Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Too clever by half? -Venkatesh Athreya

Too clever by half? -Venkatesh Athreya

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Feb 17, 2018   modified Modified on Feb 17, 2018
-Frontline.in

Despite its deeply flawed neoliberal perspective, Economic Survey 2017-18 is rich in detail, has many useful analytical discussions at different levels of aggregation, and would serve as a useful resource for students and scholars.

When Arvind Subramanian, the present Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance who took office way back in October 2014, presented his first Economic Survey, the one for 2014-15, there was considerable novelty on offer, at least in form. He made the point that “all Economic Surveys bear the imprint of the incumbent Chief Economic Adviser”. He also made the following observations: “Inspired by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, this Survey departs structurally from its predecessors and presents its output in two volumes. Volume 1 discusses the outlook and prospects as well as a number of analytical chapters addressing topical policy concerns. Volume 2 describes recent developments in all the major sectors of the economy and contains all the statistical tables and data. In a sense, Volume 1 is forward-looking but gaining from the perspective provided by the recent past, which is the subject of Volume 2.” With the fourth Economic Survey presented by the same author, the novelty has worn off. But the Survey does not cease to interest the serious reader. One has, however, a sense of deja vu when a fully ideological document is once again sought to be passed off as an impartial and objective analysis of the Indian economy in the year gone by, together with policy guidelines and suggestions both for the immediate future and for the medium term.

The first volume consists of nine chapters. It starts with a discussion of the state of the Indian economy through an analytical overview and discusses the outlook for policy from the neoliberal perspective that informs the entire document. It then goes on to discuss the Goods and Services Tax and issues arising from it and seeks to explore the Indian economy itself through the prism of the GST using a huge amount of data thrown up by the GST implementation process. It then turns to the very important issue of the slowdown of investments and savings in the Indian economy over the past several years and lessons to be learnt from similar episodes at various points in time in other countries. The fourth chapter deals with fiscal federalism and accountability in a country of India’s size, diversity and multiple levels of government. The fifth chapter looks at factors that may stall India’s progress to the status of a middle-income economy arising from its status as late entrant to a process of “convergence” under way. The sixth chapter discusses climate, climate change and agriculture with reference to India. Further departing from the traditional notions of what an Economic Survey might be expected to cover, the volume then goes into issues of gender and son preference. This is followed by a chapter titled “Transforming Science and Technology in India”. The first volume concludes with a foray into ensuring “timely justice” as a follow-up to “improving ease of business”. As can be seen, the Survey is nothing if not ambitious. It believes that every major issue under the sun that India faces can be tackled by a particular analytical framework, though that framework is never named in the document. Implicit for the most part and, occasionally, in an unguarded moment, explicit ever so briefly, the approach is essentially neoliberal.

Engines of growth

The first chapter of the first volume sets out the agenda for the government in the coming year, and beyond: “The agenda for the next year consequently remains full: stabilising the GST, completing the TBS [twin balance sheet problem]actions, privatising Air India, and staving off threats to macro-economic stability. The TBS actions, noteworthy for cracking the long-standing ‘exit’ problem, need complementary reforms to shrink unviable banks and allow greater private sector participation.” And beyond the year? Here is the answer: “Over the medium term, three areas of policy focus stand out: Employment: finding good jobs for the young and burgeoning workforce, especially for women. Education: creating an educated and healthy labour force. Agriculture: raising farm productivity while strengthening agricultural resilience. Above all, India must continue improving the climate for rapid economic growth on the strength of the only two truly sustainable engines—private investment and exports.” Note the insistence on private investment and exports being the only two truly sustainable engines of growth. The state, in this narrative, is not seen as an agent of growth or development even when in a subsequent chapter the decline in investment rates is recognised and discussed.

The Survey acknowledges that “[there is]…the ongoing international and national debate on the role of markets and states, private capital and public institutions. All over the world, there is a reassessment of the respective roles of the two with a clear tilt towards greater state involvement. The new international case is based on the need to redistribute to check growing inequality and cushion against the impact of globalisation. It is also based on the need to regulate, for example, the financial sector to minimise risks and the technology sector to check growing market power and its misuse as a communications medium.” However, it immediately adds: “But India is in a grey zone of uncertainty on the role of states and markets. Limitations on state capacity (Centre and States) affect the delivery of essential services such as health and education.” The Survey follows up its scepticism about the role of the state as an agent of development with some fancy footwork that leads it to declare: “So, one might say that India had moved from ‘crony’ socialism to ‘stigmatised’ capitalism.” Not only is this a loose and meaningless statement, it makes the bias of the author of the Survey obvious: Socialism can be “crony”, but capitalism can only be “stigmatised” (unfairly, perhaps, one is tempted to say). The eruption of such remarks in the middle of some interesting analysis and the skilful, if sometimes rather heroic, use of data of uneven quality drawn from different sources hamper one’s appreciation of the Survey.

Never mind, let us move on, for the Survey has much to offer. It does admit, for instance: “It is striking that the Centre’s tax-GDP [gross domestic product] ratio is no higher than it was in the 1980s, despite average economic growth of 6.5 per cent, the most rapid in India’s history.” There you have it, the benefits of growth have not trickled down much in terms of public provisioning of, for instance, health and educational services that could have enhanced people’s capabilities.

Please click here to read more.

Frontline.in, 2 March, 2018, http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/too-clever-by-half/article10073922.ece


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close