Articles by A Vaidyanathan

(The following are extracts from an open letter sent to the Minister of Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh, protesting against the decision to freeze Greenpeace India’s accounts.)

There is no sign of recognition among the political class and policymakers of the implications of the persistence of many adverse trends in the Indian economy and their underlying causes. That the socio-economic consequences of allowing present trends to continue will be serious is already manifest in widening disparities between castes and communities, classes, rural and urban areas, and individuals. Measures meant to counter this have not been pursued seriously and have had little effect on the ground reality of persistent inequality, slow growth, and an unacceptably high incidence of mass poverty and unemployment. This article calls for a radical retuning of policies aimed at achieving inclusive economic growth and a more egalitarian distribution of income.

The cooperative movement in India was started by far-sighted colonial offi cials and later became an instrument of the development state in the post-Independence era, never really becoming a popular movement driven by its members. As the cooperatives have become central to government policy on rural credit, they have come to be entrenched power centres for doling out patronage, financial help and political support. This article proposes some measures for their successful reform.

Measures to relax the fiscal constraint to permit a significant increase in investment necessary to arrest and reverse the current deceleration of growth without sacrificing programmes for improving social services and providing social protection have become more compelling and urgent than ever. This calls for a strong restraint in acceding to numerous demands for tax reliefs, special assistance and "bailouts" from different groups claiming to be affected by the crisis. Such relief must be discriminating, temporary and kept to the minimum. The focus of fiscal policy must be on reviewing policies and making such changes as will protect the interests of growth over the longer term.

Inclusive Growth: K N Raj on Economic Development Ashoka Mody (ed)