Democracy under siege
Dushyant Dave | Senior advocate, Supreme Court of India
The Hindu
Dave writes that the making of India’s Constitution, a ‘sacred text’, was a result of huge sacrifices made by countless Indians. Instead of its spirit being protected, it is now slowly withering away as ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ are being pushed aside to champion a new kind of sovereignty.
Owing to a lack of ‘constitutionalism’, there are no longer checks and balances to legislative, judicial and executive powers. The judiciary — the Supreme Court of India — is supposed to be ‘custodian of fundamental rights’ of our citizens. It has previously held that “there are no unreviewable discretions under the constitutional dispensation”, and has often invoked Article 21, the “protection of life and personal liberty”. But in the case of Kashmir, it is overlooking how the liberties of Kashmiri citizens are being taken away.
B.R. Ambedkar had warned, “Because I feel, however good a Constitution may be it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called upon to work it, happen to be a bad lot.” His words might have come true, warns Dave.
The new definition of success
Ruchir Sharma | Global investor, author
The Times of India
Sharma writes that every year in the past decade, the world is hit by “slumping economic growth”, which explains last week’s reports that trade wars are causing growth to plummet. Ever since countries “turned inward” after the economic crisis in 2008, world economy has struggled to grow amidst “deglobalisation of trade, depopulation as labour forces shrink, declining productivity, and a debt burden”.
No major country is witnessing growth the way it was last decade and major economies are on the brink of recession. Hence, we need to change our definition of economic success and failure. Measures like per capita income growth are better indicators of “satisfaction and contentment”. Countries with shrinking populations continue to grow if their economy shrinks less than their population, as can be seen with Japan and Germany.
There is a need to move away from aspirations of “double-digit” growth rates. Panic at China’s 6 per cent growth needs to be put into perspective as few economies are growing as fast. For a US, 3-4 per cent is now successful growth, and for India 5 per cent is the new 7 per cent.
Redefining these ideas of success and failure could “make the world a calmer place”, concludes Sharma.
Data is wealth. India must protect it
Brahma Chellaney | Strategic thinker, public intellectual and analyst of international geostrategic trends
Hindustan Times
Comparing data to oil, Chellaney writes that data today is now the “most valuable resource in the world”. The processing and storage of data is a matter of national and international security. The world’s “data economy” is controlled by tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, and data collected is part of surveillance systems that can reveal more than what government surveillance can.
The internet is an “oligopoly”, not a competitive free-market. India’s Personal Data Protection Bill, which wants to “take data back from the global behemoths by granting Indians protection rights and mandating local storage”, is important for the country. But the US government and tech giants are strongly against this, and are threatening to forge a “Section 301” investigation against India over this.
The bill was stalled in Parliament to accommodate changes that would “satisfy the US”. But international corporations should not be allowed to influence our legislation. “Data imperialism could have serious, lasting consequences”, concludes Chellaney.
It Takes Many
Rajat Kathuria | Director & chief executive, ICRIER
The Indian Express
Ordinarily India and China might have been happy that their “developing nations” status had been lifted, but Donald Trump’s insistence that the countries were “misusing” the tag and “profiting from its privileges” has made it harder to digest, writes Kathuria. Trump blaming the WTO for this “lapse” along with threats to leave the forum have caused trade economists to question whether the WTO is “worth saving”.
Evaluating WTO’s successes, Kathuria writes that huge changes have taken place the world over since it began in 1995. Internet usage has increased exponentially, trade in goods has multiplied, import tariffs have reduced and WTO regulates more than 98 per cent of global trade flows among its members.
Many believed the US-China trade conflict that started in 2018 would be temporary. But the US used “Super-301” legislation accusing certain countries of unfair trade, threatening them with higher tariffs. Now countries like China and India are unlikely to negotiate. “Burden-sharing” and not “altruism among big plays” will be paramount, thus the WTO will still be integral to “global trade governance”, concludes Kathuria.
Development dilemmas, at home and abroad
Arunabha Ghosh | CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water
Business Standard
Ghosh writes that India faces a “seeming[ly] impossible trinity of jobs, growth and sustainability, where at best two out of three objectives get fulfilled”. As an example, he writes that solar parks get a lot of international investments but do not create the same number of jobs as distributed energy infrastructure. Apart from that, he writes, the world is also facing various natural, economic, technological and geopolitical disruptions which along with this trinity raise some major concerns.
For instance, he argues that because of the US-China trade war, international trade will not contribute much to India’s growth, and thus, India needs to rely on its domestic economy to create jobs. Similarly, he suggests that India’s infrastructure investments along coastal areas are at risk due to climate change. Climate change can lead to the next financial crisis, and central banks need to pay attention.
Focus on quality of jobs being created – here’s how
Rajani Sinha | Corporate economist
The Financial Express
Sinha writes that India not only needs a large number of jobs every year, but also quality jobs. She mentions that a major proportion of India’s workforce is employed in jobs with low productivity which leads to low incomes. The rural agricultural sector has very low productivity and even though a shift now seems to be taking place, most of it is to the construction sector whose productivity is only marginally better. She suggests that a push should be made to promote agriculture allied sectors like horticulture and livestock which have higher productivity.
India’s manufacturing focus should also expand from just capital intensive industries to labour intensive industries like textiles, leather, gems and jewellery. India needs to improve its education system to make it more suitable for job requirements, concludes Sinha.
Not All Gloom’n’Doom
Arup Mitra | Professor, South Asian University, New Delhi
Jitender Singh | Member, Indian Economic Service
The Economic Times
Mitra and Singh write that while India does face an unemployment problem, not everything is “gloom and doom”. Increased migration opportunities for the educated and drop-outs have increased remittance flows which have probably reduced incentives for the non-migrant population to join low-productivity jobs. Within the informal sector as well, some jobs are “now fetching higher earnings” and “given the well-knitted support structure, a desperation to strive hard is on the decline”. There is an association between the unemployment rate and educational attainments.
The share of the informal sector in total employment has reduced. “The rise in the unemployment rate, when seen in this context, could suggest reduction in the desperation of workers to join the informal sector, keeping the open unemployment rate low,” the two write.
Suggestions to rescue India from a structural slowdown
Anantha Nageswaran | Dean, IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University
Mint
Anantha Nageswaran writes that India’s current slowdown is “cyclical-structural or largely structural”. India has “not been able to sustain high growth rates for more than three years at a stretch, post-1991”. Lower global economic growth post-2008 has also affected developing countries and now “it is time for India to accept the challenge”.
Privatisation can happen only slowly because of certain economic and political constraints. Therefore, the government should give “long-term leases for its land holdings, perhaps 99-year leases, like Singapore does”. Nageswaran also recommends “devolution to and empowerment of local administrations”.
If Bharat follows pure free market capitalism, double digit growth would certainly be achievable.