha.
My only concern is : How will the economy pay for it ? There are concerns about how the beneficiaries will be identified, the inevitable fear of malpractices. Woh sab theek hai, sulajh jayega. On equity – or the column’s fear that it will erode the incentive to work – I would say the bottom fifty per cent of Indian families fully deserve to get six thousand rupees per month. Some of it may be spent on booze – again a stereotype – but most of it will pay for food, education, healthcare. It is just that the fisc cannot afford this splurge. 2. When Dr Rajan – who is now wearing his ambition to be FM on his sleeve – lacks the intellectual integrity / courage to point out that this scheme will wreck the fisc, don’t expect the family’s professional courtiers to speak truth to power. So they will trot out the explanations / justifications – this will be rolled out in phases, we will bring back high growth to pay for it, so much money being spent by the poor will boost the economy, etc etc. 3. Two things we should fear. The return of inflation. And a scrabble for resources, which starve other deserving claimants like education and healthcare, apart from tax gouging.