[This essay may also be at the TheWire.in, read here.] There has always been a fallacious assumption held by the Indian economic right-wing (ERW) that the model best suited to promote growth is the so-called “tooth and claw” capitalism, where the state allows a clutch of tycoons to capture the commanding heights of the economy in order to facilitate rapid accumulation of capital.
Chaebols and Keiretsus were protected from international competition (until they built the competitiveness to do so, which is when they ventured out ) plus both Korea and Japan followed a neo-mercantilist policy. Both those states received massive economic aid from the US especially their peaks(for Japan the Korean war. for S.Korea the Vietnam war). Plus these states followed the standard model by focusing heavily first on labor intensive manufacturing first then moved to skill based manufacturing then with herculean effort moved into capital intensive higher technology domains. India in its usual embarrassingly jingoistic fashion tried to sprint before it learned how to walk, worse of all tried to do it with one hand and leg tied behind. Indians want a lot but are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to get to that point. As for the absence of export oriented growth you mentioned, remember one of the challenges Indian exports faces is the high logistics cost, which is largely due to the huge infrastructure deficit in India. So for the kind of growth you say you want you need massive infrastructural boost then a peaceful industrial atmosphere unencumbered by labor unrests(any and all labor unrests are a threat to industrial peace so is any kind of industry wide legal mandates that support collective bargaining, that's not even counting the de jure status quo on redundancy the effect which is self evident despite overt and subtle academic misinformation campaigns vaunting the moral supremacy of Indian labor laws ) and a market that can absorb those exports. Both of which India lacks, you have people like Adani who have moved into the infrastructure development sphere, but its unlikely to produce any imminent results. Your whole argument against crony capitalism is an indictment of the fact that you don't seem to have a fucking clue as to what is actually going on, Do you know how many states have the necessary infrastructure set up ? Aside from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and to a lesser extent W.Bengal most states lack the adequate infrastructure to engage in export of goods especially the land locked states of UP and Bihar who together account for nearly 300 million+ people who have large surplus of labor and do you know where these states are ranked in terms of the availability of their industrial land . When a country is as capital poor as India, you need "crony capitalists" to shore up capital build capacities and then venture out, before trying to live out your liberal fantasy. Now in Modi's defense the man has been in power for less than a decade, most importantly he has been a PM for less than a decade he tried to govern India like he would a state and he failed, he come up with shit like demonetization, realized that it was too big to be governed as such so on his second outing he improved on that and pretty much adopted the new model of Crony capitalism + import substitution + domestic industrial promotion with and without JVs with foreign players, which is not that bad a policy in the long run as long as the policy has a sunset clause of sorts. Very similar to what the South Koreans had done(I am sure PCH would approve at least some of it ). You need at least a decade of experience to govern a country like India Nehru came the closest but he was an intellectyual moron born with a silver spoon disassociated from the realities of the world assessing them through his ideological lens, worse of all he had socialist leanings and had never governed anything worthwhile before he took power.
post script with apology: unmixed avarice and aggrandisement? That we have not really learnt anything (or worse, chosen the path of least resistance) when it comes to governance and quality of life?
Could it be true that despite all the flash about changing work culture, shared work space etc., (enviable images of laptops and coffee) and how HR is re-thinking incentives where it matters, there's a hole?
Is it possible that at the lower end of the queue, things have only gone from translucent to opaque?
That, as in all of history, if you can hustle you'll live? And if you can't, you'll simply, mercifully, die an early death, leaving 'improving' mortality to those who can afford it? Spend the rest of your calendar years in mind-numbing emptiness (and never mind Pink Floyd)?
If wishes were horses, then pigs would fly the old adage goes.
The Right Wing have piece meal solutions for everything but ZERO holistic thinking thanks to their blinkers on 24X7X365 - prime example is wishful thinking that cronies will take the country forward.
We don't compete as Global Citizens on any level thanks to the perpetual "frog at the bottom of the well" mindset which is being made standard across the crones who are getting crown jewels at throw away prices.
India's current playbook will require a re-think. The state is very poor at picking global corporate champions. Quote: It is always more inclusion that creates more growth, never the other way around. The truth of this proposition should be familiar to anybody with the slightest familiarity with macroeconomics. Yet in politics, we forget this principle all the time.
Brilliant. Have shared it on twitter. Hasten to add there is lot of difference in your sharing and mine. Yours has gravity and gravitas. Please join Twitter soon. My learning quotient has deep dived.
A very insightful article recommending bottom-up approach to inclusive, higher economic growth rate.
Presently there are many ways the underlying value of assets of the poor is appropriated at higher levels. For example, agri land is bought from desparate farmers at low rates, and then converted to non-agri and sold at "market rate", the gain going to third parties, but not to farmer, the original owner. Same with forest land.
Will we ever learn? Nowadays, bhakts can’t stop bragging about India being a “start up capital”. They are on cloud nine. And, as long as the stock market fetches good returns, why not?
1."Education is a public good."
Agreed
2."Contrary to Brahmanical faith, you net-gain when others are also as educated as you are."
No and I am not a brahmin, don't belong to any of the privileged castes, not even a practicing Hindu.
-https://www.readkong.com/page/and-ite-review-aspire-applied-study-in-polytechnics-5679608
-https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/why-india-should-worry-about-its-educated-unemployed-youth
(Social Science/Liberal Arts/Cultural studies/Literature/Lesbian Dance Theory ?)
-https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/growing-concerns-over-graduate-employment
3."The world spends 6% of GDP on education."
The world needs a lot of things, You might wanna break that down by country and per student spending.
-https://www.statista.com/statistics/238733/expenditure-on-education-by-country/
Chaebols and Keiretsus were protected from international competition (until they built the competitiveness to do so, which is when they ventured out ) plus both Korea and Japan followed a neo-mercantilist policy. Both those states received massive economic aid from the US especially their peaks(for Japan the Korean war. for S.Korea the Vietnam war). Plus these states followed the standard model by focusing heavily first on labor intensive manufacturing first then moved to skill based manufacturing then with herculean effort moved into capital intensive higher technology domains. India in its usual embarrassingly jingoistic fashion tried to sprint before it learned how to walk, worse of all tried to do it with one hand and leg tied behind. Indians want a lot but are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to get to that point. As for the absence of export oriented growth you mentioned, remember one of the challenges Indian exports faces is the high logistics cost, which is largely due to the huge infrastructure deficit in India. So for the kind of growth you say you want you need massive infrastructural boost then a peaceful industrial atmosphere unencumbered by labor unrests(any and all labor unrests are a threat to industrial peace so is any kind of industry wide legal mandates that support collective bargaining, that's not even counting the de jure status quo on redundancy the effect which is self evident despite overt and subtle academic misinformation campaigns vaunting the moral supremacy of Indian labor laws ) and a market that can absorb those exports. Both of which India lacks, you have people like Adani who have moved into the infrastructure development sphere, but its unlikely to produce any imminent results. Your whole argument against crony capitalism is an indictment of the fact that you don't seem to have a fucking clue as to what is actually going on, Do you know how many states have the necessary infrastructure set up ? Aside from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and to a lesser extent W.Bengal most states lack the adequate infrastructure to engage in export of goods especially the land locked states of UP and Bihar who together account for nearly 300 million+ people who have large surplus of labor and do you know where these states are ranked in terms of the availability of their industrial land . When a country is as capital poor as India, you need "crony capitalists" to shore up capital build capacities and then venture out, before trying to live out your liberal fantasy. Now in Modi's defense the man has been in power for less than a decade, most importantly he has been a PM for less than a decade he tried to govern India like he would a state and he failed, he come up with shit like demonetization, realized that it was too big to be governed as such so on his second outing he improved on that and pretty much adopted the new model of Crony capitalism + import substitution + domestic industrial promotion with and without JVs with foreign players, which is not that bad a policy in the long run as long as the policy has a sunset clause of sorts. Very similar to what the South Koreans had done(I am sure PCH would approve at least some of it ). You need at least a decade of experience to govern a country like India Nehru came the closest but he was an intellectyual moron born with a silver spoon disassociated from the realities of the world assessing them through his ideological lens, worse of all he had socialist leanings and had never governed anything worthwhile before he took power.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2021/oct/12/tn-tops-in-india-in-industrialland-availability-2370622.html
Superb Article!!!!
The cause and effect for this is lack of electoral reforms.
Modi and his party do not care. They are funded by a group of crony capitalists whose aim is to capture both the resources and the market!
They want an Oligarchy!
post script with apology: unmixed avarice and aggrandisement? That we have not really learnt anything (or worse, chosen the path of least resistance) when it comes to governance and quality of life?
Could it be true that despite all the flash about changing work culture, shared work space etc., (enviable images of laptops and coffee) and how HR is re-thinking incentives where it matters, there's a hole?
Is it possible that at the lower end of the queue, things have only gone from translucent to opaque?
That, as in all of history, if you can hustle you'll live? And if you can't, you'll simply, mercifully, die an early death, leaving 'improving' mortality to those who can afford it? Spend the rest of your calendar years in mind-numbing emptiness (and never mind Pink Floyd)?
Just asking.
Is it possible that we are 'over-thinking' motive? Is it possible that unmixed avarice is all the purpose and everything else is ballast?
The arguments in favor of inclusive growth are put forward by the author in a very clear, cogent style. Very good article.
If wishes were horses, then pigs would fly the old adage goes.
The Right Wing have piece meal solutions for everything but ZERO holistic thinking thanks to their blinkers on 24X7X365 - prime example is wishful thinking that cronies will take the country forward.
We don't compete as Global Citizens on any level thanks to the perpetual "frog at the bottom of the well" mindset which is being made standard across the crones who are getting crown jewels at throw away prices.
Good.
When you include a book name pl link it to Amazon.in for purchase.
India's current playbook will require a re-think. The state is very poor at picking global corporate champions. Quote: It is always more inclusion that creates more growth, never the other way around. The truth of this proposition should be familiar to anybody with the slightest familiarity with macroeconomics. Yet in politics, we forget this principle all the time.
Brilliant. Have shared it on twitter. Hasten to add there is lot of difference in your sharing and mine. Yours has gravity and gravitas. Please join Twitter soon. My learning quotient has deep dived.
A very insightful article recommending bottom-up approach to inclusive, higher economic growth rate.
Presently there are many ways the underlying value of assets of the poor is appropriated at higher levels. For example, agri land is bought from desparate farmers at low rates, and then converted to non-agri and sold at "market rate", the gain going to third parties, but not to farmer, the original owner. Same with forest land.
Well constructed arguments.
Will we ever learn? Nowadays, bhakts can’t stop bragging about India being a “start up capital”. They are on cloud nine. And, as long as the stock market fetches good returns, why not?