Milestone Maharashtra
Ashutosh Varshney | Professor, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University
The Indian Express
Varshney highlights “two different dimensions” to the political events in Maharashtra ahead of the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government formation last month.
Firstly, no political observer can deny the “towering significance of the state”. As long as “politics and business remain deeply intertwined”, to rule over Maharashtra would mean an “enormous hold over Mumbai’s financial clout”, he writes.
Secondly, Varshney questions the ideological significance behind the emergence of a Shiv Sena-Congress alliance. While the “Shiv Sena is strongly ideological, associated with an anti-Muslim stance… the Congress… is irreducibly multireligious”.
According to Varshney, the “disintegration of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is driven by two characteristics of the Modi era”. First, “having two champions of the anti-Muslim platform has run into decreasing returns for the Sena, while hugely benefitting the BJP”. Second, the economic crisis “is beginning to provide anti-BJP opportunity, at least at the state level”. Meanwhile for the Congress, “the logic of Modi’s politics has also provided an unexpected opening” in an important state and it would be “foolish” to let go.
Varshney maintains that if Shiv Sena “wishes to remain in power for the foreseeable future, it can’t return to full-blooded Hindutva”.
Pawar-ing up Maharashtra’s agri policy
Ashok Gulati | Infosys chair professor of economics
Shyma Jose | Research associate, ICRIER
The Financial Express
In their piece, Gulati and Jose suggest ways to the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition to revamp Maharahstra’s agricultural policy and make it a “lighthouse for many other states of India”. Given that 41 per cent of Indian farmers’ suicides in 2016 happened in Maharashtra, uplifting this sector of society is paramount, they write.
First, the issue of irrigation and water use management, currently at “alarmingly high capital cost[s]”, need to be addressed. Gulati and Jose suggest water-guzzling crops like sugarcane be brought under drip irrigation as it can save almost 50 per cent of irrigation water. This extra water can be channeled to other crops, “especially cotton, and fruits and vegetables, where value generation per drop of water can be very high”.
Second, there needs to be more organised value chains when it comes to agri-commodities. Linking farmers’ producer organisations to export markets, contract farming and opening land lease markets can bring “farm to fork”, add the authors.
Will the MSME credit rating system work?
B. Yerram Raju | Economist and risk-management specialist
The Hindu Business Line
Raju points out the drawbacks in the Modi government’s proposed rating of MSMEs. The proposal has suggested two parameters for rating — “prompt repayments and GST payments”.
Credit rating agencies (CRAs) are meant to assess risk and help facilitate investment decisions but this only works if a sector is organised and presents “reliable historical data”, he explains. The MSME sector, however, has no reliable and analytical macro data after the Fourth Consensus (2006-7).
This is because “infusion of capital and shifts in markets and technologies” are not captured digitally and ratings don’t account for such “information asymmetry”. Also, enterprise data that is “fed to the Udyog Aadhaar portal” needs be re-evaluated as it is “one-time data and not dynamic”, he adds.
Raju therefore calls for “multiple data sources” and also granular data on enterprise behaviour.
Google’s Sundar Pichai could end up in an Alphabet soup
Sandipan Deb | Former editor of ‘Financial Express’, and founder-editor of ‘Open’ and ‘Swarajya’ magazines
Mint
Deb says Sundar Pichai will have his “hands full” as he moves from being the CEO of Google to leading its parent company, Alphabet. From self-driving cars to smart cities, Pichai will have added responsibility over various companies and projects under Alphabet.
Google’s reputation as an “Evil Empire” will also need mending, adds Deb. So far, the company has been fined $9.3 billion by the EU for violating antitrust laws and has also faced “unprecedented employee unrest”, explains Deb. This unrest is in response to Google’s “record on sexual harassment, discrimination and pay inequity”, he writes.
Deb suggests Pichai take inspiration from Satya Nadella, who became Microsoft CEO in 2014. Nadella “reinvented” the company which was also considered an “evil” corporation at the time but is now among the top three most valuable companies in the world.
Three dangerous myths
Mihir Sharma | Columnist for Business Standard, Fellow at Observer Research Foundation
Business Standard
Sharma unpacks three big myths that have led India to its current economic situation.
The first is the belief that the 2012-13 economic crisis was due to policy paralysis when in reality it was “a crisis of the Indian state machinery that spilled over into the private sector”. “We are back in 2013”, adds Sharma, given that the economy has gone through major shocks, be it the “sharp turn in the commodity price cycle”, demonetisation and “botched” GST. This calls for “structural reform of administration and factor markets”, he writes.
The second misconception is that “big-ticket public investment is sufficient for growth” but such investments only matter if the private sector finds it profitable to use, explains Sharma. In short, “there’s no point building highways if nobody wants to buy trucks to run on them”. This means “quality of government spending must increase”, he adds.
The final misconception is that domestic demand is “unquenchable” — an idea that has came about due to overconfidence in the size and composition in the Indian consumer economy. This has led to overcapacity of the private sector but a “180-degree shift in our trade policy” might be a solution, suggests Sharma.
It’s not the woman’s fault. Hold the man accountable
Anushna Jha | Head of research, Project Kal
Hindustan Times
In light of the massive protests over the rape and murder of a woman in Hyderabad, Jha claims that enough is not being “said about the alleged perpetrators and the underlying mindset that made them carry out the crime”. Additionally, “our response to the incident has been as problematic as the attitude that gives rise to such gender-based violent behaviour”.
She argues that “placing women at the centre of public attention in crimes not committed by them converges with the larger societal norm of placing women under scrutiny, while not holding men accountable for their actions”. Even though the Telangana police issued a 14-point directive for women, it put the “onus of safety on girls and women”. Asking women to “stay safe” and “be vigilant” is “not just downright insensitive, but also discriminatory”. These incidents happen “because some men find it acceptable to force themselves on women”.
Jha calls for the need of a “multi-pronged conversation with boys and men across age groups” that addresses the root cause of gender-based violence. “Collective outrage against rape will not have much value if we do not follow it up with sustained, long term interventions in changing gender-unequal mindsets and attitudes”.
India returns to normal
Ruchir Sharma | Global investor
The Times of India
On a visit to India in August, Sharma had found that the “economy was stumbling as badly as it had during the financial crisis of 1998 and the rout of the rupee in 2013”. It looked as if “we had the worst of both worlds: creeping authoritarianism and sluggish economic growth”.
However, “conditions have changed” since then and the “central government finally began to take steps to right the ship, cutting corporate taxes, stepping up its privatisation drive, and pushing other market friendly measures”. The Indian stock market “has been steadily rising in response since August, as evidence mounts that the economy is still in dire straits”.
Sharma argues that the “government will do just enough to stabilise the economy before it settles back into cruise control, likely at a significant lower speed”. Further, “in place of creeping authoritarianism, India appears to be rediscovering its political core, too democratic to accept one party rule, too diverse to fully embrace visions of a unitary nation”.
Finally, Sharma maintains that for now, “India is returning to its normal self: not a miracle economy, but a marvel of democracy”.