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Interviews | Prof. Jayati Ghosh, JNU interviewed by Ashish Yechury
Prof. Jayati Ghosh, JNU interviewed by Ashish Yechury

Prof. Jayati Ghosh, JNU interviewed by Ashish Yechury

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published Published on Aug 5, 2013   modified Modified on Aug 5, 2013
-The Times of India


Jayati Ghosh is an economist specializing in globalisation and employment in developing nations. Speaking with Ashish Yechury, Ghosh discussed the controversy over defining poverty, ideas about economic growth - and a season of 'Marie Antoinette' economists:

* What's your view of India's poverty line?

It's very good the media's realised our poverty line is ridiculously low. These lines were developed 40 years ago in a very different social, economic and political context. They defined a line of absolute destitution, below which a person could not even eat enough to survive - that`s terribly low.

For some reason, we decided that's the line of poverty. Most countries either define a basket of goods or take a relative measure. But in India, we've stuck to this terrible measure.

* Are poverty figures brought out by the Tendulkar committee an improvement?

Yes, in that the committee raised the poverty line for rural areas. But it's almost embarrassing to reveal the Tendulkar committee did not have a proper methodology - they didn't say this is the basis on which we're deriving the poverty line. What they did was to say the urban poverty line looks approximately right, it gives you a quarter of the population as poor, so go with it, apply the urban line to rural areas - that`s not a proper methodology.

Now, because politics will play a role, we'll have different poverty estimates before the election - it's a free for all, everybody's throwing about numbers. It's a pity because still too many government schemes depend on this number. Two years ago, the Planning Commission's deputy chairman said we`re not going to use this line, we`re going to use a multidimensional figure for allocations - but they are still using it.

* What do you make of statements about cheap food justifying this line?

It's a season of silliness - you have these Marie Antoinette economists and politicians who go around saying i can get a meal for five rupees. All these commentators have lost their grounding on basic things.

* Amartya Sen versus Jagdish Bhagwati - what's your take?

Well, there's so much vitriol there partly because many points Sen's making are factual - he's pointing at the lack of education, that we have the largest number of hungry people in the world, terrible infant and maternal mortality. These are facts the Indian elite does not want to look at. We just want to prove we've arrived at the world stage. So, this is partly anger.

Professor Bhagwati, Professor Panagaria, etc, say growth will deliver poverty eradication. Panagaria has written our nutrition indicators are low because we're looking at international indicators - Indians are different, we don't need the same calories, same body mass index and age and height indicators. What's called malnourished in other countries shouldn't be called that in India.

I don't need to say anything more about this position, it's quite evident.

* Why isn't there a more substantive economic debate?

This is presented as a growth versus distribution argument. That's wrong. It should be about the growth strategy itself - here, both Sen and Bhagwati are silent.

The present strategy is failing. It`s not delivering growth. It`ll keep giving terrible human development outcomes. You're not shifting people out of agriculture, nor raising most workers' conditions. Bhagwati believes the more incentives you give capital, they'll do that. Sen believed globalisation will deliver growth, then you use it for public spending.

But this is not going to keep delivering growth. The global economy is stagnating. We had growth because we were giving so much as incentives. We can't keep doing that - that's the point this debate is missing.

The Times of India, 5 August, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews
/Jayati-Ghosh-Marie-Antoinette-economists-have-lost-their-
basic-grounding/articleshow/21601892.cms?

Image Courtesy: University of Harvard, http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~amciv/massey/images/ghosh-180.jpg


The Times of India, 5 August, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews/Jayati-Ghosh-Marie-Antoinette-economists-have-lost-their-basic-grounding/articleshow/21601892.cms?


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