Comments - Economists Warn Modi of Negative Impact of His Hindu Base's Intolerance - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-28T10:35:19Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A104768&xn_auth=noEx #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-07-30:1119293:Comment:4093882022-07-30T22:54:04.244ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Ex #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning #Muslims Into "2nd Class Citizens" Will Divide #India. Warning against majoritarianism, he cited #SriLanka as an example of what happens when politicians try to deflect a job crisis by targeting minorities. #Modi #Islamophobia…</span></p>
<p><span>Ex #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning #Muslims Into "2nd Class Citizens" Will Divide #India. Warning against majoritarianism, he cited #SriLanka as an example of what happens when politicians try to deflect a job crisis by targeting minorities. #Modi #Islamophobia <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/turning-minority-into-2nd-class-citizens-will-divide-india-raghuram-rajan-3209792" target="_blank">https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/turning-minority-into-2nd-class-citizens-will-divide-india-raghuram-rajan-3209792</a></span><br/><br/><span>Citing the strident protests against the Centre's 'Agniveer' military recruitment scheme, Mr Rajan said it suggested how hungry the youths were for jobs.</span><br/><br/><span>"Just a while ago you saw 12.5 million applicants for 35,000 railway jobs. It is particularly worrisome when India has a scarcity of jobs even when so many women are not working outside their homes. India's female labour force participation is among the lowest in G-20 at 20.3 percent as in 2019," he pointed out.</span><br/><br/><span>Talking about the "vision of growth" of the current government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said it centres around the term 'atmanirbhar' or self-reliance.</span><br/><br/><span>"Now, to the extent it emphasizes better connectivity, better logistics, better roads and devotes more resources to it, in some way this (atmanirbhar vision) seems the continuation of the past reformed decades. And that's good," he said.</span><br/><br/><span>But, the former RBI governor said, in many ways a look at what 'atmanirbhar' is trying to achieve takes one back to an early and failed past where the focus was on physical capital and not human capital, on protection and subsidies and not on liberalization, on choosing favourites to win rather than letting the most capable succeed.</span><br/><br/><span>Asserting that there was a misplaced sense of priorities, Mr Rajan said the nation was not spending enough on education, with tragic consequences.</span><br/><br/><span>"Many (children) not having been to school for two years are dropping out. Their human capital, which is their and our most important asset in the coming years, is something we are neglecting. We are failing them by not devoting enough resources to remedial education," Mr Rajan said.</span></p> Ex #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-07-30:1119293:Comment:4095432022-07-30T22:53:44.992ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Ex #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning #Muslims Into "2nd Class Citizens" Will Divide #India. Warning against majoritarianism, he cited #SriLanka as an example of what happens when politicians try to deflect a job crisis by targeting minorities. #Modi #Islamophobia…</span></p>
<p><span>Ex #RBI Gov R. Rajan: Turning #Muslims Into "2nd Class Citizens" Will Divide #India. Warning against majoritarianism, he cited #SriLanka as an example of what happens when politicians try to deflect a job crisis by targeting minorities. #Modi #Islamophobia <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/turning-minority-into-2nd-class-citizens-will-divide-india-raghuram-rajan-3209792" target="_blank">https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/turning-minority-into-2nd-class-citizens-will-divide-india-raghuram-rajan-3209792</a></span><br/><br/><span>Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said India's future lies in strengthening liberal democracy and its institutions as it is essential for achieving economic growth.</span><br/><span>Warning against majoritarianism, he said Sri Lanka was an example of what happens when a country's politicians try to deflect a job crisis by targeting minorities.</span><br/><br/><span>Speaking at the 5th conclave of All India Professionals Congress, a wing of the Congress party, in Raipur, he said any attempt to turn a large minority into "second class citizens" will divide the country.</span><br/><br/><span>Mr Rajan was speaking on the topic 'Why liberal democracy is needed for India's economic development'.</span><br/><br/><span>".What is happening to liberal democracy in this country and is it really that necessary for Indian development? ... We absolutely must strengthen it. There is a feeling among some quarters in India today that democracy holds back India ... India needs strong, even authoritarian, leadership with few checks and balances on it to grow and we seem to be drifting in this direction," Mr Rajan said.</span><br/><br/><span>"I believe this argument is totally wrong. It's based on an outdated model of development that emphasizes goods and capital, not people and ideas," said the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.</span><br/><br/><span>The under-performance of the country in terms of economic growth "seems to indicate the path we are going on needs rethinking," he said.</span><br/><br/><span>The former RBI governor further said that "our future lies in strengthening our liberal democracy and its institutions, not weakening them, and this is in fact essential for our growth."</span><br/><br/><span>Elaborating on why majoritarian authoritarianism must be defeated, he said any attempt to "make second class citizens of a large minority will divide the country and create internal resentment." It will also make the country vulnerable to foreign meddling, Me Rajan added.</span><br/><br/><span>Referring to the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka, he said the island nation was seeing the "consequences when a country's politicians try to deflect from the inability to create jobs by attacking a minority." This does not lead to any good, he said.</span><br/><br/><span>Liberalism was not an entire religion and the essence of every major religion was to seek out that which is good in everyone, which, in many ways, was also the essence of liberal democracy, Mr Rajan said.</span><br/><br/><span>Claiming that India's slow growth was not just due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Rajan said the country's underperformance predated it.</span><br/><br/><span>"Indeed for about a decade, probably since the onset of the global financial crisis, we haven't been doing as well as we could. The key measure of this underperformance is our inability to create the good jobs that our youth need," the former RBI governor said.</span></p> The Indian economy is being r…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-05-13:1119293:Comment:4080102022-05-13T04:07:46.965ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>The Indian economy is being rewired. The opportunity is immense And so are the stakes</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/05/13/the-indian-economy-is-being-rewired-the-opportunity-is-immense" target="_blank">https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/05/13/the-indian-economy-is-being-rewired-the-opportunity-is-immense</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Who deserves the credit? Chance has played a big role: India did not create the Sino-American split or the cloud,…</span></p>
<p><span>The Indian economy is being rewired. The opportunity is immense And so are the stakes</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/05/13/the-indian-economy-is-being-rewired-the-opportunity-is-immense" target="_blank">https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/05/13/the-indian-economy-is-being-rewired-the-opportunity-is-immense</a></span><br/><br/><span>Who deserves the credit? Chance has played a big role: India did not create the Sino-American split or the cloud, but benefits from both. So has the steady accumulation of piecemeal reform over many governments. The digital-identity scheme and new national tax system were dreamed up a decade or more ago.</span><br/><br/><span>Mr Modi’s government has also got a lot right. It has backed the tech stack and direct welfare, and persevered with the painful task of shrinking the informal economy. It has found pragmatic fixes. Central-government purchases of solar power have kick-started renewables. Financial reforms have made it easier to float young firms and bankrupt bad ones. Mr Modi’s electoral prowess provides economic continuity. Even the opposition expects him to be in power well after the election in 2024.</span><br/><br/><span>The danger is that over the next decade this dominance hardens into autocracy. One risk is the bjp’s abhorrent hostility towards Muslims, which it uses to rally its political base. Companies tend to shrug this off, judging that Mr Modi can keep tensions under control and that capital flight will be limited. Yet violence and deteriorating human rights could lead to stigma that impairs India’s access to Western markets. The bjp’s desire for religious and linguistic conformity in a huge, diverse country could be destabilising. Were the party to impose Hindi as the national language, secessionist pressures would grow in some wealthy states that pay much of the taxes.</span><br/><br/><span>The quality of decision-making could also deteriorate. Prickly and vindictive, the government has co-opted the bureaucracy to bully the press and the courts. A botched decision to abolish bank notes in 2016 showed Mr Modi’s impulsive side. A strongman lacking checks and balances can eventually endanger not just demo cracy, but also the economy: think of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, whose bizarre views on inflation have caused a currency crisis. And, given the bjp’s ambivalence towards foreign capital, the campaign for national renewal risks regressing into protectionism. The party loves blank cheques from Silicon Valley but is wary of foreign firms competing in India. Today’s targeted subsidies could degenerate into autarky and cronyism—the tendencies that have long held India back.</span><br/><br/><span>Seizing the moment</span><br/><span>For India to grow at 7% or 8% for years to come would be momentous. It would lift huge numbers of people out of poverty. It would generate a vast new market and manufacturing base for global business, and it would change the global balance of power by creating a bigger counterweight to China in Asia. Fate, inheritance and pragmatic decisions have created a new opportunity in the next decade. It is India’s and Mr Modi’s to squander. ■</span></p> #India sought probe into ex-R…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-04-04:1119293:Comment:4073312022-04-04T15:34:17.486ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>#India sought probe into ex-RBI gov Raghu Rajan (now Professor at #University of #Chicago) for helping ‘white man’. #Modi government accused its #RBI of setting interest rates to favor developed nations, pushing it to slash the rates.<br></br><br></br><a href="https://aje.io/c3ant4" target="_blank">https://aje.io/c3ant4</a> via @AJEnglish<br></br><br></br>A year after the government led by Narendra Modi’s BJP came to power in 2014, the top finance ministry official accused the Reserve Bank of India of…</p>
<p>#India sought probe into ex-RBI gov Raghu Rajan (now Professor at #University of #Chicago) for helping ‘white man’. #Modi government accused its #RBI of setting interest rates to favor developed nations, pushing it to slash the rates.<br/><br/><a href="https://aje.io/c3ant4" target="_blank">https://aje.io/c3ant4</a> via @AJEnglish<br/><br/>A year after the government led by Narendra Modi’s BJP came to power in 2014, the top finance ministry official accused the Reserve Bank of India of setting interest rates to benefit developed countries and sought a probe into its conduct, a trove of official documents obtained by The Reporters’ Collective reveals.<br/><br/>Finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, working under the then-finance minister, the late Arun Jaitley, made the claim after the RBI opted to prioritise controlling rising prices over lowering interest rates, which would have made borrowing cheaper for businesses and citizens.<br/><br/>Although the government and the RBI having different views is not unusual, the revelations mark the first time a top government official has accused the RBI of working to benefit “the white man” in “developed countries” and sought an investigation into the “real purpose” behind the central bank’s decisions.<br/><br/>The documents, which were accessed by The Reporters’ Collective (TRC) under the Right to Information Act, are being made public for the first time as part of a three-part investigative series.<br/><br/>At the time in 2015, the RBI governor was Raghuram Rajan, an appointee of the previous, Congress-led government. The BJP government chose Urjit Patel as Rajan’s successor.<br/><br/>But the RBI didn’t cut the interest as sharply as the government wanted, even under Patel. So the finance ministry called a meeting with the bank’s newly set up monetary policy committee (MPC) to push it to cut interest rates, according to the documents. The unprecedented meeting fell through when committee members declined to attend, a development widely reported in 2017.<br/><br/>The attempt to influence the central bank came despite the Modi government having amended the Reserve Bank of India Act in 2016 to strengthen the firewall between the RBI’s primary function of controlling prices and the government’s political impulse to spur growth even at the cost of rising inflation.<br/><br/>The RBI’s then-governor Patel pushed back, wrote to the government saying it should stop trying to influence the RBI in order to preserve the “integrity and credibility” of the new monetary framework “in the public eye and our parliament”. Otherwise, the government would be in violation of the letter and spirit of the law that protected the RBI’s independence.<br/><br/>As disagreements piled up on this and other issues, Patel resigned on December 10, 2018, citing “personal reasons”. The government replaced him with Shaktikanta Das who, as a top finance ministry bureaucrat, had justified increasing the government’s influence in the RBI’s rate-setting function, official documents reveal.<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> #Hindu nationalists turn thei…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-09-25:1119293:Comment:4030102021-09-25T01:25:04.142ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>#Hindu nationalists turn their sights on #India’s corporate titans. #Tech giant #Infosys accused of being “anti-National” . Accusations of companies are undermining India are unlikely to help attract much-needed #investment. #Modi #BJP | Financial Times</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d5530ac7-52d6-42b6-a2d4-7b28e8e21059" target="_blank">https://www.ft.com/content/d5530ac7-52d6-42b6-a2d4-7b28e8e21059</a></span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>Infosys, the IT services…</span></p>
<p><span>#Hindu nationalists turn their sights on #India’s corporate titans. #Tech giant #Infosys accused of being “anti-National” . Accusations of companies are undermining India are unlikely to help attract much-needed #investment. #Modi #BJP | Financial Times</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d5530ac7-52d6-42b6-a2d4-7b28e8e21059" target="_blank">https://www.ft.com/content/d5530ac7-52d6-42b6-a2d4-7b28e8e21059</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>Infosys, the IT services company, has long been venerated as a symbol of a rising India.</span><br/><br/><span>The pioneering tech outsourcer was the first Indian company to list on the Nasdaq and became emblematic of the entrepreneurial energies and tech prowess of an aspirational nation seeking global recognition. The original founders, now billionaires, are investing in India’s next generation of dynamic tech companies and mentoring young entrepreneurs aiming to follow their trailblazing path</span><br/><br/><span>Given the company’s stature, many took note this month when it was accused of being “anti-national” and deliberately undermining India by Panchajanya, the Hindi-language magazine of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party.</span><br/><br/><span>The four-page tirade was ostensibly triggered by Infosys’ upgrade of India’s income tax portal, a $573m overhaul that was supposed to make it easier for Indians to file their income tax returns. Instead it has been riddled with glitches, which Infosys has struggled to fix since its June launch.</span><br/><br/><span>Taxpayers, and the government, are rightly frustrated. Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister, has twice summoned Infosys chief executive Salil Parekh to urge a rapid remediation. The tax department has had to extend this year’s deadline for filing tax returns from the usual July 31 to December 31.</span><br/><br/><span>But Panchajanya did not merely attack Infosys for doing a shoddy job. Instead, the magazine — seen as a mouthpiece for the Hindu nationalist movement — accused the tech firm of deliberate conspiracy to undermine the Modi government, and India itself.</span><br/><br/><span>“There are allegations that the Infosys management is trying to deliberately trying to destabilise the economy. Could it be that anti-India forces are trying to harm India’s economic interests through Infosys,” the article posited. “Given the history and circumstances of the company, there seems to be an element of truth in the allegations.”</span><br/><br/><span>As evidence of the company’s supposedly shady conduct, the magazine then made a not so oblique reference to several independent news and fact checking websites funded by the Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation, a Bangalore-based philanthropic fund set up in 2015 to support public interest journalism. Among donors are several prominent tech titans, including the family of Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani.</span><br/><br/><span>“Infosys has been accused of aiding Naxalites, leftists and the ‘tukde tukde’ gang, (that wants to divide the country)” the magazine said, echoing the insults hurled by the BJP’s most combative politicians against government critics.</span><br/><br/><span>“Should a company of such dubious character be allowed to participate in a government tendering process?” it asked.</span><br/><br/><span>----</span><br/><br/><span>The normally staid annual conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry was jolted last month when commerce minister Piyush Goyal launched a tirade against corporate India, repeatedly singling out the 153-year-old Tata Group.</span><br/><br/><span>Though the video was briefly available on the CII’s YouTube channel, it was later taken down under instructions from the government. Tata has made no public comments on the episode.</span><br/><br/><span>Over the past decade private investment in India has been muted, say economists, and the economy was slowing down sharply even before Covid-19 hit. New Delhi is now eager to accelerate growth and is trying hard to portray itself as an attractive place to do business.</span><br/><br/><span>Overt bullying and hurling insults of treachery has in recent years enabled the BJP to intimidate its opponents, stifle criticism and mute policy debate. But such tactics may not encourage industries to open their wallets and invest.</span></p> Global #investors have lost f…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2019-09-17:1119293:Comment:1262582019-09-17T17:30:16.316ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Global #investors have lost faith in Modinomics...just another name for #Hindutva voodoo economics. #Modi euphoria gone, foreign investors dump record $4.5 billion of #Indian shares in 3 months…</span></p>
<p><span>Global #investors have lost faith in Modinomics...just another name for #Hindutva voodoo economics. #Modi euphoria gone, foreign investors dump record $4.5 billion of #Indian shares in 3 months <a href="https://theprint.in/economy/modi-euphoria-gone-foreign-investors-dump-record-4-5-billion-of-indian-shares-in-3-months/292527/?fbclid=IwAR2qM5IE6VjWkugXCV6XPyONg7RuEvI4WfIiQpQUDoSFBNDhwqYR4Do46Ws" target="_blank">https://theprint.in/economy/modi-euphoria-gone-foreign-investors-dump-record-4-5-billion-of-indian-shares-in-3-months/292527/?fbclid=IwAR2qM5IE6VjWkugXCV6XPyONg7RuEvI4WfIiQpQUDoSFBNDhwqYR4Do46Ws</a> via @ThePrintIndia</span><br/><br/><span>After pouring $45 billion into India’s stock market over the past six years on hopes that Modi would unleash the country’s economic potential, international money managers are now unwinding those wagers at the fastest pace on record. They’ve sold $4.5 billion of Indian shares since June, on course for the biggest quarterly exodus since at least 1999.</span><br/><br/><span>“The euphoria around Modi before 2014 has tapered off,” said Salman Ahmed, the London-based chief investment strategist at Lombard Odier Investment Managers, which oversees about $52 billion.</span><br/><br/><span>It’s hard to fault investors for losing faith. India’s economic growth has decelerated for five straight quarters to the weakest level since early 2013, one year before Modi became prime minister. And the 5% headline number for the second quarter may actually understate how painful the slowdown has become. Car sales are sinking at the fastest pace on record, capital investment has plunged, the unemployment rate has surged to a 45-year-high and the nation’s banking system is hamstrung by the world’s worst bad-loan ratio. Monday’s oil-price spike adds yet another headwind for a country that imports most of its crude.</span><br/><br/><span>While Modi isn’t sitting idly by as the economy weakens, investors say he’s been slow to act on a long list of needed reforms that includes selling stakes in state-owned companies and revamping the nation’s labor laws. The growing worry is that India could be headed for a structural slowdown that pummels the country’s $2 trillion stock market, throws a wrench into growth plans of international companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Netflix Inc., and makes it increasingly difficult for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to deliver jobs for the millions of young Indians who enter the workforce every year.</span><br/><br/><span>Subramanian Swamy, a BJP lawmaker, spoke bluntly about the risks of inaction in an interview with BloombergQuint published Sept. 5: “If the economy is not rectified, Modi has about six more months till people start challenging him.”</span><br/><br/><span>Representatives from the prime minister’s office, finance ministry and BJP didn’t respond to requests for comment. India is an attractive investment destination, offering a massive market as well as local talent, political stability and a corruption-free, reform-oriented government, Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at an industry event on Monday.</span><br/><br/><span>While many of India’s problems pre-date Modi, critics say his handling of the economy has been disappointing. His 2016 decision to invalidate 86% of the country’s currency in circulation is widely regarded as a growth-sapping boondoggle, and his 2017 goods and services tax reform — passed with bipartisan support — has since been panned as far too complicated. Modi’s early attempts to simplify land and labor laws were reversed in the face of social and political opposition.</span><br/><br/><span>-------------------</span><br/><br/><span>Even some long-term Modi supporters aren’t sure he will deliver. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s Christopher Wood, author of the widely followed “Greed & Fear” investment strategy report, cut his recommended exposure to Indian stocks on Aug. 22 and advised buying Indonesian equities, writing that he’s “not so sure what Modi can do about the economy in the short term.” As recently as May, Wood had called Modi the “most pro-growth leader in the world.”</span><br/><br/><span>The MSCI India Index has dropped 9% from its all-time high in August 2018, cutting the gauge’s longstanding valuation premium over the MSCI All-Country World Index to the narrowest level since 2004. The Indian gauge now has a price-to-book ratio of 2.5, or 13% higher than the global measure. When Modi entered office, the premium was nearly 30%.</span></p> Foreign diplomats livid over…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2016-12-08:1119293:Comment:1115772016-12-08T19:11:07.535ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Foreign diplomats livid over #India's cash crisis as #Modi "wins" friends with #Demonitization <a href="http://cnnmon.ie/2h6VGN1" target="_blank">http://cnnmon.ie/2h6VGN1</a> via @CNNMoney</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/08/news/india/india-cash-crisis-embassy-russia-pakistan/" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/08/news/india/india-cash-crisis-embassy-russia-pakistan/</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>India's cash shortage has left foreign diplomats in the…</span></p>
<p><span>Foreign diplomats livid over #India's cash crisis as #Modi "wins" friends with #Demonitization <a href="http://cnnmon.ie/2h6VGN1" target="_blank">http://cnnmon.ie/2h6VGN1</a> via @CNNMoney</span><br/><br/><span><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/08/news/india/india-cash-crisis-embassy-russia-pakistan/" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/08/news/india/india-cash-crisis-embassy-russia-pakistan/</a></span><br/><br/><span>India's cash shortage has left foreign diplomats in the country fuming.</span><br/><span>Multiple embassies have lodged protests with the Indian government over a cap on bank withdrawals that was implemented after India suddenly banned all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes a month ago. The move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was designed to fight corruption and tax evasion, has resulted in massive lines at banks and ATMs.</span><br/><span>Russian diplomats have been among the most vocal critics. Local media reported earlier this week that Ambassador Alexander Kadakin sent a letter to India's foreign ministry that said the maximum weekly withdrawal limit of 50,000 rupees ($740) was "totally inadequate" to meet the embassy's salary requirements and other expenses.</span><br/><span>Kadakin said that if the issue isn't resolved quickly, "we will be forced to explore other options which may include raising the issue in Moscow with your Embassy." A spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in New Delhi confirmed that such a letter had been sent, but declined to disclose its contents.</span><br/><br/><span>The wider diplomatic community has also raised the issue with Indian officials. Frank Castellanos, the Dominican Republic's ambassador and the dean of the foreign diplomatic corps in India, met on Thursday with Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.</span><br/><span>"The concerns are the same concerns ... that the whole population of India is facing, with the difference that this is international money," Castellanos said. "This is diplomatic protected money that we cannot access."</span><br/><span>Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, said his department had a "very detailed discussion" with Castellanos on "issues that diplomatic missions are facing" and what the government can do to "minimize the inconvenience."</span><br/><span>Swarup said he would consult with the finance ministry to see if the withdrawal limit could be raised for diplomats.</span><br/><span>"The vast majority of foreign missions understand that the demonetization exercise is being conducted to combat the menace of black money and tax avoidance," he told reporters on Thursday.</span><br/><span>Related: India's cash crisis could kill its economic boom</span><br/><span>Other countries have written to the government separately, including India's neighborhood rival Pakistan.</span><br/><span>The Pakistan High Commission said its diplomats had been stopped from withdrawing their salaries — paid in U.S. dollars — by their bank in New Delhi. Before they could access the funds, they were asked to submit a letter declaring the purpose of their withdrawal.</span><br/><span>"We were trying to abide by the instructions of the [Indian] government, but this is in addition to that," said Pakistan High Commission spokesperson Manzoor Ali, who said his colleagues were able to meet last week with representatives of India's foreign ministry.</span><br/><span>"The government has given us assurance that the problem will be solved. Let us see," he said.</span></p> Two years on, Narendra #Modi…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2016-05-15:1119293:Comment:1093962016-05-15T23:03:44.747ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Two years on, Narendra #Modi "hasn't achieved anything yet" as he struggles to realize #India’s dreams. #BJP</span><br></br><br></br><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/15/two-years-on-narendra-modi-struggles-to-realise-indias-dreams.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/15/two-years-on-narendra-modi-struggles-to-realise-indias-dreams.html</a><br></br><br></br><span>Narendra Modi's sweeping victory in the May 2014 Indian general election prompted jubilation among his Hindu supporters in…</span></p>
<p><span>Two years on, Narendra #Modi "hasn't achieved anything yet" as he struggles to realize #India’s dreams. #BJP</span><br/><br/><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/15/two-years-on-narendra-modi-struggles-to-realise-indias-dreams.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/15/two-years-on-narendra-modi-struggles-to-realise-indias-dreams.html</a><br/><br/><span>Narendra Modi's sweeping victory in the May 2014 Indian general election prompted jubilation among his Hindu supporters in Varanasi, the northern city on the Ganges he had chosen as his parliamentary seat.</span><br/><br/><span>The energetic leader of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata party seemed to usher in a radical change from the sclerotic Congress government he had deposed, promising jobs for the young, toilets for the poor and economic reforms for investors and entrepreneurs.</span><br/><br/><span>Two years on, and even Mr Modi's supporters in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, are beginning to wonder if the prime minister will be able to achieve half of what he has pledged — whether the target is a clean-up of the polluted Gangesor the revival of Indian manufacturing.</span><br/><br/><span>"Modi's a realist," says one retired banker in Varanasi, "but he hasn't achieved anything yet. People say he needs more time."</span><br/><br/><span>Higher up the Ganges in Kanpur, the industrial city once known as the Manchester of India, business leaders say the erratic supply of electricity has improved slightly. But there are few new jobs for the 1m or so young Indians who enter the workforce each month: lack of power, the difficulty of acquiring land, restrictive labour laws and constant interference by bureaucratic and corrupt government inspectors have made sure of that.</span><br/><br/><span>P. Chidambaram, a Congress leader and former finance minister, says the government is "on a dangerous path" of promoting polarisation, while the BJP's Arun Shourie, a disenchanted former confidant of Mr Modi, laments the "intimidation and silencing" of the government's critics.</span><br/><br/><span>Yet the principal complaint about Mr Modi is not that he is a domineering Hindu puritan but that he has failed to do much for economic development.</span><br/><br/><span>"His concept of development is a few large, shining and conspicuous projects," says Mr Shourie, referring to such Modi-led campaigns as "Make in India" and "Digital India". Or, as Mr Chidambaram puts it: "Where are the jobs?"</span><br/><br/><span>Business leaders say it is unfair to suggest that nothing has been achieved, although few of them would agree with Jayant Sinha, minister of state for finance and a former McKinsey partner, when he says "we are fundamentally changing the nature of Indian capitalism" to help entrepreneurs.</span><br/><br/><span>----</span><br/><br/><span>Mr Modi also faces intense resistance to change from Indian bureaucrats and is undermined by ineffective cabinet ministers he seems unwilling to sack. He sometimes finds his initiatives blocked by state governments — such as that of Uttar Pradesh — controlled by parties other than the BJP. Banks are constrained from new lending by a mountain of bad loans for infrastructure and industry dating back to previous administrations.</span><br/><br/><span>Priyankar Upadhyaya, a political scientist at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, says Mr Modi "desperately" wants economic development and finds himself stuck in a "trap of expectations" set by hopeful voters.</span></p> Intolerance and despotism are…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2016-03-28:1119293:Comment:1081422016-03-28T05:40:05.318ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Intolerance and despotism are undermining #Modi’s reforms in #India. #BJP #Hindu <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/intolerance-despotism-undermine-modi-reforms-440603" target="_blank">http://www.newsweek.com/intolerance-despotism-undermine-modi-reforms-440603</a> …</span><br></br><br></br><span>This article first appeared on the Riding the Elephant site.</span><br></br><br></br><span>“Misinterpreting nationalism—BJP’s swing to jingoism does not augur well,” said a headline earlier this week in the…</span></p>
<p><span>Intolerance and despotism are undermining #Modi’s reforms in #India. #BJP #Hindu <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/intolerance-despotism-undermine-modi-reforms-440603" target="_blank">http://www.newsweek.com/intolerance-despotism-undermine-modi-reforms-440603</a> …</span><br/><br/><span>This article first appeared on the Riding the Elephant site.</span><br/><br/><span>“Misinterpreting nationalism—BJP’s swing to jingoism does not augur well,” said a headline earlier this week in the Business Standard, one of India’s leading newspapers. It reflected concern in India and abroad over what the paper called the governing BJP’s “disturbing drift towards hyper-nationalism.”</span><br/><br/><span>The only word slightly wrong there is “drift,” because there is a growing suspicion among observers that this is not some gradual meandering, but a determination to develop divisive politics, driven for vote-catching reasons by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, notably Amit Shah, the party’s hard-line president, Rajnath Singh, the government’s rather stern looking home minister, aided occasionally by Smriti Irani, the voluble minister for human resource development.</span><br/><br/><br/><span>The latest example of their drive has come with a strident demand for people to prove their patriotism by declaring “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” which means “Victory to Mother India” (or the motherland).</span><br/><br/><span>Originally triggered a couple of weeks ago when a Muslim member of a regional assembly refused to recite the line, this is really a non-issue because a wide spectrum of the population (including Muslims) have no problem with saying it (nor with others not saying it), though many would prefer the conventional “Jai Hind” which means “Praise be to India.” It is also the slogan used by the Indian army.</span><br/><br/><span>Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has led chanting of the Bharat Mata slogan at his big overseas Indians’ rallies in places like London’s Wembley Stadium, and this could have been a harmless debate until Shah and others said that not chanting it was “anti-national.” After a week of growing controversy that dominated the media, a meeting of the BJP’s national executive last weekend passed a resolution that said, “Refusal to chant victory to Bharat is tantamount to disrespect to our Constitution itself.”</span><br/><br/><span>The BJP ministers seem to believe that polarizing opinion around such Hindu-driven nationalism, especially the word Bharat (Hindi for India), will be a vote winner for various assembly elections next month, followed by a key election in Uttar Pradesh state next year and then the next general election that is due in 2019. For them, even opposition to the government is anti-national.</span><br/><br/><span>Modi presumably agrees, though he and they know that the BJP won the general election almost two years ago because of his image as a leader who would bring development and efficient government, not rampant nationalism. The BJP has lost key state elections in Bihar and Delhi in the past 15 months because Modi and others pushed the nationalist anti-Muslim agenda, but that has not deterred the hard-liners.</span><br/><br/><span>Modi and Development</span><br/><br/><span>Modi is now stressing development. “Vikas, vikas, vikas [development] is my only focus and it is our country’s solution to all problems,” he said at the party’s executive meeting. He does not, however, seem to have tried to rein in Shah and the others, so maybe he and Shah will each run their own lines so as to broaden the party’s appeal to voters.</span><br/><br/><span>That gels with reports that the RSS, the BJP’s ideology-driven parent organization that steers the behavior of the party’s leaders and government ministers, wants development to be included in the message. (The RSS has also recently softened its image by replacing its uniform of khaki shorts with long trousers.) Arun Jaitley, the government chief spokesman and finance minister, said last weekend that both nationalism and development could proceed together—which is, of course, correct if the nationalist angle is not turned into social divisiveness.</span></p> Economist Amartya Sen: "Never…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2016-01-26:1119293:Comment:1077172016-01-26T03:35:57.497ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Economist Amartya Sen: "Never been optimistic about #India. But today, I'm more pessimistic" #Modi #BJP</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="http://qz.com/601769" target="_blank">http://qz.com/601769</a> via @qzindia</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>From Davos to New Delhi, prime minister Narendra Modi and his government are trying hard to sell the story of India’s revival. But Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has scarcely been more pessimistic about the state of the…</span></p>
<p><span>Economist Amartya Sen: "Never been optimistic about #India. But today, I'm more pessimistic" #Modi #BJP</span><br/><br/><span><a href="http://qz.com/601769" target="_blank">http://qz.com/601769</a> via @qzindia</span><br/><br/><br/><span>From Davos to New Delhi, prime minister Narendra Modi and his government are trying hard to sell the story of India’s revival. But Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has scarcely been more pessimistic about the state of the nation.</span><br/><span>At an evening session of the Kolkata Literary Meet on Jan. 23, the 82-year-old Harvard University professor was asked if and when he had felt the most optimistic in the decades of observing India’s policies on education, the agency of women, and healthcare.</span><br/><span>“I don’t think I’ve felt optimistic at any time,” Sen replied chortling, as the audience of a few hundreds chuckled briefly.</span><br/><span>His early years during India’s colonial occupation, he explained, were no reason for optimism, although there was much hope that Independence would turn the situation around. “Then came Nehru’s speech at midnight, and we were going to do great things in education and healthcare,” Sen said. “That remained the rhetoric, and is still today the rhetoric.”</span><br/><br/><br/><span>“You said that schools have expanded…” Sen said, turning to Harvard University historian and Trinamool Congress member of parliament, Sugata Bose, who was in conversation with the economist on stage. “They have expanded but still there are many schools with one teacher, which is very difficult…”</span><br/><span>Bose helpfully recalled the “savage cuts” in primary education under the Modi government. Indeed, in the first full budget presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley last year, the government cut back on the country’s education budget by 16%, with a 10% reduction in planned outlay to the school sector. Alongside, the government’s spending on health dropped by 15%.</span><br/><span>“What I didn’t recognise,” Sen continued, “I feared it might be worse (but) I didn’t recognise, what Sugata (Bose) referred to just now, how big and savage the cuts in an already very low budget would have been.”</span><br/><span>“China spends 3% of its income on healthcare,” he explained. “We spend less than 1% and most of it goes in a peculiar way like RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana), which is totally counterproductive. You subsidise private hospitals with it when you have expensive treatment but you don’t do the basic public services in healthcare…”</span><br/><br/><span>“So I never was very optimistic, but am I more pessimistic right now? Ya.”</span><br/><span>Another round of muffled laughter followed.</span><br/><span>This isn’t the first time that Sen has expressed concern on India’s renewed attempts to push for higher economic growth without first improving its education and healthcare systems. In an interview last November at the London School of Economics, Sen had explained:</span><br/><span>India is the only country in the world which is trying to become a global economic power with an uneducated and unhealthy labour force. It’s never been done before, and never will be done in the future either…</span><br/><span>…India is trying to be different from America, Europe, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, China—all of them. This is not a good way of thinking of economics. So foundationally, the government’s understanding of development underlying their approach is mistaken. Having said that, the previous government was terribly mistaken, too. But one hoped there might be a change, and there has been, but not for the better. All the sins of the past government have been added up.</span></p>