recession in india and the measures needed

Jayathi Ghosh , in her article, “Hardly the brick and mortar of revival “(29.8.190) in The Hindu has very correctly pointed out where all the government has faulted , before prescribing measures to halt the recession trend .Any doctor would prescribe medicines to a patient only after diagnosing the root cause of an illness or a disease . The same principle has to be applied before deciding or announcing  measures to correct disturbances in the economy, especially when it is of serious nature .  Mainly, the government should have the straight forwardness to accept four things viz., acceptance of the  economic chaos created by demonetisation  via crippling of the small scale sector resulting in massive joblessness ,the tax confusion created by hastily introduction of GST tax structure , resulting in fall in tax revenue, fall in effective demand , especially from poor and middle class due  irrational GST rates on articles common consumption and the climate of uncertainty and lack of confidence of investors due to disappointment over government reluctance to provide fiscal concessions and easy credit facilities. The immediate remedy  to correct recession trend should start from demand side by, putting more money into the pockets of middle and  poor class  through control of inflation , creation  of more jobs to rural poor through  MGNREGS and then concentrate on supply side after the effective demand  start showing upward trend  . For this to happen , unemployment insurance fund can be enhanced and  state governments can be urged  take up new small public work projects  or comple the ongoing ones urgently

recession trends in India

Leading economists, opposition parties, the government own  economic advisers, the industrialists  and the media through columnists articles and editorials have been articulating about likelihood of emergence economic crisis  for the last two years . But the government was neither  paying any attention and  nor took  preventive measures  to protect the economy from the economic strains facing India today.  Even the  recent Budget nullified every section’s hopes. The FM”s announcements of the various  corrective measures made on 23th, August looks like an endorsement of the mistakes committed  in the budget and the need to take quick actions to prevent deepening of the economic crisis . The government is constantly in denial mode regarding the effects of demonetisation and the introduction of imperfect GST structure particularly, on the small and medium sector and the alarming rate of increase in job losses . At least, from now on  the government should study the economic situation closely and introduce timely economic reforms before it goes beyond control and push us towards deep recession.

Women's safety in India

The various Indian governments have introduced many laws for women’s safety in India. Yet,   this problem  remains a serious  one till today. In the case of Unnaao rape incident, the victim  has lost her father , two aunts and battling for life in the hospital along with her lawyer  in addition, to fighting for justice all along in the courts , despite meager resources . The UP government is not  ashamed of the  highest  crime rate  against women (14. 5 %) nor was it prompt in taking stern action against  the ruling party member and the lawmaker for indulging  in all sorts of atrocities in this case.   This silent spectator attitude of the party high commands only emboldens the political class to violate laws . But for the intervention of the Supreme court, justice to the victim would not have been done. But ,the worrying part of this whole incident is that, if the victims of crimes against women  will get gender justice only from courts then, what is the use of women safety laws?  How many women have the resources for legal battle

the perlous state of academic freedom

Rajeev Bargava in his article , “the perilous state of academic freedom”  (last week)has rightly  warned about another” brain drain” due to lack of academic freedom slowly eroding in India in the recent past. If we are really serious about emergence of more and more centers of excellence with global ranking for our universities  ,  the fundamental requirement is the prevalence of the atmosphere of freedom to the administrators, teachers and students for freedom of expression of their thoughts   over policies, programmes, rules and events which happen around them. Teachers are expected to encourage students to ask questions on matters of national, regional, campus and academic importance.  Such encouragement  should be given  to the teachers too,  to result in the publication of research papers and books of high quality. Fearless Questioning habit will result  in   vibrant academic discussions  and kindle the  thought process. But if anybody who  have  dissenting views are questioned by the university authorities and actions taken on them to discourage them from free thinking activities and if any academician  is threatened for free writing , research process and quality would be poor. Choking or stifling atmosphere in our universities would drive them outside our nation in search of academic freedom