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FACULTY ADVISOR’S NOTE I have now been teaching since before many of the young contributors to this edition of Aapoorti were born. I realized that in an epiphanous moment, chatting with some students. And predictably, one of them asked ―Aren‘t you bored?‖ But that‘s the thing – much though teaching is about routines and timetables and schedules, it is also about curiosity, about discovery and sometimes, about invention. My job gives me a ring-side view of young ladies preparing to take on the world. Aapoorti is a sample of their enterprise, motivation and teamwork. In a world hurtling to madness, this is what gives me hope: the knowledge that our students have the intellectual curiosity and the organizational capacity to create the space for expressing themselves, of transcending boundaries set by curricula, as also by received wisdom. For them, I take the liberty of quoting from W.H. Auden‘s ‗The Waters‘: Poet, oracle and wit Like unsuccessful anglers by The ponds of apperception sit, Baiting with the wrong request The vectors of their interest; At nightfall tell the angler‘s lie….
The waters long to hear our question put Which would release their longed-for answer, but.
At the end of the day, asking the right questions is more important than having all right the answers. The latter, in fact, may even be dangerous.
I do believe that our students will take forward into their professional lives the same values of leadership, enterprise, teamwork and, above all, the appetite to learn that they have displayed in bringing out this edition of Aapoorti. And I believe their world will be a better place because of this.
With the warmest of wishes,
Meeta Kumar Faculty Advisor Arthashastra
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TEACHER-IN-CHARGE’S NOTE
It is a pleasure to introduce the seventh edition of the annual magazine of the Economics department, Aapoorti. It was started in the year 2010-11with the collective efforts of students of our department when they able to come up with a journal of their own. Since then this legacy has been carried forward. It is a significant step forward to encourage our students to have inquisitive minds and pen their thoughts on paper that can go way beyond the academic curricula. This would also prepare them to engage in rigorous research in future.
The world economy is in a state of flux where things are changing at an unprecedented rate. Although people throughout history have had to work to get by, we now live in a culture where we are led to believe we have economics freedom, we are infact bound in servitude. The writings in this journal have tried to bring about the understandings of these complexities in our economy vis a vis the world economy. I am glad to see that varied issues like commodity fetishism, austerity, and economic slavery have been addressed. The contributions are from various colleges of Delhi University as well as other colleges.
I congratulate the Editorial Team for working really hard towards this journal and wish them all the luck. I would also like to thank my colleagues who have led the department from strength to strength throughout.
Neetu Chopra
Teacher-in-Charge, Economics Department,
Miranda House
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This year's Aapoorti has been a culmination of a lot of people's hard work and efforts, the list of which is endless. We thank Ms. Meeta Kumar, for her enthusiasm, support and invaluable inputs throughout the year. The team extends a special thanks to our Teacher-in-Charge Ms. Neetu Chopra for helping us out every time we needed guidance; and to each faculty member of the Economics department, to whom we turn to, time and again. Our heartfelt gratitude also goes to Haritha Vijay VL, President and Maitreiyee Krishna, Vice President of Arthashastra, the Economics Society. Our undying love to the head of Vishleshan, Ritisha Mishra for the wonderfully managed research proposals we've featured. To the heads of our design team, Rituparna Sanyal and Enakshi Panda, and especially to Routhu Santhoshi Srilaya, for both-designing the Journal cover and for keeping us creatively inspired at all times. Finally, we thank the many writers who have been featured: this magazine's success is because of you, and we hope you keep coming back to us year after year. Last but definitely not the least, to you, the reader. This magazine is as much yours as ours, and we thank you for all the support. We hope you enjoy reading it, as much as we enjoyed writing it.
To anyone else, who has both directly and indirectly been a part of this year long journey, we extend our sincerest love and gratitude.
Warmest Regards, The Editorial Board. Aapoorti
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EDITOR’S NOTE
As Aapoorti goes to press, the world is getting fragmented more than ever, ideologically, along fractals of economic inequality, class, caste and gender, and our focal point keeps blurring as newer fissures are spotted. Our journey this year has been both enlightening and terrifying, as we chose to confront those that we have been in denial of, as we looked inwards, along the grimy passage of time, we came across history‘s stubbornness, for some classes more than for others and discovered the acrid smell of gunpowder and how it distorts market outcomes. We celebrated the legends who strove to make this world a little more beautiful, one theory at a time.
Our journey with Aapoorti has been full of contentment and fulfilment. It‘s the passion of economics that binds us. Aapoorti 2017 tries to break the boundaries that have been set by the previous editions. The seventh edition is yet another step in the long journey the journal will transverse.
This year, the Editor‘s Desk brings you the theme-, ―Slavery in the 21st century‖. The basic essence of slavery relates to one not being a stake holder of one's own decision making process, or rather of a society where you are expected to unconditionally submit to decisions that have been taken on your behalf. A system where you are alienated from not just the factors of production but in fact from a say on the deployment of your very own labour. You are culturally conditioned to stay in denial of the finer aspects of human life. Aapoorti 2017 seeks to explore the manifestation of such slavish culture in the modern day society which in the theory of linear teleology of societal evolution has left behind the world of shackles, fetters and scourges. Have we? Maybe. May be not. We in Aapoorti seek to understand if those traits have lingered into our 'civilized society' which boasts of having amended its feral ways. We discuss the modern day rhetoric of liberty, sovereignty and fraternity in this context. We have tried to investigate if certain parallels exist between a slave, a society and the societal orientations in the 21st century, orientations in terms of the economic structure, industrial organisation and the institutional edifices.
It was a great learning experience and a matter of privilege and pride to serve as the Chief Editors of Aapoorti 2017. The responsibility was immense and the journey was beautiful. We would like to thank the whole Editorial Board for showing such enthusiasm and putting in so much effort to make this a success. We hope the readers enjoy as much reading it as we had compiling it.
Chief Editors Madhukari Mishra, Prerna Panda
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CONTENT
S. No. Article Author Page No.
From the cluttered desk of the Editors
1. Austerity: Slavery in the 21st century Prerna Panda, Nithya 8 Srinivasan
2. Why an Individual Becomes a Slave Meghna Nair, Pragti 12 Under Communist Regimes Rathore
3. Would You Like Guns for Breakfast Nikita Sharma and 22 Ayesha Ahmed
4. Foreign Direct Investment: Survival of Aarti Gupta, 26 the fittest Riddhima Sobti
5. Slavery in the Modern Times: A theatre Madhukari Mishra 30 of the Absurd
The Contributors’ Corner
6. Prioritising People over Product Rituparna Sanyal 36
7. Job Security and Unemployment In an Payal Priyadarshini 40 Increasingly Mechanised World
8. The Silver Lining Between the Bullets Nedson Ng‘oma 43
9. Two States and Their Idiosyncratic Smriti Mehra 47 Growth Path
10. The Inscrutability of Economics Manpreet Dash 55
11. How Domestic-Global Interaction Help Ritisha Mishra 57 Global Economy
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12. Living in Trans: A study on the socio- Shivani Mohan, 65 economic condition of the transgender Shreshtha Mishra community in India
13. The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Anshu Kumari, Rahul 72 of Delhi’s Water Supply Shocks Singh Chauhan, Tanya Sethi
Research Papers
14. The Story of Migrants in Delhi Ritisha Mishra, 80 Maitreiyee Krishna, Shubham Kaushik
15. Pratyaksh Hastaantarit Laabh (PaHaL) Enakshi Panda, Payal 91 Scheme: A move towards fixing India’s Priyadarshini, broken subsidy regime Rituparna Sanyal, Shraddha Shrivastava
16. To Identify and Study Variables Aanchal Goyal, 97 Affecting the Demand for Swadeshi Khushboo Goyal, Products Shreshtha Mishra, Shubhangi Sharma
In Conversation with Urvashi Butalia 112
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From the Cluttered
Desk of the Editors
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Austerity: Slavery in the 21st century
Prerna Panda and Nithya Srinivasan
Austerity, according to the Oxford grouped under the term 'austerity dictionary, refers to the difficult economic measures' may include spending cuts, tax conditions created by government increases, or a mixture of both. In most measures to reduce public expenditure. By macroeconomic models austerity measures austerity, economists generally mean a generally increase unemployment as reduction in structural deficit of the government spending falls, reducing jobs government, i.e., ignoring the effects of in the public and/or private sector. economic cycle. The deficit rises and falls Meanwhile, tax increases reduce as the economy contracts and expands- this household disposable income, thus is what the automatic stabilisers of reducing spending and consumption. economy. In a period of economic growth, Government spending contributes to the tax revenues will rise and spending on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reducing unemployment benefits will fall; the the spending may result in a higher debt- cyclical deficit will decline (or a surplus to-GDP ratio, a key measure of a country's will rise) even if the government does debt burden nothing at all to change policy. People were the victims of austerity‘s slashed Austerity as Psychological Slavery public services, wages and jobs; those Apart from having economic impacts on imposing it, escaped its bitter effects with the citizens, austerity also has some grave cash. The public views and the psychological impacts. People suffer from economists‘ views are not always the a feeling of mistrust and fear, humiliation same. Austerity has always been harsh to and shame, instability and insecurity, the citizens. Rising unemployment and isolation and loneliness and experienced a debt, homelessness, increase in infant feeling of being trapped and powerless. mortality, denial to public health services Austerity relies on a politics of fear and by the government are some. The distrust to drive through policies which hit government tries to lower its debt by the most vulnerable the hardest. Austerity viciously gouging public services, cutting policies targets benefit claimants, using the pensions and the minimum wage, firing vilification of benefit claiming and beliefs public servants, raising taxes and selling about the level of benefit cheating. Shame and privatizing government-owned assets. and humiliation are both social emotions. Austerity as Debt Slavery Humiliation comes when people are made to feel that they are less in status or worth, Austerity is a set of economic policies while shame occurs when people are made implemented with the aim of reducing to feel that they have violated some moral government budget deficits. Policies or social status. Austerity increases
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Aapoorti | 2017 insecurity in both work and welfare benefit government also took step towards payments; instability becomes an intrinsic authoritarian control over its opposition. part of many people‘s experiences. Work no longer remains a guarantee of stability. Similar effects were seen in case of Ireland Insecurity, both personal and material, is also. It was the first country to agree an known to be central to mental distress. It is international bail-out with the Troika of known that job insecurity leads to poor the European Commission, International mental health outcomes. Austerity hits the Monetary Fund (IMF) and European local government very hard. The funding Central Bank (ECB). The agreements are highly affected which reduces resource between the Irish government(s) and that support community living. People Troika included severe decrease in the living in deprived communities become wage and pension in the public sector. more socially isolated. Policies which There were severe cuts in the public increase isolation and loneliness therefore employment. The impact on the social care have a direct risk of damaging mental and health was drastic. Spain was another health outcomes in both the short and long such country that saw the darker side of run. Austerity removes many choices from austerity. people‘s lives who are struggling or living Greek Austerity and Slavery with low incomes. This leads to the feeling of being trapped and powerless. Feeling The Greek crisis is one of the major powerless is also a key component of economic crisis that has been visible over many psychotic experiences, such as the past few years and has been widely paranoia. debated in popular media due to the extreme amounts of austerity that have Austerity in different countries been imposed on its people. Greece joined From the last few years, Venezuela has the European Union in 1981 and adopted been in an economic crisis and things have the Euro in 2001 post which it experienced reached its boiling point. President Nicolas sustained growth till 2008.Its GDP per Maduro had even declared a 60-day state capita nearly tripled from $12,400 2001 to of emergency, claiming there were plots $31,700 in 2008. The Greek government from within Venezuela and from the took huge loans from Greek and foreign United States to undermine his authority. companies in order to finance its wide The highly unpopular socialist government variety of infrastructure related projects. had also announced electricity rationing However it was later discovered that the and drastic cutbacks to the state work Greek deficit was largely underreported. schedule, because of a drought and As the financial crisis of 2007-08 hit the because world oil prices had collapsed, world lenders started demanding their cutting government revenues dramatically. money back, Greece‘s default was The National Assembly, controlled by the discovered and the country‘s inability to opposition, added to the plight of the meet its debt obligations resulted in its people by declaring the country‘s health GDP drastically reducing by 20%. sector a national emergency. The Greece owes a total debt of 323 billion euros to various countries and banks
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Aapoorti | 2017 within Europe and its debt to GDP ratio is of the views of the Greek people who are a mounting 177%.This forced the being forced to accept extreme measures government to seek help from World for no fault of their own. Bank, IMF and its largest international creditors included Germany followed by France and Italy. However these entities Is austerity a new form of agreed to help bailout Greece only if it economic slavery? imposed certain austerity measures on its ―We didn‘t vote No against austerity but people. While these austerity measures against debt slavery‖ have been constantly coming in since 2010 they have increased in such magnitude that While many think of slavery in terms of the Greek public have been vehemently bonded labour and serfdom, modern times opposing these measures through protests experience this in the form of debt slavery and demonstrations besides voting a clear or large cut in the minimum wages. In the NO in the referendum in 2015. Greece crisis, people of the country were forced to take in large cuts in their Greek Austerity Measures minimum wages and accept huge amounts A series of Thirteen austerity packages of debt against their own will. Many see have been imposed on the Greek public this as a form of enslavement of Greece at until May 2016.These include freeze in the hands of other powers such as wages of government employees, sharp Germany and France who demand decreases in bonuses, cut in overtime unconditional surrender in the form of workers, pensions etc. Further, official austerity. While most of the mainstream accounts of the country‘s unemployment literature criticises Greece for not rate are at 22.6%.Besides large increases in accepting these austerity measures we as taxes (especially luxury and sin taxes outsiders fail to understand the notion of along with value added taxes) there have these measures for the people. Besides been huge public sector cuts and new taxes resulting in rapid decreases in their on company profits. One of the cost severe standards of living Greek believe this to be of these measures is that the pensions have a form of economic warfare where decreased by 20% to 50% which is huge Germany is being cast as the aggressor and problematic because a large number of France as the secondary power. While war households depend on pensions for may not necessarily be the metaphor we meeting their expenses. In a referendum are looking for, austerity is an indirect way held in Greece in 2015 more than 61% of by which financial and upper classes the population voted ‗NO‘ for adopting worldwide enslave workers in the targeted further austerity measures in spite of underperforming region or country. It‘s a knowing that the repercussions of this vote way in which one developed country could lead to Greece‘s forced exit out of enslaves another developed country and is the Eurozone and consequent bankruptcy. often called as the start of a larger While critics have largely argued in phenomenon of neo-imperialism. Why this popular media that this was the wrong notion is also gaining popularity among choice, there is gross underrepresentation the masses is because Germany and Greece have always been strong
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Aapoorti | 2017 competitors and this implication is all the vehemently opposed these anti- austerity more reason that the people of the country measures.
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Why An Individual Becomes a Slave Under Communist Regimes Meghna Nair and Pragti Rathore
The origin of the word Communism can be profit. Therefore, communism leads to a traced to the word commune, when stagnation of economic activity. the French philosopher and writer Victor d'Hupay who, in his 1777 book "Project" A stagnant economy leads to a reduction in defined the communist lifestyle as a prosperity for society. It causes industry to "commune" (a "communal") and advises to use inferior methods, leading to a decrease 'share all economic and material products in technology. The result is decaying between inhabitants of the "commune", so industry and infrastructure-basically a that all may benefit from everybody's poorer society overall. work' Most importantly, communism reduces Communism is any form of government personal freedom. To meet pre-decided characterized by shared ownership of all production goals, the citizens of a property and nonexistence of social communist regime are forced to follow classes, money and the state. Under government commands. Travel into and capitalism, the price system is followed as out of the country is severely constrained a means for allocating scarce resources. and political dissention is suppressed by Communism rejects the price system. militaristic police. Under capitalism, goods are exchanged between the buyers and sellers on a People are not permitted to own their own mutually agreed-upon price and production businesses or manufacture their own levels are similarly determined. In a goods. Decisions regarding how much to communist economy, however, the state produce are left to the government's will, solely decides what and how much is to be which can lead to overproduction or produced. This unvaryingly leads to underproduction. People's compensation is shortages of some goods and surpluses of also determined by the government. others, which are not economically desirable. The result of all this is basically that the individual acts like a Slave to the state, Capitalism functions on the idea of there is no political, ideological, social or incentives. People are motivated by economic freedom. Everything is incentives: workers by salaries and wages determined by the enslaver - the socialist and owners by profits. Communism state. eradicates incentives. Because the State controls production, there is no incentive to work harder to achieve higher wages, nor are citizens incentivized to undertake the entrepreneurial risks necessary to earn
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Slavery under Capitalism manufacturing and centralized administrative planning. The economy was By listing out the drawbacks of characterized by government control of communism, I don‘t aim to say that investment, public ownership of industrial Capitalism is the best form of government assets, macroeconomic stability, guaranteeing economic freedom. Even negligible unemployment and high job under Capitalism form of market, the security. individual becomes a slave to the capitalist Beginning in 1928, the entire economy instruments of market- the invisible hand, was guided by a series of Five-Year Plans, the wage rate, etc. with a brief attempt at seven-year planning also. By the 1950s, the Soviet Union Slavery is an outflow of the current evolved from a mainly agrarian world/money system followed by us, society into a chief industrial power. basically Capitalism, which creates an Based on a system of state ownership, the environment with such economic Soviet economy was managed through 3 discrepancies where you have a small bodies- Gosplan (the State Planning Commission), the Gosbank (the State percentage of the population with all the Bank) and the Gossnab (State Commission resources, money and power, while the for Materials and Equipment Supply). For majority is fighting and finding a way to every enterprise, planning ministries, also just provide themselves with basic survival known as the "fund holders" requirements. By Economic Slavery, I do or fondoderzhateli defined the mix of not mean citizens on the brink of survival, economic inputs such as labor and raw starving to death. It exists at any point materials, a schedule for completion, when one individual uses their advantages all wholesale prices and nearly all retail to control and enslave another. prices. The planning process was based around material balances—matching An individual fighting for Survival, for economic inputs with planned output their basic survival needs, does not have targets for the planning period. Due to the choice or option to decide what job ideological reasons, the range of they will do. They do not have the time to mathematics used to assist economic ponder other options as bills must be paid. decision-making from the 1930s to the And because of this, the workers will agree 1950s was extremely restricted. to any kind of wage provided to them by Industry was long focused after 1928 on the employers, however less they are. the production of capital goods through metallurgy, machine This is the reason an individual becomes a manufacture, and chemical industry. The slave even under a capitalist form of capital goods were known as group A market. goods, or means of production. This stress was based on the apparent necessity for a
very fast industrialization and Socialism in the Soviet Union with modernization of the Soviet Union. After the death of Stalin in 1953, consumer a specific emphasis on the goods, which were the group B goods, economy received somewhat more emphasis due to the efforts of Malenkov. However, The economy of the Soviet Union, from when Khrushchev consolidated his power 1949-1991, was based on a system of state by sacking Malenkov, one of the ownership of the means of accusations against Malenkov was that he production, cooperative farming, industrial allowed "theoretically incorrect and
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Aapoorti | 2017 politically harmful opposition to the rate of shortages of many consumer goods. development of heavy industry in favor of Whenever these consumer goods would the rate of development of light and food become available on the market, industry.‖ Therefore capital goods were consumers routinely had to stand in long again prioritized from 1955 onwards. queues to buy them. A black market developed for goods that were Most information in the Soviet economy particularly sought after but constantly flowed from top down. There were several under produced, like cigarettes. mechanisms in place for producers and consumers to provide input and The major strength of the Soviet economy information that would help in the lied in its enormous supply of oil and gas, conscripting of economic plans, but the which became much more treasured as political climate was such that few exports, after the world price of oil people ever provided negative input or skyrocketed in the 1970s. The Soviet criticism of the plan. Thus, Soviet economy in its final decades was "heavily planners had very little authentic dependent on vast natural resources like oil feedback that they could use to and gas." However, world oil prices determine the success of their plans. collapsed in 1986, putting very substantial This meant that economic planning was pressure on the economy. After coming to often done based on defective or outdated power in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev began information, particularly in sectors with a process of economic liberalization that large numbers of consumers. As a result, moved the economy towards a mixed some goods tended to be under produced, economy. At its dissolution at the end of leading to shortages, while other goods 1991, the Soviet Union left the Russian were overproduced and accumulated in Federation a growing pile of $66 billion in storage- a situation of surplus. Low-level external debt, and with barely a few billion managers often did not report such dollars in net gold and foreign exchange problems to their seniors, depending reserves. instead on each other for support. Some factories developed a system of barter and The Perestroika: the started exchanging or sharing raw materials and parts without the knowledge dismantlement of the Soviet of the authorities and outside the economic system (1985-1991) limitations of the economic plan. The period from 1985 to 1991, Heavy industry was always the focus of corresponds to a period of economic the Soviet economy, even in its later years. recession for the Soviet Union. The It received special attention from the average per Capita GDP was growing at a planners, combined with the fact that rate of -1.3 % industrial production was relatively easy to plan even without minute feedback-this led The accession of Mikhail Gorbachev in to significant growth in that sector. The 1985 marked the beginning of the Soviet Union became one of the leading Perestroika period. Perestroika means industrial nations of the world. Industrial restructuring in Russian, and this is what production was quite high in the Soviet Gorbachev set out to achieve. The Union compared to Western economies. economic reforms implemented were However, the production of consumer intended to profoundly change the Soviet goods was disproportionately low. system. According to Gorbachev, the 2 Economic planners also made little or main goals of the Perestroika reforms were no effort to determine the wishes of to halt the slowdown trend of Soviet household consumers, resulting in severe economy and to raise the life standards of
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Aapoorti | 2017 the citizens. Soviet reformers considered the Soviet economic system. It disordered that these two interrelated objectives could the coordination of the economy be attained through the solving of the previously guaranteed by the Gosplan, problem of the ‗relaxation of discipline‘ which was gradually losing its control over and a change in the means of coordination the Soviet Economy. It created bottlenecks of the economic system. They thought that and expanded the shortages. The Labor the inflexible central economic planning Councils also took advantage of the must be softened, and a certain degree of autonomy by increasing the share of decentralization was required, along with profits going to the incentive funds at the direct participation of the workers to the expense of investment. Thus, the share of management of the enterprises. But, the profits taken by the enterprises going to most radical change in the functioning incentive funds represented 82% in 1988 mode of the Soviet economy intended by and almost 95% in 1989. Wages were the Perestroika was the creation of a raised by this increase in incentive funds. private sector and the introduction of Thanks to the Glasnost20, strikes became market mechanisms. allowed. It caused a surge of workers A number of laws and decrees were passed strikes which led to other wage increases. to implement the reform program. The Soviet system had started behaving like a Law on State Enterprise, which granted capitalist economy. considerable independence to state The augmented increase of real wages, in a enterprises, was adopted in 1987. The Law context of growing shortages, aggravated on State Enterprise defined that 5 year the problem of excess demand in the plans were becoming indicative and not USSR. It also added to the growing obligatory any more. Enterprises were inflation in the country. given target for the value of their output by Before the Law of 1987, the Soviet State the State but detailed plans of inputs- had had a total control over the enterprises, outputs for each company were no more gaining from them whatever revenues there. Government contracts were were required for the central budget. But, replacing state orders and only a portion of the situation transformed with the adoption the production of enterprises was bought of the enterprise autonomy since the State by the State. The remainder of enterprise could no longer collect whatever tax it output was sold through wholesale trade wished to. Thus, the growing size of the directly between the companies. Thus, incentive funds also meant that the share Soviet enterprises were free to determine of profit paid to state budget was dropping. the nature of share of their output. The It intensified the increasing state deficit. pricing system was no more entirely controlled by the Gosplan. A rising The freedom to determinate the prices of number of prices could be set freely, even products out of the state contract if the price of basic and strategic goods, disorganized the pricing system. The like energy, raw materials, health sector, consumer goods enterprises, which had remained under State control. Moreover, become profit-seeking because of their Soviet enterprises were permitted to newly acquired autonomy, shifted their choose the buyers of the remainder manufacture from basic goods to more products. The self-financing of the profitable ‗new products‘. After all, these enterprises was also adopted and ‗new goods‘, for which State controlled implemented through retained earnings prices did not exist, were higher-priced and bank loans and carried a larger markup. The effect was a rising shortage of basic consumer The autonomy of the state enterprises had goods. The activity of the illegal secondary many negative effects on the operation of markets was also growing fast. ‗Backdoor
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Aapoorti | 2017 channels‘ for people to pay above fixed abroad for hard currency. It was very retail prices of basic products had come lucrative and some managers enriched up. Many goods had, at the same time 3 themselves a lot, creating a group of kind of prices-a state price, a free-market wealthy capitalists for whom proceeding to price and a black market price. Statistics capitalism was considered necessary to the by the state did not take into account the survival of their new businesses. They ‗new goods‘ and the products sold on the played a central role in the disintegration black market, so they did not capture the of the USSR by financing the pro- veiled inflation and official records did not capitalist coalition and expanding the show the inflationary process in imbalances that already existed in the development. The prices were also Soviet economy. The partial freedom of affected by the place of residence. State enterprises to set prices and the total one of Cooperatives was a disruption to the Soviet distribution system. State The cooperatives were intended to be enterprises and cooperatives wanted to small-scale businesses offering goods and earn higher profits, so they took advantage services which were not provided by big of the free price-setting to increase prices. State enterprises. But, cooperatives started So, thanks to the increase in profitability having all kinds of activities and many of and their autonomy, cooperatives and State them became big companies with enterprises could increase their employees‘ operations in trade and finance. So, the wages. The result was a differentiation in Law on Cooperatives led to the birth of a wages of State enterprise employees lot of capitalist firms. The success of the depending on the extent of their free price- cooperative model is shown by the fact setting. Cooperatives, which had an that, by July 1989, barely one year after entirely autonomous price-fixing, offered the approval of the law, almost three the highest wages. Average wages were million people were working in also higher in cooperatives than in State cooperatives. At the end of 1991, this enterprises. number had grown to more than 6,2 million. Many cooperatives were started by the managers and employees of the The structural external vulnerability of the state companies. They usually bought Soviet economy worsened during the goods produced by their own enterprise at Perestroika. World oil prices reduced Comecon controlled prices, manufactured sharply in 1986 and remained very low so them in the cooperative, mostly without that Soviet current balance of payment fell any significant alteration, selling them at sharply during the Perestroika. Because of much higher free prices. These practices the overuse of the most productive led to even more shortage of consumer deposits, Soviet oil production became goods in the USSR. As you can see, many much more unsustainable. This led to a State enterprise managers became real drop in ―official‖ oil exports increasing the capitalists and accumulated huge wealth problems with hard currency. The deficit thanks to their ‗cooperative activity‘. This in the current account of the balance of consolidation of wealth in the hands of payments also increased because of the State managers increased even more growing domestic needs for consumer and thanks to the decentralization of foreign agricultural goods due to the shortages. trade. A decree in December 1989 had Finally, the exports fell by 44% in value in removed State controls over foreign trade. 1991 compared to 1990 figures. Moreover, So, many cooperatives bought goods, the fall of communism in Central and specially raw materials, metals, oil, at the Eastern Europe marked the end of the low State domestic prices and sold them
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Comecon, which impacted Soviet foreign The power of the Central State, which trade much more inversely. treated citizens as it’s slaves, led to the Thus, in 1991, the USSR was in a crucial growth of the Soviet economy in the economic situation. Unable to respond to initial years and for much of the period domestic needs for consumer and of the Cold War. But it was these agricultural goods, central Soviet reasons that led to the ultimate demise institutions had no more control on the of this modern slave regime- citizens economic and political system. GDP per realized that they were being treated as capita, which had decreased by 3.1% in second-class individuals. Their basic 1990, dropped by 6.8% in 1991. Inflation rights as human beings- democracy, free could not be kept under check. The price speech were being taken away. The system was totally disorganized. The birth ultimate result was the dissolution of the of a capitalist market had enabled the Soviet Empire. accumulation of a huge wealth by an elite group of State managers. The distribution system of the Soviet State had become Socialist Economy in China very unequal. Most political leaders aimed to realize the ‗transition to a market economy‘. Instead of restructuring, The From its founding in 1949 until late 1978, Perestroika had destroyed the Soviet the People's Republic of China was a system because of the lack of a coherent Soviet-style centrally planned economy. reform program by Gorbachev. Perestroika Following Mao's death in 1976 and the was reactive and fragmented; each reform consequent end of the Cultural was simply a response to pressures created Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and the new by the previous stage of reform. Chinese leadership began to reform the economy and move towards a more
market-oriented mixed economy under
one-party rule. Agricultural Finally, the complex demands of the collectivization was dismantled and modern economy and inflexible farmlands privatized, while foreign trade administration dazed and constrained the became a major new focus, leading to the central planners. Corruption and data creation of Special Economic fiddling became common practice Zones (SEZs). Inefficient state-owned among the bureaucracy by falsely enterprises (SOEs) were restructured and reporting fulfilled targets and quotas, unprofitable ones were closed outright, thus ensconcing the crisis. From the Stalin- resulting in massive job losses. Modern- era to the early Brezhnev-era, the Soviet day China is mainly characterized as economy grew much sluggishly having a market economy based on private than Japan and slightly quicker than property ownership, and is one of the the United States. GDP levels in 1950 (in leading examples of state capitalism. The billion 1990 dollars) were 510 (100%) in state still dominates in strategic "pillar" the USSR, 161 (100%) in Japan and 1456 sectors such as energy production (100%) in the US. By 1965 the and heavy industries, but private enterprise corresponding values were 1011 (198%), has expanded enormously, with around 587 (365%), and 2607 (179%). The Soviet 30 million private businesses recorded in Union upheld itself as the second largest 2008. economy in both nominal and purchasing power parity values for much of the Cold The economic model currently employed War until 1988, when Japan's economy by the People's Republic of China is based surpassed $3 trillion in nominal value. on the dominance of the state-owned
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Aapoorti | 2017 sector and an open-market economy, and Western notions of democracy, individual has its origins in the Chinese economic rights, and the rule of law. reforms introduced under Deng Xiaoping. The ideological rationale is that China is in This type of economic system is defended the primary stage of socialism, an early from a Stalinist perspective which states stage within the socialist mode of that a fully developed socialist planned production, and therefore has to economy can only come into existence adapt capitalist techniques to thrive. after first establishing the necessary and Despite this, the system has widely been comprehensive commodity cited as a form of state capitalism. market economy and letting it fully develop until it exhausts its historical stage and gradually transforms itself into a planned economy (the Stalinist Two-Stage After the Great Leap Forward (1958– theory of revolution). Proponents of this 1961) and the ousting of the Gang of economic model distinguish it from market Four from power, Chairman Deng socialism: market socialists believe Xiaoping was willing to consider market- that economic planning is unattainable, based methods of economic growth so as undesirable or ineffective, and thus view to revitalize China's economy and find an the market as an integral part of socialism, economic system compatible with China's whereas proponents of the socialist market specific conditions. However, in doing so, economy view markets as a temporary he remained committed to the centralized phase in development of a fully planned control and the one-party state central economy. to Leninism. Despite the official designation of The socialist market economy was a "socialism", analysts often describe the concept introduced by Deng Xiaoping in Chinese economy as a form of state order to incorporate the market into the capitalism. planned economy in the People's Republic of China. Following its implementation, The Chinese economy does not this economic system has supplemented constitute a form of socialism when the centrally planned economy in the "socialism" is defined variously as a People's Republic of China, with high planned economy where production for growth rates in GDP during the past use has replaced production for profit; decades having been attributed to it. when it is defined as a system where the Within this model, privately owned working-class is the dominant class enterprises have become a major (controls the surplus value produced by component of the economic system the economy); and when it is defined alongside the central state-owned as self-management or workplace enterprises and collective / township democracy. The study also found that as village enterprises. of 2006 capitalism was not the dominant There are some similarities to Western mode of organization in the Chinese mixed economies, with some fundamental economy, suggesting that China is still a differences. The fundamental distinction partially pre-capitalist agrarian system between the Chinese and Western mixed- with almost 50% of its population market economy models lies less in the engaged in agricultural work. implementation of the mixed economic model but rather in the degree of state- By 2005 the market-oriented reforms, ownership and underlying authoritarian including privatization, were virtually political philosophy, which eschews halted and partially reversed. In 2006, the
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Chinese government announced that the Growth in the Vietnamese Economy in the armaments, power generation and last five years has been quite high, with distribution, oil and petrochemicals, due credit given to the four main causes telecommunications, coal, aviation and for the same: shipping industries had to remain under 1. Increasing Foreign Direct Investment "absolute state control" and public 2. Free Trade Agreements ownership by law. The state retains indirect control in directing the non-state 3. The Trans Pacific Partnership economy through the financial system, 4. And an ever increasing rate of Exports which lends according to state priorities. and a shift in the constitution of the Liberalization continues to be rolled back same‘s demand. in the state-sector by the consolidation of state enterprises into large "national Vietnam is the 28th largest Export champions" with the goal of consolidating Oriented Market in the World and the 93rd efforts and creating internationally most complex market. Majority of the competitive national industries. Export Market constitutes Broadcasting The state sector is concentrated in the Equipment, Computers, Raw Petroleum 'commanding heights' of the economy with and Leather primarily to the United States a growing private sector engaged primarily of America, China, Japan and South in commodity production and light Korea. This has been seen as a positive industry. Centralized directive planning change and a measure of its growth from based on mandatory output requirements its initial export focus, which was of shoes, and production quotas has been superseded garments and the like. The Vietnamese by the free-market mechanism for most of Economy imports steel, telephones and its the economy and directive planning in equipment and integrated circuits. While a large state industries. A major difference majority of Vietnam‘s Exports are to from the old planned economy is the China which constitutes around 10% of its restructuring of state companies along a whole, roughly 30% of its Imports are commercial basis, with the exception of from China too, the majority of which is 150 large state-owned enterprises that made up of machinery. To the USA its remain and report directly to the central main exports are textiles. However even government, most having a number of though we see the quality and quantity of subsidiaries. Exports rising throughout the years, 2015 By 2008, these state-owned corporations saw Vietnam with a deficit of 3.5 billion have become increasingly dynamic largely US Dollars, which came as quite a shock contributing to the increase in revenue for for a country that had seen a surplus in its the state. By 2009 the government net exports for the last three years. considered a state insurance scheme to Foreign Direct Investment in this Asian expand healthcare coverage. The state- Economy has been remarkable with 2015 sector led the economic recovery process receiving 14.5 billion US Dollars, a 17.4% and increased economic growth in 2009 increase from the previous year. after the financial crises, partially because Investment has primarily been in the most of the Chinese stimulus package was processing and the manufacturing sector. directed towards these state-owned This has been looked at with great awe and firms. The state-sector makes out 40 to 50 positivity, keeping in mind the market percent of China's GDP. slowdown in South East Asia and China. A thorough analysis of the Vietnamese Economy and justifying our hypothesis of On the Economic Complexity Index, whether or not it perpetrates Slavery: Vietnam has a score of -0.456 making it the 93rd most complex economy in the
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Aapoorti | 2017 world, with a total of 258 products being has not exactly been so. Low cost- high exported each year. Vietnam also has a manual labour and a good demographic Revealed Competitive Advantage which structure and a comparatively stable means that its share of Global Exports is political environment (all thanks to its greater, and in Vietnam‘s case, much Socialist and Communist structure) have greater, than what is expected from it, overshadowed the aforementioned given the size of its economy. negatives. With 70% of the population within working age, and 58% of the The last few years have seen the Domestic country‘s population below 35 years of Economy booming to quite an extent too, age, this has worked in favour of thanks to low inflation and an extremely Vietnam‘s economy. With average accommodative Monetary Policy. The monthly wages as low as $197, which is Central Bank has been following a path of half of that of Thailand and less than one Expansion and has been increasing the third of that of China (with an average money supply to boost domestic demand monthly wage of $613), makes us wonder and activity, and this has been proven to be whether its political structure has anything successful. 2015 saw a 6.7% increase in to do with the same. Vietnam‘s real GDP, surpassing its target Is this the Slavery that we have been of 6.2%. The industrial and Construction referring to in our paper? Sector have been the key contributors to this growth with growth rates of 10.6% While in most capitalist production and 10.8% respectively. The Service sector models, labour is referred to as an input saw an increase of 6.3%, which was seen and treated the same as any other as a good indicator of the Economy‘s commodity required to produce output, as success too. Domestic Capital investment seen as in the simple Y= A . f (K, L) saw an increase by 9%. Agriculture which relationship, labour is remunerated as per contributes to only 17% of the Real GDP its labour power. However in a socialist of Vietnam includes 46% of the country‘s economy, labour, and man himself is entire Workforce. referred to as a property of the state. With remuneration depending on the share of The Trans Pacific Partnership too, has social product an individual contributes to, contributed quite a bit to the growth of the as well as the quality and quantity of Vietnam‘s economy and the jobs it product he produces. Those familiar with provides. This partnership which focuses the piece rate and time rate system of on a ―Made in America‖ ideal, has helped wage, this is the wage rate system that and contributed to Vietnam‘s growth in most Socialist country‘s follow. In their 2015, which has been the fastest in the last constant struggle against the Bourgeois, seven years. However its banking sector is the writers believe that labour in a one of the few sectors that have not been a Socialist economy has been identified with part of this progress and seen sluggish modern day slavery, with physical and growth. laborious work being the benchmark of reward. Handwork is rewarded and looked Coming back to the country‘s foreign at preferably over mental and brain work, investment, while the ever increasing which is expected to be left to the state. investment has been seen with much awe, Decision making is the responsibility of all over the globe, this has been in spite of the state and the state alone, as we see is the country‘s extremely poor substantiated in the fact that manual work infrastructure. Rocky roads and small as put in my miners and the like is mismanaged ports, which would usually rewarded with higher wage than workers be deterrents to investment by investors with administrative and managerial duties.
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Hours and effort over skill, which is a stability over the last few years. The one scary idea to understand and an unfamiliar thing we would like to point out in this thought to comprehend when coming from case is that the Swedish economy which countries with that follow a layered and for years had been looked at as a socialist more right wing approach. One cannot economy, with a socialist government, is help but compare this with the century old now looked at as classic example of model concept of physical slavery where men capitalism, and that we believe, has made belonged to their owners, but instead here all the difference. With close to 53% of man belongs to the state. His mind and his GDP spent by the Government as Public body alike are properties of the state, like Spending, this recently turned capitalist any other state owned commodities, which economy has had one of the lowest levels in our opinion takes away a man‘s of national debt and inflation. individuality. One can however say that As quoted from Scott Sutherland‘s paper while this is the ideal that Communism based on the same, ―Sweden‘s present and Socialism were based and founded on, economic and social prosperity was built this is rarely the practice nowadays. This on the lessons learned from the financial isn‘t what we‘re questioning. A form of crisis in the early 1990s. Governments government, in which the state decides that pursued reforms and fiscal sustainability it is the duty of man to work and became institutionalized. Stable economic contribute to his share of social product, policies combine with competitiveness, overshadows the various benefits provided innovation and an open approach to trade by a Socialist government. Where time to make Sweden a model for economic rate and piece rate system are the methods success.‖ followed, leisure isn't respected and a man‘s choice to do the same, punished. An So while what we can give you, is only a economy where you are not your own glimpse into our perspective on Slavery in person is in our opinion, slavery in its the modern world, i.e. the 21st century and truest sense. beyond, we substantiate the same with our analysis of the Vietnamese economy and The question that arises however is this: how we believe that the Socialist model in When pitted against the growth structure this country has been the reason for its of a similar scaled Capitalist country, halt-and-break slow progress. where does Vietnam lie? Will its principals of what we‘re referring to ―Slavery‖ actually benefit the economy in the long run, or slow down?
Let‘s put it in comparison to a slightly more independent and privately controlled economy, which for our convenience has been Sweden. Sweden we see has over decades performed remarkably well, with an extremely open market system and has been free of corruption and any influence that may have had any negative consequences on its performance. With a rule of law which for years has been extremely stringent, and with strict property rights and contract enforcement, the financial sector has gained much
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Would You Like Guns for breakfast
Nikita Sharma and Ayesha Ahmed
One of the most common assumptions that According to Marx, under Commodity we make while studying economic models Fetishism a commodity is illogically is that the consumer is rational. Whereas in ascribed with ‗magical‘ properties which reality, the consumer is far from the realms brings about a wide chasm between the of rationality, and closer to the T.V. screen exchange value (the value at which the or gawking at that billboard. The consumer good is traded in the market or exchanged is enslaved to the ideas spewed by the for money) and the use value (the advertisers, who target his/her weaknesses commodity‘s worth in terms of its utility). (read insecurities) and provide ‗solutions‘ PR activities such as celebrity to overcome it. endorsements lend a charm and certain qualities of the celebrity‘s personality to These solutions vary over fairness creams the product at hand, which increases the that will lighten one's complexion (some product value far above its intrinsic even come with a fairness scale for one to worth in the eyes of the consumers. On the measure the ‗progress‘) to deodorants for other hand, there are certain products men which reduce women to their sexual which are a class in themselves and are urges. But they all have one thing in proud status symbols. For example, take common: no real utility. any Apple product, it has lesser space, smaller size and yet always the higher The breeding of a consumerist mentality price, in comparison to its counterparts. It was a necessary born out of a combination is a sign of luxurious living and attainment of cheaply available fuel and eventual of a higher standard of living, something overproduction that was then made possible. Applying the Say‘s Law of all consumers are expected to aspire to. Markets, which essentially states that With the increase in production and supply creates its own demand, to the mushrooming of the credit services, one surplus of finished products in the factory should be led into thinking that warehouses, we get advertisements which consumerism isn‘t so bad after all. That lured the naïve consumers into buying this consumerism paves the way for an surplus and thereby eliminating it. Credit increase in employment opportunities and was made to be easily available in order to improved standards of living for the boost this consumption. Thus, both the people. It gives rise to industrialization and credit market and production expanded on the production of a more varied set of the back of consumerism. goods and services. In a nutshell, consumerism leads to economic growth. It was Keynes who first propounded the importance of consumption, but Marx had But the harsh reality is that an economy already warned us about Commodity can‘t just keep on growing and growing. Fetishism. Commodity Fetishism Consumerism is just a misguided essentially is the separation of the human interpretation of Keynesian economics. labour that goes into producing a good For the scarce resources that fuel this from that good. Effectively, a Diwali growth will get depleted, rendering cracker will be just seen as its MRP, the consumerism unsustainable. pollution that it will cause or the plight of the child labourers are far removed from it.
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Moreover, it is not just the matter of nation needs and the one which the state limitation of resources but also their sheer requires to maintain its superiority in front wastage. For the producers keep on of other countries. Either way, the trade- coming up with different versions of the off entails an opportunity cost. The latter existing range of products. These can be exemplified by the allocation of ‗upgraded‘ models are nothing more than resources between Guns and Butter. slight variations of their preceding versions. And the consumers, who have imbibed materialistic values after being thoroughly encouraged and conditioned into buying these by the rampant and ubiquitous advertisements, inadvertently buy these, without really needing these. The old products which have now been rendered obsolete and out-dated are then discarded or simply stored away. However, the newer versions don‘t necessarily have to be better, because the spread of consumerism has had a disincentivizing impact on production and Consider an economy has a choice of making quality, durable products is no production between butter and guns. The longer a priority for most. For example, horizontal and vertical axes represent the Thermocol crockery and Plastic cutlery quantity of butter and guns produced have become widely popular for serving respectively. If the economy employs all food in during small scale functions its resources in the production of either of because of their low prices and disposable the two commodities then the graph shows nature. Not much regard is paid to the all the possible combinations of the two environmental degradation they will cause commodities that can be produced and it is on disposal, during both their termed as the ‗production possibility manufacturing and purchase. frontier‘. Combination A is not feasible whereas combination B is feasible but is Consumerism hasn‘t only tampered with not efficient. Combinations H and D are the state of environment but has also both feasible and efficient as they lie on weaved materialism into the collective the frontier. If we move from combination conscience. The people have been H to D, the economy needs to produce enslaved into needing goods, goods that lesser guns in order to produce more are of no real utility to them, but the butter, which is what was earlier stated as advertisers, who seduce them for the profit opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of of the capitalists. producing anything will be higher when more of it is being produced. For instance, Another cost of consumerism stems from for producing a combination H, all the the scarcity of resources. For at the heart resources suited for its production are of any production activity, there is a being utilized efficiently. But for any problem of choice; a choice of allocating combination to the left of H, resources limited resources having multiple uses to which are suitable for the production of unlimited wants. This choice can be butter will have to be employed to now between producing expensive-durable produce guns, and hence will not possess goods or cheap-disposable commodities, equivalent efficacy. Consequently, a as described in an example previously; or higher production of guns when its between producing a good which the
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Aapoorti | 2017 quantity is already larger than that of effect on the ability of these countries to butter, will lead to a higher opportunity tend to more pressing needs of its people, cost. reflecting the trade-off faced by governments at the cost of its citizens‘ Such an understanding is useful for welfare. After all, guns can‘t be had for reflecting on the proliferating fetishism of breakfast. armament. The human race is not only enslaved by it, but by all means, spends In the Chance for Peace speech in 1953, large amounts of funds to perpetuate its US President Dwight D Eisenhower hinted slavery. It rests on similar principles of at this very trade-off, citing specific needing without utility. Whether it was the examples,‖ Every gun that is made, every naval arms race between United Kingdom warship launched, every rocket fired and Germany that led to the breaking out signifies, in the final sense, a theft from of the First World War or the nuclear arms those who hunger and are not fed, those race that sprouted during the Cold War, an who are cold and are not clothed. This armament race has fuelled mankind‘s world in arms is not spending money greed to protect itself from a hypothetical alone. It is spending the sweat of its future while compromising it‘s present. labourers, the genius of its scientists, and The fetishism of armament during the the hopes of its children. The cost of one Cold War had urged Russia to build up a modern heavy bomber is this: a modern military-industrial sector which employed brick school in more than 30 cities. It is one of every five Soviet adults and its two electric power plants, each serving a dismantling left hundreds of men town of 60,000 populations. It is two fine, unemployed in the Post-Cold War fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty period. To question the validity of such a miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a policy wouldn‘t be elusive but a solemn single fighter plane with a half million need when even after such disastrous bushels of wheat. We pay for a single results, we are still fairly aggressively, destroyer with new homes that could have trying to stock munitions and devise housed more than 8,000 people‖. nuclear ways of self-destruction. Because In 1964-65, US President Lyndon B. there was no formal treaty terminating the Johnson had launched a domestic program armament, the two superpowers, USA and called ‗Great Society‘. The primary intent USSR, continued in varying degrees, to of the program was removal of poverty develop and modify their existing nuclear and racial injustice. But at the same time, weapons and delivery systems. The Johnson was involved in the arms race of implication of such slavery is horrific as it the Cold War and the Vietnam War. These distorts the proper allocation of resources wars put added burden on the economy hampering the more needful which hampered the Great Society requisites. Neglecting the internal program. This again highlights the cost of fulfillment of basic needs of the populace war and expenditure on armament on the while externally fortifying it will economy and its people. eventually leave no populace at all. Americans for Peace Prosperity and The larger economic consequence of the Security (APPS) is a new lobby group Cold War was a huge fiscal mortgage founded by former FBI agent Mike placed on many domestic countries. The Rogers. The tagline for APPS is ‗keep newly freed nations inherited expenses and America safe‘ however a scrutiny of its commitments for which they were not leader board suggests that business prepared. Even some of the successor interests could also be a driving factor. A states found themselves sunk in national- report by The Intercept suggests that security burdens. This had a crippling several of its national advisory members
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Aapoorti | 2017 have strong business links with defence villages don‘t have proper roads companies and would profit much if connecting them and ironically, it is the America pursues a more aggressive same country with 9% annual growth! foreign policy post 2016. Now if the What is the opportunity cost of $51.3 country with the highest military budget billion of military spending? A funereal spends even more on ammunitions and reality of thousands of empty stomachs, defence systems, the opportunity cost of it havoc of poverty in everyday life and dead is only going to rise higher and higher. hopes of more than half a thousand million According to a report by Stockholm of its citizens. And the bigger question that International Peace Research Institute on remains is; is it all worth it? countries with military expenditure, India stands as the 6th largest. It incurred an expense of $51.3 billion in 2015. Also, References there were plans to expand by about 8% in 2016. The same institute conducted a study https://fee.org/articles/consumerism-is- in which India topped the list of weapons keynesianism/ importers and accounted for some 15% worldwide arms imports between 2010 and http://www.pokeyournose.com/blog/consu 2014. An NDTV reporter, Pheroze merism-good-or-bad-for-an-economy/ Vasunia, wrote in one of his articles: ―The question is: should India devote such a http://www.verdant.net/society.htm large part of its budget to the military? The issue is not only financial, but moral and political. While spending on defence http://www.dawn.com/news/1250119 increased, the budgetary allocation for health was reduced by 5.7 per cent to Rs. https://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/countr 33,152 crore. Would the money given to y/statistics/tags/india defence not be better spent on the development of public healthcare, education, affordable housing, and infrastructure projects?‖ The Statesman reported that India spends only 1% of its GDP on health and 2.3% of the same on military procurements. 50% of Indians don‘t have proper shelter, 70% don‘t have access to decent toilets, 35% households don‘t have a nearby water source, 85% of villages don‘t have a secondary school and 40% of these same
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Foreign Direct Investment:Survival of the fittest
Aarti Gupta and Riddhima Sobti
Whether it's the extremely valorous Phogat agreement when both parties, the host sisters in Dangal or the spry student in country and the country bringing school who used to ace all the races like a investment benefit from each other. pro, it has always been that the fearless FDI may take place due to huge interest overcomes the fearful. Survival of the rate differences between the two Fittest -When we first look at this term we economies or differences in tax rates and take in the basic idea that the weak and this is where the concept of capital flight seemingly unfit die out, while the strong and hot money comes in. and the perseverant continue to survive.
‗Survival of the fittest‘ is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary Capital flight occurs when asset or money theory as a way of describing the rapidly flow out of a country, due to an mechanism of natural selection. In event of political or economic instability or Darwinian terms the phrase is best capital controls. understood as "Survival of the form that This can be an increase in taxes on capital will leave the most copies of itself in or the inability of the government to repay successive generations. its debt, thereby reducing its However, Charles Darwin did not mean creditworthiness that causes investors to that the toughest will survive, the swiftest lower their valuation of the assets in that will win, the smartest will succeed, or the country. This affects the exchange rates of biggest will dominate. What Darwin meant the country. was that the organism that best ―fits‖ its environment had the best chance of Suppose there is a rise in taxes on capital survival. The plant or animal who can best in India. As a result of this more and more adapt to its natural environment would be foreigners will start withdrawing their the most likely to survive and thrive. investment from India. There will be excess demand of foreign exchange. Here we will try to apply this fascinating Foreigners will try to sell domestic assets concept in the arena of economics. We will tending to cause the exchange rate to discuss how foreign direct investment fits depreciate. Depreciation means that our into this concept. ―How is the concept of goods will become cheaper. Our imports the Survival of the Fittest making the will fall and exports will rise which Indian economy its slave?" implies that output will come back to its original level. Thus, all fluctuations die out Consider a country like India where the and this level of output that prevails is the main source of monetary flow for fittest that survives. economic development is foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI is an investment made by a company Similarly, Hot money is the flow of funds or individual in one country for business from one country to another. The main interests in another country, in the form of reasons for this can be to earn a short-term either establishing business operations or profit due to interest rate differences or acquiring business assets in the other anticipated changes in exchange rates. country. Put simply it‘s more of a mutual Capital flows out of the country which
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Aapoorti | 2017 experiences a financial crises and it creates concept of Technological Diffusion that a boom in the country it enters which leads seeks to explain how, why, and at what to rising asset prices, consumption and rate new ideas and technology spread. indebtedness. Technological diffusion is the process by For e.g., if the national average rate of one which innovations (new products, new year certificate of deposit in the United processes or new management methods, States is 0.95% and in china, it is 3%, then expertise, technical knowhow) spread if an investor in the US deposits his or her within and across economies by positive money in a Chinese bank, the investor spill overs which stimulates technological would get a higher return than that in the progress. It involves transmission of ideas situation in which he or she deposits and new technologies .It further affects rate of economic growth and development. money in a US bank. This makes China a prime target for hot money inflows. Thus, FDI may benefit the domestic firms through these positive externalities. When the interest rate in India is above that in other countries, there will be Inflow On the other hand, As FDI brings in of massive capital which will cause asset advances in technology and processes; it prices to inflate and inflation to rise. The increases the competition in the domestic sudden inflow of large amounts of foreign economy of the developing country that money would increase the monetary base has attracted the FDI. Also, it is most of India .There will be exchange rate likely that a foreign firm that decides to appreciation which will reduce the invest in another country enjoys lower competitiveness OF Indian goods or make costs than its domestic competitors our goods expensive thereby reducing deriving from higher productive exports and increasing imports which will efficiency. The higher efficiency may owe worsen the trade balance. partly to the combination of foreign When interest rate in India is lower than advanced management skills with the world level of interest rate, the sudden domestic labour and inputs. Thus, it may outflow of hot money would deflate asset affect domestic firms in a negative way prices and could cause the collapse value and hinder domestic investment. of the currency. This will lead to exchange rate depreciation as our goods become Thus, we see that those domestic firms cheaper thus reducing imports and which are unable to compete with FDI die increasing exports, improving trade out. Only those survive which are able to balance and thereby a rise in output. take advantage of increased productivity through spill over of technical progress. The FDI's are the indoor example of the What is the impact of FDI on survival of the fittest where one needs to domestic market? make out how beneficial they are to our economy? So who survives and who wins We see that FDI leads to the introduction depends on how much the FDI or the of new varieties of capital goods and more Indian companies are able to adapt to advanced knowledge (capital deepening) each other. which helps to raise output, productivity Depending on whether a firm thinks it can and exports in various sectors and leads to survive or not, they merge or acquire the creation of more employment, more stakes in other companies leading to GDP and higher growth. mergers and acquisitions. These are one of For understanding how FDI's provide the the ways in which they make themselves greatest benefit to domestic firms, we need fittest in order to survive. Below are the to be crystal clear of the working of the two cases.
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Ranbaxy-Daiichi Sankyo largest in the world is an immense opportunity for Wal-Mart. In June 2008, Daiichi-Sankyo-the second largest pharmaceutical in Japan, acquired a After seven years Wal-Mart and Indian 34.8% stake in Ranbaxy for a value $2.4 retail partner Bharti Enterprises ended the billion. In November 2008, Daiichi- 50/50 joint venture launched by the two Sankyo completed the takeover of the firms in 2006. company in a deal worth $4.6 billion by The main reasons why Wal-Mart had a acquiring a 63.92% stake in Ranbaxy. tough journey in India and wasn‘t able to Ranbaxy is a generics company and sustain this partnership was its reluctance Daiichi Sankyo is an innovator company. to adapt to the conventions of Indian The acquisition of Ranbaxy not only market, that is, sourcing at least 30% of the provided a low cost manufacturing set up products from small industries in India and to Daiichi but also helped Daiichi Sankyo 50% of investment in back-end establish itself in the field of generic drugs infrastructure (an important part of green which is a huge market in India. field investment where a company builds the entirety of its operations in a foreign At the time when the pharma sector in market or a green field starting from India was battling with declining pipelines, scratch) patent expirations and clampdown on health care spending, this acquisition gave This example clearly shows that only when Ranbaxy an access to Japanese drug Wal-Mart realised that to survive in India, market and other developed markets and a it needs to adapt to the Indian environment chance to develop expertise outside India and modify its ways of doing business, and create a base for infrastructure. the then only it was able to establish its roots addition of Ranbaxy Laboratories extended in India and target an untapped Indian Daiichi-Sankyo's operations, with the market brimming with opportunities. combined company worth of about US$30 billion and the merged company is 15th Conclusion largest drug maker in the world. Survival of the fittest is a scientific theory Wal-Mart which in fact is not something new or ‗India is not a homogeneous market, so astounding. It is something that we can see ours is not a cookie-cutter approach from everywhere and anywhere. Through this the U.S. Wal-Mart is in no hurry to unfurl article, we just tried to relate it to the the Wal-Mart flag nationally. The easiest widely discussed and debated topic of thing is to roll out stores, but the most Foreign Direct Investment and tried to difficult is to sustain and feed them.‘ –Raj justify the actions of various forces in the Jain, President of Wal-Mart India in May economy through this theory. It is not just 2009. a phrase but a world in itself and can be applied to various other arenas. In December 2006, Wal-Mart, the world‘s largest retailer believed that by the year In reality, we are SLAVES of this theory. 2015, 35% of India‘s retail sales could be We may not realise this but our lives are from chain stores .Presently, it has opened governed by this theory-the fittest only 73 stores in India and aims of opening survives! another 50 in the next 5 years. The reason for Wal-Mart‘s entry in India was clear – The Indian middle class. A country like India having $250 billion retail business which is currently eighth
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References:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/ www.firstpost.com/.../will-50-stores- india-next-5-years-says-walmart- 2092699.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/ashutoshmantry/ ranbaxy-daichii-acquisition-final- presentation https://www.britannica.com/science/surviv al-of-the-fittest
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Slavery in the Modern Times: A theatre of the Absurd
Madhukari Mishra
Rebellion, Camus had said, emerges from liberalist rhetoric of sovereignty, fraternity, the conflict between man's ceaseless quest democracy. Here lied the seed to modern for clarification and the apparently day slavery. Slavery fed, if not by physical chaotic and meaningless way the world coercion, then through intellectual functions. The absurd. The absurdist indoctrination. An induced illusion of argued that when human existence has no freedom made people more willing to purpose or meaning, all channels of subscribe to the convenient jargon of those communication disrupt, triggering a clinging in 'power'. Power, or for that chaotic system where irrationality matter echelons were never done away triumphs over logical construct, with, rather, they were legitimised. culminating ultimately in silence. Thus, the Instead of doing away with institutional Absurd keeps pushing the boulder up the inequalities, they were now validated mountain only to see it rolling down, once through the 'law'. Modern day slavery isn't again. implemented through coercion (which in itself has been legitimised as when used by Slavery, as a cultural orientation the 'state'), it's sustained, instead, by institutionalises the triumph of the manufacturing consent. unreasonable world over the desire of human reasoning. However, it is quite They say back in 1992, USSR had possible that we can seek emancipation in descended into a chaotic frenzy when our endeavour to reconcile the two. This money became real. Alexievich had talked article seeks to explore the absurdist road about the great dilemma faced by the to freedom from economic slavery. The residents of USSR tried to adapt to the initial paragraphs discuss some possible ways of Russia. The trade-off between interpretations of slavery in the modern Gogol and denims was behind their context, eventually concentrating on its comprehension. Slavery is a situation traits as internalised in the various where you are reduced a state of helpless economic models and organisations since assent, where you are alienated from the 18th century. everything that singles you out as a rational being in the animal kingdom. You The transition to capitalism saw a rising are alienated from your individualism, consciousness about nations, territorial deprived of your right to self- organisations reoriented into structurally determination, reduced to a faceless mass, transformed individualistic sovereign commodified, and your capacity expressed domains, the nation-states ('state' with a in the cardinal figures of exchange value. I hyphen). This realignment of geographical recently read an article that talked about equations was constructed and further not creating sentences, but music. I wonder consolidated through the emergence of what chord would the repeated application
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Aapoorti | 2017 of the word 'slavery' strike. Perhaps the Earlier in the essay, I had mentioned how redundant beats of a madol, a drum played the slavish culture is manifested in modern by certain tribes of the Chotanagpur times through a helpless assent. The plateau, one of those peripheral groups so gradual socio-political and economic central to the growth of the core. However transformation of the European nations, the fetters don't just jingle round the where from the rubbles of feudalistic thoughts and the voices at the margin. It societies rose capitalist mode of economic has seeped gradually into the conscience of production, had in its wake alienated the those at the centre. A slave to the master labourers from all but their own labour that is themselves. Camus's Rebel is power. Thus, to sustain themselves, they expected not only to be 'the slave against had to lend out the sole thing that they had the master, but also man against the world 'rightful ownership' of, their muscles and of master and slave'. their brains, to those owning the rest of the means of production, the capitalist. 'Right' Economic processes, when are sought to is a tricky word. A word that has a very be understood independently, outside the snug fit in the world of the Absurd, where realm of a society, ends up in de- the meaningless world is functioning aided humanising it. Marx, in arguably one of by an array of terms and taxonomies, his most crucial contribution, the surplus where institutional inequalities are value theory, sought to seek the origins of camouflaged behind claims of juridical the internal contradictions of the existing equality. Thus while negotiating the ideal relations of production, as well as place the price of the 'labour power‘, the capitalists capitalist mode of organisation in an invokes the clause of justum pretium. The historical perspective through instruments role this clause plays, especially in easing of sociological and historical analysis. In the conscience of the capitalist is very Mandel's interpretation of the surplus vital. Had he bought the individual value, he argues that it is ipso facto an worker's 'labour', it would have been exploitation theory. He calls it the obvious that the compensation he is paid 'deduction theory of ruling class's income', for it is lesser than the value he adds in the where surplus value is the residual from production process. Instead, the capitalist the net social product after the ruling insists on buying her 'labour power', at its classes have received their compensation. market value. Thus, the individual (since The theory that underlies Marx's we are discussing social relations of perception of exploitation equated the production) is not only forced to income of the ruling classes to the product commoditise his labour power, and sell it of unpaid labour. This, more than being a in an exploitative market, but also has to question of ethical outrage, is a content himself with receiving whatever manifestation of economic exploitation. market price gets set for him irrespective Marx had attached significant weight to of the difference between his wage and the the surplus value classifying it above value he adds to the production process. profits, et al that explains both the Convenient to this form of exploitation, existence of the ruling class as well as where the worker isn't left with many origins of class struggle under capitalism. options but have himself exploited is the institutional set up of capitalism with it's
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Aapoorti | 2017 generalized market economy. While it is neoclassical economics with slavery. He not possible for the labourers to withdraw had generated a small scale general from the labour market as he is under equilibrium model with Africa supplying economic compulsion to sell the only slaves to America against European commodity he owns, the capitalist, with manufactures and America obtaining his pool of surplus can afford to withdraw slaves from Africa and manufactures from from the production process. Mandel Europe against her raw materials exports discusses how institutional differences to Europe(thus each continent is the sole make labour market a 'loaded dice', supplier of one commodity), with the usual predictably biased against the working neo classical assumption regarding the class. production function, to examine the conflicting views on imperialistic Sweezy and Baran, in Monopoly Capital: exploitation as propagated by Adam Smith An Essay on the American Economic and (who was of the view that it was inefficient Social Order had discussed what could be and thus detrimental to the interest of the seen as the spill over effects of surplus colonising nation), David Ricardo who generation. As the existing channels of re- contradicted Smith, Karl Marx who had investment of the surplus dries out the stated that "the veiled slavery of the wage- capitalists seek to invest it overseas, for workers in Europe needed, for its pedestal, which they at times resort to coercion, thus slavery pure and simple in the New giving rise to imperialistic desires and World", and Eric Williams, who had militaristic tendencies. This is an established links between African slavery unsustainable path to resolving the and industrialisation in Britain. He contradiction, namely the driving force of concludes, "those who would dismiss capitalist production being maximising slavery as essentially irrelevant ought at appropriation of surplus value (by least to specify the necessary 'economising on labour and other counterfactual experiments postulating the resources) and the eventual clogging of sources of tropical products and the investment conduits and drying up of markets for manufactured goods that the excessive domestic demand. Sweezy and triangular trade provided.'' Slavery, as Baran argues how the tendency of surplus manifested in the initial phase of generation rise further under oligopolistic capitalism might have receded, or monopolistic economies, as can be seen proportionately, in the past century; traits by the level of unemployment, non- of it continue to remain internalised in the productive expenditure ( say on growth trajectory of most nations. As advertisements)et al. Imperialism, as we Emile Zola had very aptly observed in are aware of, created a climate conducive Germinal that the actual point of for more overt manifestations of slavery, equilibrium is the empty stomach. in fact of slave trade. The Marxist economists draw parallels In Findlay's Triangular Trade and the between Marx's reserve army of labour Atlantic Economy of the Eighteenth and the increasing reliance on part time Century: A Simple General-Equilibrium workers with a precarious status in the Model he had sought to link capitalism and modern times, who while aren't completely
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'unemployed' don't always earn sufficiently The anarchists seek to abolish the to sustain themselves. Marx had argued economy and economics and all that they that as capitalism evolves, the organic entail, be it markets, or central planning. composition of capital increases , thus They believe that economies the need for constant capital rises disproportionately accountability and personal responsibility, more than the variable capital, this something that is integral to their school of generates another paradox, as the nation thought. They argue against institutional becomes wealthier, the wealth gets further structures that place the need to the concentrated in the hands of a few as now economy before those of the individuals. lesser people are needed to meet the Thus, they, in their nihilistic spirit feel that society's production requirements. no matter how evolved the structure becomes, individuals, under all forms of The disrupted teleology of Soviet Russia economic organisation are subjugated to had proven detrimental to a sustainable economic factors. While the anarchist case growth path. The Union, as it passed against economies and incidentally through phases of War Communism to the economic slavery sounds too radical, we Vegetarian Communism, got socially can still explore the possibilities of the conditioned to think in a certain way, to Absurd in our emancipation from the respond to externalities in a fairly culture of economic exploitation. A unanimous manner and had accustomed possible way of the reconciliation that I themselves to the state prescribed way of had mentioned in the initial paragraphs life. They sang, and drank and loved in could be by perhaps cultivating a culture similar manners. While reading of self-criticism. The seeds of absurdity, Alexievich's Second Hand Time, the here, especially in the moderns, the use of emotion that could repeatedly detect was rationale to manufacture consent for confusion. As they transitioned from a something as irrational as economic regime to another, there was not a sense of slavery, lies within. We seek clarity. Yet rebellion, but rather an effort to adapt. we feed into the system of Like Frau Lomark in The Giraffe's neck, it meaninglessness. An article published in was a matter of fundamental question, the June 2016 in IMF's official magazine, survival of the fittest. Even if it is a mere Finance and Development, titled transition from one mechanical way of Neoliberalism: Oversold? Critically living to another, a transition ushered in appraised policies advocated by the IMF. not through modest measures but a series It acknowledged that growth under neo- of shock therapies. The disruption of liberalism is unsustainable owing the rise conventional path of societal evolution had in inequality that it spurs. The paper, led to the fiasco that was Soviet Russia, or interestingly, discusses the need for state so is argued. But what if the fiasco wasn't intervention through introduction of the skipping of the necessary epoch of welfare measures to reduce inequality. It capitalism but rather of people's failure to admits to the counterproductive effects of sustain for the alternative to the kulak's, austerity policies pursued in several the centrality of state, as was sought to a developed and developing countries uniformity that people were radicalized alongside agreeing to the detrimental into subscribing to?
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Aapoorti | 2017 impact of unrestrained privatisation as accompanied the rise of nation-states. The promoted by neo-liberalism. chaos ensued by this ideological realignment has further consolidated the The neo-liberal system sustains itself on desire and the tendency to dominate, exactly those promises which it's intellectually, socially and economically. institutions negate. While there is a rising This is where the Absurd must rebel. consciousness about this, there is also an increasing rigidity as can be seen through socio-political reorientation of many nations, a rise of nationalistic sentiment, inward looking policy restructuring and a revival of the rhetoric that had
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The Contributors’ Corner
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Prioritising People over Product
Rituparna Sanyal
Summary one for trading and one for charity and good work. The article focuses on the concept of 'Buddhist economics' based on the idea of Going beyond Capitalism ‗right livelihood‘- which emphasizes on a world away from capitalism and The economic models and theories that materialism. It highlights some of the prevailed during the 20th century are major differences between western and rapidly falling apart and economists are Buddhist economics. The author talks scrambling for solutions. But much of about how economics is not simply about what has gone wrong was already money but happiness too through the example of a country like Bhutan which anticipated by economist and statistician E. uses GNH as a measure of welfare of its F. Schumacher. people. Influenced by Buddhism on a trip to Burma, he wrote an essay on ―Buddhist Economics‖ in 1966 which was later added in his book ―Small is Beautiful‖. The British economist felt that modern economics was becoming increasingly materialistic, with people running after profits. He was upset by the ever- increasing production and consumption, stress on the output of work instead of the worker and the reliance on non-renewable resources.
He believed that applying Buddhist principles to the way an economy operates would produce an economy designed primarily to meet the needs of people. In accord with the Buddhist concept of ―right The Kancanakkhandha Jataka tells the livelihood,‖ Schumacher called for jobs story of Bodhisatta who was a farmer in a that are valued for their psychological and village. Once, while ploughing, he chanced spiritual values, not just for what they upon a huge bar of gold. Unsure about produce. He argued that an economy what to do with so much gold, he decided should exist to serve the needs of the to divide it into four equal parts: One for people; people should not exist to serve the his own living expenses, one for saving, economy.
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Economics of happiness Cease to do evil, try to do well
Most of us have grown up with our parents One of the principles of the Buddha‘s telling us that life is not just about money. Eightfold path includes ―Right Mental well-being is more valuable than Livelihood‖, or making a living without money. But then we are thrown into the doing harm to others. It is based on the real world and realise that we cannot idea of interdependence and compassion. survive without money; everything True Buddhist economics recognizes revolves around it. We enter the rat race to everyone‘s interconnectedness. get a better job, with a better pay, and scoff at the idea of happiness without So what exactly is Buddhist Economics? money to finance our extravagance. Not many have written on this subject and But, there are countries such as Bhutan I doubt you will find it in your economics which seeks a better world with Buddhist textbooks. economics. It values the quality of life of Buddhist economics applies spiritual its citizens over the quantity of goods the principles and moral purpose to the country produces. question of wealth. This spiritual approach Bhutan is a tiny constitutional monarchy to economics does not rely on theories and between India and China, deeply rooted in models, but on the forces of empathy, love its Buddhist culture. Welfare in this and restraint. It is‖ Middle Way‖ between country is measured with the help of the a purely mundane materialist society and unique Gross National Happiness (GNH) an immobile traditionalist society, while Index which is dependent on the well- striving for minimum consumption and being of the people, not just economic maximum satisfaction. growth. The Buddhist approach to economics is This was introduced by their Fourth King, based on 2 core principles: Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 and it displays the monarch‘s commitment to The ideal is sufficiency, not building an economy that would serve surplus; and Bhutan‘s culture based on Buddhist spiritual values instead of western A civilisation built on renewable development. resources is superior to one built on non-renewable resources. The index is a single number based on 9 domains with 33 indicators. It ranges from The differences between Modern and 0 to 1 and reflects the percentage of Buddhist economics are growing in Bhutanese who are happy. Like most number and are now becoming more indices, the higher the better. It rests on evident. Some of them include: four pillars: good governance, sustainable Western Economics Buddhist socio-economic development, cultural Economics preservation and environmental Concentrates on Concentrates on conservation. self-interest concept of no-self
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or Anatta. Humans While the materialist is mainly interested should detach from in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested the feeling of ―I‖ in liberation. According to Buddhism, it is and ―Mine‖ not wealth that stands in the way of Aims at maximizing Aims at minimizing liberation but the attachment to wealth; not profits and suffering the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the individual gain craving for them. Buddhist economics is Encourages material Importance given to therefore about simplicity and non- wealth and desire simplifying one‘s violence. In other words, it is the desires systematic study of how to attain given Believes that the Belief that small is ends with minimum means. bigger, the better beautiful Labour is a People should take As the saying goes, ―Don‘t eat just because necessary evil for part in common, you feel like it; eat when you feel hungry.‖ employers and a collective tasks and In an inspiring interview, Dr. Saamdu ―cost‖ that needs to produce at an Chetri, Director, Gross National Happiness be minimised optimal level Centre, Thimphu, said, ―We need very few Dependent on Production using things as human being, why are we world-wide system local resources; chasing for more and more? ‘He of trade global trade emphasised that it is very important to justifiable only on a make a human being understand the basic small scale purpose of life and that is what the GNH tries to embed. The arms and ammunition bought by countries to fight with each Small is beautiful other is added in the gross domestic product (GDP) or gross national product As quoted in Schumacher‘s article, (GNP). However, this will not benefit any ―Spiritual health and material well-being citizen and will in fact harm them. While are not enemies: they are natural allies‖. the Western model focuses on limitless growth, Bhutan ensures that their children ―A modern economist may engage in do not go hungry to bed. highly sophisticated calculations on whether full employment ‗pays‘ or whether Buddhist Economics– An it might be more ‗economic‘ to run an Oxymoron economy at less than full employment so as to insure a greater mobility of labour, a What if we lived in a society that did not better stability of wages, and so forth. His put consumption at its centre? What if we fundamental criterion of success is simply follow instead the Buddhist mandate to the total quantity of goods produced minimize suffering, and are driven by during a given period of time. From a compassion rather than desire? This gives Buddhist point of view, this is standing the rise to another crucial question- Can truth on its head by considering goods as nations that are not Buddhist adopt GNH more important than people and and such a seemingly ideal economic consumption as more important than lifestyle? creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of ―Buddhism is not a religion. It is a way of work, that is, from the human to the life and living life is a universal value,‖ subhuman, surrender to the forces of evil.‖ believes Dr Chetri. Indeed, many other countries are showing interest in the GNH economic model. In 2011, the UN General
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Assembly adopted a resolution to 6. The Jataka, No. 56 recognize happiness as a basic human Kancanakhandha Jataka, sacred- goal. texts.com
Thus, the need of the hour is a middle path based on faith, generosity, integrity, wisdom, conscience and contemplation. It is high time that we recognise that economics is not all about money, but about happiness too.
References 1. E.F.Schumacher, Buddhist Economics 2. E.F.Schumacher‘s Prophetic Ideas, Buddhism.about.com 3. Bhutan seeks a better world through Buddhist economics, youtube.com 4. GNH Index, grossnationalhappiness.com 5. Buddhist Economics, centreforneweconomics.org
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Job Security and Unemployment in an Increasingly Mechanised World Payal Priyadarshini
Summary and the class of workers trampled in the race for higher profits and efficiency. Are advents in technology a bane in Be it the Luddite Revolution concerning disguise? Does increased investment in weavers in Aah or the entire Labour technology really lead to increased job Movement as a whole right at the opportunities? Do the multiplier effects as beginning of the Industrial Revolution, assumed in textbooks pan out in reality? machines meant to revolutionise Or leads to a contrary fall in the wages for production, displace man (and quite a large low skilled workers? And can the results section of them at that), which in turn of human endeavours endanger the leaves thousands unemployed or livelihoods of their creators themselves? underemployed, reduces consumption of the society and therefore aggregate demand. The initially hopeful producers are then left with excess supply and increased inventories. A machine, as we all know, serves the simple purpose of reducing human effort. A simple macroeconomic concept that To demand a smaller effort input while must be talked of is what makes up producing the same output results, is what Aggregate Demand (AD): has flabbergasted mankind for long. This is what makes ―machine‖, an alluring, AD = C + I + G + NX alien concept whose adoption didn‘t face where, much resistance by the society. That ―it C : Consumption saves time‖ was the justification provided. I : Investment The industrial revolution brought the very G : Government Spending foundation of this concept and modern day NX : Net Exports society alike, and we thank it for giving the industry increased efficiency, accuracy and more spare time. One assumes that an increase in investment will directly increase However, what if this very boon handed Aggregate Demand and by a larger down to us is actually a bane in disguise? proportion than the investment itself What if this very wave of efficiency gets because of the Investment Multiplier. The too efficient for our own liking? Investment Multiplier assumes that an increase in investment, gives more jobs to workers, which in turn will provide them History has shown us time and again that with more income to spend, thereby change and improvement have always had increasing their demand for goods and their costs. And the costs that we would services. like to address here are essentially the jobs lost, people unemployed/underemployed,
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But what is often not considered is increase in demand for high skilled labour whether technological investment really but a decrease in one for low skilled follows this assumption that the labour. economists have been blindly assuming for For the most part we assume that machines years now. Will technological investment reduce labour as a whole, but that is not increase jobs or actually reduce them? the case. Machines simply do better what most low skill minimum wage workers We know that output (Y) is a function of could do, but with more accuracy, speed Labour (L) and Capital (K): and a reduction in errors. Therefore, this chunk of the world's workforce, with no or Y = f (L, K) bare minimum skill is let go, causing the supply of unskilled/ low skilled workers to So as capital increases, it is often assumed exceed their demand by 11%. that more labour too would be required to operate it. However, that is not the case. These workers‘ equilibrium wages fall to As capital increases and firms turn more new lows, and levels that are below the and more dependent on mechanisation, minimum needed for subsistence. This they require lesser and lesser workers, and either drives them to leave their jobs a bare minimum of labour to operate these whose pay is lesser than what they can machines. make do with, or to keep on working just to facilitate a minimum standard of living. Machines can never displace the total Therefore, the mechanisation tends to not workforce, but as has been seen in only displace workers, but also lower the examples of cement highway workers wages. where each machine reduced the need for 7 men; in building construction where 80- 85% of the workforce was let go; and most commonly in the case of bakers and biscuit manufacturers where we have moved away from a situation of a 100% labour intensive methods to nearly 100% capital intensive methods.
A classic example of displaced labour can be seen in the reduced world population of horses. Before steam engines, ploughing devices and combustion engines, the world had a horse population of 3.25 million, which after the invention of all of the However, at the same time, the need for aforementioned technologies rendered more efficient, educated and high skilled them redundant which in turn led to a fall thinkers and workers in the world in their population to less than 2 million. increases with time and unfortunately the supply fails to meet the demand. Faulty At this point in the conversation, I think education, irrelevant and out-dated it's wise to discuss how jobs with varying curriculums and an inability to apply one‘s skill requirements are affected by the rapid education in a modern world scenario are wave of technology. cited as the top reasons that people fail to The phenomenon of A Skill biased secure these jobs and are left unemployed/ Technological Change posits that underemployed. increased mechanisation leads to an
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In an ever changing industry, where resource development, aimed at improving opening new markets and sectors doesn‘t the health and education of the individual necessarily translates into increased output and this would in turn bridge the excess and employment opportunities, the demand for modern thinkers and workers; solution is to cultivate and enhance for the purpose of machine is to reduce employable skills among the workforce. human effort and not the human entirely. This can be achieved through human
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The Silver Lining Between the Bullets
Nedson Ng‘oma
Summary sneak peek of what it is ultimately capable of achieving. Independent from Belgium in This article, spells out the entire economy 1960, it is the second largest country in of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa and also boasts of the most talking about its growth post- neighboring countries in the continent. independence, its industrialization, Home to about 50 percent of Africa‗s agricultural sector, resources and mining sector, the inflation, growth and the lacks in the given sectors as well. However I forest and over $24 trillion worth of failed to find anything that I wouldn't find untapped natural resources, It‗s economic outlines in a normal Wikipedia article. potential cannot be left unuttered. There was hardly a surprise and an unpredictable element to it. It talks about Despite being the second most the current scenario of the country, too. industrialized country in Africa However what he was included, the immediately after independence, it‗s generic details of a random country's economy crumbled immediately after the economy, although might not be long awaited freedom. A nationalization something that'll attract too many eyes, has scheme of the economy pioneered by been incredibly well written. The title President Mobutu backfired as it froze the given to the article too, is well thought of. agricultural sector and only appeared to leave the country in incapable hands with corruption becoming a norm. The economy of DRC contracted during Mobutu‗s tenure and the economy experienced positive growth for the first time in 2002 after more than a decade of negative growth. The political unrest during the first and second Congo wars, the signature stories attached to the DRC, just rubbed salt on an already wounded economy. Fifty years down the line of independence, Between the cliché stories of war and a flickering hope lingers in the gun powder disease in Africa, lies an understated filled air for Africa‗s second largest economic growth tale of the Democratic country. A rapid growth in the extraction Republic of Congo. Despite being one of industry and investment coupled by the fastest growing economies in the improvements in telecommunication and world, what it has experienced is just a transport, without taking any credit from
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Aapoorti | 2017 the evidence based policies that were being among the first country to express interest carried out led to an average GDP growth in the project as a pre-agreement has of 7.7% during the 2010-2015 period already been reached with the Congolese .Reforms in the corruption infested mining government. Angola, Nigeria and sector has also spearheaded the Botswana are also allegedly intent on the tremendous progress being made. Tax project. reforms also pushed through the more than Despite the enormous gain that is bound doubling of government revenues. to arise from this project, the side effects Constricting monetary policies have also have not been clearly weighed out. There worked wonders for them, as inflation fell are calls from environmentalists claiming to around 1% during 2013-2015 from 53% there has not been enough Environmental in 2009! Not forgetting to mention the Impact Analysis for such a huge project. Congolese Franc which has been relatively ―The whole process, especially for such a stable. With so much macro-economic large project, should not take less than a progress, there has not been analogous year, and will involve a lot of experts in surge in the micro aspects of the country various areas — geologists, sociologists, with the poverty levels still disturbingly environmentalists, hydrologists, etc. — to high and dreadful unemployment rates. make sure the project is implemented with But as the economy continues to expand, the highest world standards.‖ said there is hope that these glitches will Sanyanga, the Africa Program Director eventually be mitigated. of International Rivers in Pretoria, South The story on everybody‗s lips in the past Africa. It is also said that the dam may year or so, has been the Great Inga Dam. displace up to 60 000 people. As to what The world‗s largest hydroelectric power extent the sting of project may be plant project. With a potential to outweighed by the benefits, is still not produce 40,000 MW of electricity, over wholly clear. twice the power generation of Gorges It would be utterly incomprehensible to dams in China, and more than a third of talk about Congo‗s potential without the total electricity currently produced in mentioning its vast mineral deposits. It is Africa, the dam would serve to boost the major supplier of cobalt, has 30 % of Africa‗s industrial prowess. As lack of the world‗s diamond reserves, also sufficient energy constantly pulls back the produces large volumes of Coltan and the growth of the mining industry in the list goes on and on. Congo is globally country (and in fact the continent as a known for its conflict minerals, which whole) .The dam is said to be the center of have also been the kerosene that rekindles a power network in southern Africa where the conflict in the East of Congo. Despite power will be traded to take care of the having petroleum, gold, diamond etc., the power deficits that characterize the region. buzzing news has been about Coltan and The World Bank reckons that power Cobalt. shortages reduce economic growth by 2 percent on average in Africa. Thus the Cobalt, a byproduct of copper, is used to project holds massive opportunities within make lithium ion batteries. These are it. The power-deprived mining sector of batteries that are used in the environment the DRC will also receive the much friendly electric cars. With the growing needed power it requires to fulfill its mind global talk on reducing emissions, the blowing potential. South Africa was demand for cobalt is picking up (and so are
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Aapoorti | 2017 the prices).As minerals are the helm of the constantly suffered at the expense of the DRC‗s economy, this demand surge will more money-spinning mining sector and go a long way in propelling an already has not recovered from the nationalization soaring economy. of the sector that took place in 1970s. It is estimated that DRC has the potential to Now turning to Coltan, which turned the feed the whole of Africa but it has recently heads of all phone savvy millennial with even resorted to importing food and was rocking news that all the late night texting ironically ranked the hungriest country in on their phones is at the expense of the the world in 2011 according to the Global conflict in Congo. Coltan is a fundamental Hunger Index(GHI).As if this is not mind part of mobile phones, pagers and laptops boggling enough, it has also had severe whose demand seems to be insatiable in an cases of malnutrition. increasing tech-oriented world. The dividends from such a mineral would be Unsurprisingly, agriculture is not the only immense if properly managed. Despite its sector that is being used terribly lower than heat resistant properties that make it a its potential. The timber in Africa‘s largest perfect capacitor for a wide range of forest and the fish of the majestic Congo gadgets, it has not had the same resistance River face the same plight. As other to the exploitation of its wealth by rebel countries are struggling with overfishing in militias that have ravaged areas containing Sub-Saharan Africa, it seems fish in the the precious mineral. Improved mining Congo River die of old age. DRC appears regulations and pacifying of the conflict to have hysterically reached a mastery of are slowly sucking away the venom underutilization techniques (not forgetting injected by the ‗Conflict Mineral‗. mis management). But Can DRC actually fulfill its full potential? Well, obviously not ‗full‗ but 2016 has been a major blow to the even those little baby steps it can take prospects of the DRC due to the fall of towards better resource management, commodity prices and internal political better mining reforms, more inclusive crisis that has decelerated growth. mining sectors, pushing for better Hopefully the administration will look at infrastructure et cetera would go a long this as a warning sign and a loud call for way in establishing itself as an economic diversification of the economy. The giant. agricultural sector is blatantly under- utilised with only 10 % of the arable land being used. The reason is not any constraint of climate or a land preservation campaign as the location of DRC makes it even possible to harvest twice in the same season and a wide range of crops can do well in its environment. Agriculture has
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References 4. http://investingnews.com/daily/reso urce-investing/critical-metals- 1. https://www.usaid.gov/democratic- investing/cobalt-investing/cobalt- republic-congo/fact- outlook/ sheets/usaiddrc-fact-sheet- economic-growth 5. http://www.economist.com/news/m iddle-east-and-africa/21620245- power-shortages-have-been- 2. https://www.theguardian.com/envir holding-africa-back-are-last- onment/2016/may/28/construction- easing-lighting of-worlds-largest-dam-in-dr-congo- could-begin-within-months 6. http://conflictminerals.org/coltan- learning-the-basics/ 3. https://www.internationalrivers.org /campaigns/grand-inga-dam-dr- congo
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Two States and Their Idiosyncratic Growth Path
Smriti Mehra
Summary Introduction
An extremely well written and Economic development is the process by comprehensive paper on the different which a nation improves the economic, approaches undertaken by the two most political and social well-being of its contrasting states of India, Kerala and people. In a multilevel federal democracy, Gujarat and a detailed breakdown of where a state often represents a middle level each of these fairs better and where they between the central government and the lack. Well quantified and substantiated, local bodies. Within broad constraints, although the length of the given paper different state governments in India have might be an issue, it is remarkable. The been following their own specific author has also given an all-round development strategies (Dholakia, 1994). perspective to the reader, be it from an After the economic reforms, states had overall growth POV, a per capita income greater autonomy to follow their own POV or even a gender neutral POV. socio-economic agenda. References and grammar have absolutely Kerala and Gujarat adopted distinct no problems, so not even a single change strategies for development. Kerala model was required to be made. focused on desirable social changes to bring about economic growth while Gujarat model tries to bag desirable social changes through sound economic growth. Both models are entirely dissimilar in terms of approach towards development. Both models were lauded for their achievements and were criticized for the drawbacks.
The objective of the paper is to identify the distinct features of models of development adopted by Gujarat and Kerala and contrasting their respective achievements in socio-economic sectors. The first two sections of the paper discuss in brief the models of development adopted by the two states. The sections, thereafter, compare the respective achievements of the states. Further, it talks briefly about the existence of the paradoxes in these models, followed by the conclusion of the paper.
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Gujarat Model of Development (2) Provision of infrastructure and input supplies Development strategy in Gujarat State has been very clear and unambiguous ever In the second half of the nineties, there since its inception in 1960 in according a have been major liberalisation initiatives in high priority to industrialisation. Gujarat Gujarat in terms of providing has followed ―an open door‖ policy with infrastructural support and input supplies regard to the factor mobility. The to the productive units in the state. endeavour of the Gujarat government has Following certain recommendations from all along been to provide as far as possible the report of the Gujarat State Finance the most conducive environment to Commission (1994), major reforms in the promote business and industry in the state power sector were initiated around 1995- irrespective of who provide and own them. 96. The power sector was opened up to Efforts made by Gujarat government private sector but without tackling the during the nineties to promote the private issue of inefficiencies in administration of sector in the state. It followed the electricity board. With captive power following policies (Sengupta, 1996): policy and independent power projects (IPP), Gujarat became a power surplus (1) Providing tax and cost related state from being a power shortage state. incentives Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) was formed in 2000, In the industrial policy of Gujarat State to monitor the functioning of both Gujarat during the nineties, the major instrument Electricity Board and IPPs and is empowered to take pricing and investment used by the state until recently was decisions in the power sector. In the other reduction, exemption or deferment of sales infrastructural sectors like ports and roads, tax by the new business and industry to the private participation is now encourage them to locate in the state. encouraged. Gujarat‘s Industrial and Agro Industries Gujarat is not doing very well in terms of Policies, 2000 have attempted to provide social infrastructure. Though it showed cost related incentives to the private sector moderate performance in primary education, secondary and tertiary by increasing subsidies in various forms education systems are weak. Similarly, (interest subsidy, R&D subsidy, land healthcare also needs to be addressed. provision, capital subsidy). There was no Good health care facilities are available in change in the basic theory of State the state at a high at cost but only government that was, first to provide direct selectively. productive activity rather than creating social overhead capital. Most of these state (3) Granting approvals and clearances for industries subsidies are offered to the Small Scale Industries (SSI) as they create major To promote industrial activity in the state, employment opportunities outside separate incentive scheme including agriculture. It also abolished Octroi in May speedy approval has been introduced. At 2001, which was a major barrier on free the district level, it is the District movement of goods leading to adverse Industries Centre (DIC) with principal objective of establishing the DIC is to impact on resource allocation and provide all assistance under one roof to the efficiency. entrepreneurs engaged in different types of industries and to those proposing to
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Aapoorti | 2017 establish small and cottage industries in income, industrialisation and employment the district (Government of Gujarat, 1999). has been a major topic of discussion in To ensure better co-ordination among Development Economics, ever since the various agencies working in the district, a publication of Poverty, Unemployment Single Window Industries Follow-up and Development Policy: A Case Study of Team (SWIFT) is constituted in 1996-97 Selected Issues with Reference to Kerala in each district. by the Centre for Development Studies For larger units, states in India have a (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram in 1975. limited role. After liberalisation in this sector, approvals are needed only for the 6 The Kerala model has been defined as: groups of strategic industries. The DICs 1. A set of high material quality-of- and the Office of the Industries life indicators coinciding with low per- Commissioner at the state level assist these capita incomes, both distributed across large industries in getting what they want. nearly the entire population of Kerala. DICs also perform the task of follow-up 2. A set of wealth and resource and monitoring their progress. redistribution programmes that have largely brought about the high material (4) Restoring the market forces in the land quality-of-life indicators. market in the state 3. High levels of political participation and activism among ordinary people along Another major liberalisation initiative is with substantial numbers of dedicated the abolition of the urban land ceiling in leaders at all levels. Kerala's mass activism the state from April 1999 to restore the and committed cadre were able to function legitimacy of the transactions in the land within a largely democratic structure, market in the urban areas. It also amended which their activism has served to the Town Planning Act in 1999, which reinforce. now requires the buyer of the barren and undeveloped land under the urban THE ―OLD‖ KERALA MODEL development authorities of different Kerala exceeded other states in terms of metropolitan areas to keep or surrender social development from the time of 50% of the land for various infrastructure independence. Since then much more developments. The purpose of this progress have been achieved through state amendment was to avoid excess cost and interventions comprising of welfare disputes in the matters of providing the policies such as effective public required infrastructure in future as well as distribution of food, systematic expansion make the users pay for the cost of of public health and education facilities infrastructure. In the matter relating to and effectual land reforms. making the land available to industries, the unique measure taken by the Gujarat Comprehensive land reform and other government in 1997 is to grant permission redistributive programmes were to convert agricultural land to non- implemented by the state government. The agricultural (NA) uses up to the limit of 10 elimination of absentee landlords and the hectares almost automatically. This cuts return of land to the tiller was the key down the elaborate process and delays in feature of the land reform programme. The obtaining the NA permission for land. most notable part of the land reform and redistributive programme was the right Kerala Model of Development given to the tenants of the households to retain full ownership of their dwellings Kerala‘s achievement of high human plus full title to one-tenth of an acre of the capabilities with relatively low levels of house-compound land. State government
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Aapoorti | 2017 introduced Agricultural Workers Reform participatory growth and from top-down Act in the 1970s that provided permanency intervention to bottom up planning. for labourers attached to the farms, a provident fund and old age pensions and a New participatory initiatives try to minimum wage which is the highest in overcome class conflict and party politics India. at local level by emphasizing joint productive interests and building The state government spent large amounts mediating bodies in which different of the state budget for primary and interest groups are represented. secondary education, health care, immunisation, agricultural credits and At the onset of 1996, planning explicitly housing targeted at poor citizens of the aimed at increasing production and state. Establishment of fair-price or `ration productivity in agriculture, alleviating shops‘ through which essential staples ecological problem, improving quality of were made available at subsidised rates. social infrastructure and gender inequality. School lunch and feeding programmes have also helped to improve the nutritional The challenge to accelerate standards of young children. industrialisation and to develop the power The people of Kerala are more politically sector remain in the realm of state and active than the rest of the country. People central government (Isaac and Harilal, are highly sensitive and actively 1997) participating in election campaigning, voting etc. This peculiarity of higher The new strategies adopted seem to have political activism among people helped the contributed to higher growth rates of 6-7% state to bring many changes in the in 1990s (Franke and Chasin, 2000). Thus economic and social developmental the new Kerala model pursued objectives aspects of the state. of productive development, social These achievements on social indicator did improvement and environmental not get translated into economic sustainability. performance. Overemphasize on redistribution and welfare policies resulted COMPARISON OF ACHIEVEMENTS in scarcity of financial resources which threatened the sustainability of the old 1. NSDP Kerala model. As shown in figure 1, Gujarat has been THE ―NEW‖ KERALA MODEL ahead of Kerala in terms of net state During 1990s, greater attention was given domestic product especially after the to productive needs and democratic reforms of 1991. In 2013-14, NSDP (at decentralisation. It took the directive current price) of Gujarat was Rs. 651916 policy of decentralisation more seriously crores which is almost twice of Kerala and decided to allocate 34-40% of its annual budget to new development which was Rs. 351245 crores. But there is projects designed by local bodies. The only a marginal difference in terms of decentralised and democratic planning NSDP per capita of the two states which is gave people‘s participation a greater role. Rs.106831 in Gujarat and Rs.103820 in The new model relied on the similar basic Kerala indicating a more inclusive nature principle of development through public of development in Kerala as compared to action by a responsible state and popular Gujarat. participation. But, unlike old model the policies shifted from welfare to
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2. INFRASTRUCTURE union territories in adult literacy with Infrastructure development plays a major 93.91%, Gujarat is far behind at 18th with role in economic development of any 79.31% but well above the national region. Sound infrastructure encourages average of 74% in 2011. Though Kerala private investment and hence increases had a greater level of education in 1961 employment opportunities. and both the states showed an approximately equal increase in adult POWER GENERATION: The following literacy but it was more gender equal in table shows the total installed capacity in Kerala. Women's education has played both the states as on 31st march, 2015 (in important role in declining the mortality percentage). Gujarat through the reforms rates and enable women to take better became a power surplus state with the charge of their lives. Also Kerala has a highest electricity generation capacity very low dropout ratio as compared to through thermal power. The Kerala power Gujarat. sector is being congested presently by some serious hurdles such as inadequate HEALTH OUTCOMES: Kerala ranks first production, over dependence on hydro in India in all major health indicators such power still and less dependence on as life expectancy at birth (total, male and renewable resources. Gujarat was able to female), infant mortality rate, maternal diversify to renewable sources of power mortality rate, fertility rate and birth rate. generation, while mere 1.24% of Kerala‘s Life expectancy of Kerala which is 74.8 installed capacity was from it. years in 2013 is much better than that of Gujarat where it is and comparable to that PUBLIC ROAD NETWORK: Kerala has of US which is 77 years. Another a huge road network of 243,374 km with achievement of Kerala model was the per capita availability of 73 meters road population control. length (KSPB, 2014). While the total road length in Gujarat in 2012-13 except non- PARADOX IN ACHIEVEMENTS plan, community, urban and project roads With the brief analysis of achievements of is 78,558 km with the per capita both the models, let us look at the some of availability of mere 12.3 m (DES, 2015). the paradox that exist in their respective The length of state highways in Gujarat is achievements. clearly in front of Kerala with per capita The biggest paradox in the achievements availability of 30.65 cm while it is even of Gujarat and Kerala is in terms of lower than half of it in Kerala. In major poverty and unemployment rate. district roads Kerala had clearly advantage According to NSSO 68th round, Kerala with the per capita availability of 822.73 has the lowest poverty ratio of 7.05% in cm length while it was mere 338.93 in 2011-12, but with highest unemployment Gujarat implying better rural road network rate (98/1000) amongst the states. in Kerala. Unemployment problem in Kerala is largely a problem of the educated 3. SOCIAL INDICATORS population More than one-fourth of the rural educated and one-fifth of the urban EDUCATION INDICATORS: educated were unemployed in the State. Phenomenal educational outcomes played On the other hand Gujarat has the lowest key role in Kerala Model. As shown in the unemployment rate but very high poverty table below that Kerala has advantage in rate but lower than the national ratio of all major education indicators such as 21.92% as per Tendulkar methodology. literacy, dropout and schooling. While Kerala is at first among Indian states and
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Another contrasting aspect is the crime bring about desirable social change even rate against women and suicidal deaths in with low income levels. Although Gujarat the two states. Kerala praised for its is ahead of Kerala in terms of economic women centred development have a performance, yet, Kerala has social considerable higher crime rate against women than Gujarat. Education has not indicators that are comparable with that of brought with it the social enlightenment it developed nations. should have. The state consumes the highest amount of alcohol per capita. Along with these achievements there also Behind the natural beauty is a tale of exist interesting paradoxes. Despite having despair, alcoholism, wife battering and low unemployment rates, Gujarat has high suicides. poverty rate which is reverse in the case of Kerala implying more inclusive approach Mental strength better judged by suicide to growth. Though, Kerala has excellent rate shows the strength of development social indicators, but, it failed in providing models also. Kerala blessed with top level equality between men and women. The health and education standards was at 27th problem of crimes against women and high among the Indian states and 32nd among level of educated unemployment highlights states/union territories with the suicide rate the loopholes that exist in the model of of 23.9 during 2014 while Gujarat with the development. Gujarat, with low crime suicide rate of 11.7 little above the national rates, is considered a prosperous and safe average of 10.6 was at 15th among states. state.
Conclusion There have been debates between two eminent Indian economists, Amartya Sen ‗One Economics, Many Recipes‘ the title and Jagdish Bhagwati over the issue of of the book by economist Dani Rodrik how development can be appropriated and clearly suggests that there can be various what approach should be followed by the ways to reach the final goal of entire nation. Sen believes that capability development. The process of policy development can lead to long term economic prosperity, while Bhagwati reforms at the state level assumes prefers Gujarat model with focus on significance in providing a conducive achieving economic growth first leading to environment for socio-economic development of social infrastructure later. development of the region. The paper tries Both the models have acquired to analyse the contradictory models of acclamations and subjected to some development implemented by Gujarat and criticisms. Therefore, it is important to mix Kerala. the correct ingredients from both the models to cook perfect the meal of Gujarat focused on providing the ‗direct economic development. productive activity‘ rather than creating a social overhead capital. Kerala tried to
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Figure 1: NSDP of Gujarat and Kerala (at current prices) in Rs. Crores Source: Economic Survey
Table 1: Total installed electricity capacity in Kerala & Gujarat as on 31.03.2015 (in %)
Table 2: Education indictors
Source: Census India 2011, Kerala economic review, socio economic review of Gujarat
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Table 3: Health indicators
Table 4: Poverty and unemployment (in 2011-12)
Table 5: Crime against women during 2013
Source: National Crime Records Bureau report ‘Crime in India 2013
References sustainability in the Third World. Third World Quarterly, Vol 17, 1996. 1. Muhammed Salim. A.P, Kerala-Gujarat 4. Ravindra H. Dholakia, Economic Models: A Comparative Study With Reforms and Development Strategy in Respect To Socio-Economic Environment. Gujarat. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary 5. Maitreesh Ghatak and Sanchari Roy, Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016 Gujarat model of development and other 2. Rene Veron, (2001), The ―new‖ Kerala growth stories. model: lessons for sustainable 6. The Kerala Model of Development development. World Development, Vol. Economics Essay. 29. 7. Lalita Panicker. Two states: Kerala, 3. Govindan Parayil, The `Kerala model‘ Gujarat and their development. of development: development and
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The Inscrutability of Economics
Manpreet Dash
come up with, complicate it and make it difficult to understand; else they have been Summary out of jobs. Because if everyone started to understand this complexity then Economics is everywhere and sometimes it economists would lose their value. Hence, may seem difficult and complex. It is a the inscrutability is not unintentional. In science as well as an art. And sometimes, short, economics is a subject based on it so happens that it is deliberately made logic and everyday life, which can be complicated and difficult. It can be used understood by everyone but it‘s simply innumerable ways and is regarded as common sense at its best.
made difficult by the outside world. We use economics very frequently in our daily The joke goes, ―Economics is common lives. As the science of decision making, sense made difficult.‖ It is a difficult economic philosophy operates in our daily science understood by few. Economics is life, whether we realize it or not. When we often like the art of advocacy. You make are evaluating the interest rates on our complex things simple and not vice versa. credit cards, or trying to decide whether to But just as lawyers mint money by first buy or lease a new car, or go out to dinner convoluting their clients‘ case and then or a vacation, these are all decisions we navigating them through the labyrinth, make using economic thinking. Economics economists too have to make simple is also a large field with a rich history common sense sound big to be in business. that‘s been explored and examined by Studying economics equips people with hundreds of influential people, ranging various levels of financial literacy, which from philosophers to politicians. It is allows them to effectively manage their alleged that statistics with economics can own finances and even advise others in prove or disprove anything. But yeah these financial management and planning too. data can easily be manipulated to make But at the end of the day, it‘s a difficult them in someone‘s favour. Covering up science, understood by only a handful of losses or cooking up figures which are less dialecticians and logicians. susceptible to conviction isn‘t very Economics is inspired by pure common difficult. sense, made to look like rocket science so Someone who indulges in subterfuge in that people can be hired to work on it, and daily life will soon be caught and thrown then ultimately what they say is what one behind bars, but that when done in would have guessed. Economists economics is innovation. A famous US intentionally make the theories that they president once said that five economists give six opinions. Economists never agree
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Aapoorti | 2017 because ultimately the objective, unlike information and knowledge leads to such physics or chemistry, is not to find the things. Similarly there are many such cases truth; but to foment diversity of opinion. where the general public is somehow The economics fraternity has made fooled for the benefits of the so called financial engineering a high discipline, ―intelligent, logical and intellectually high which would otherwise be adjudged people‖. So, primarily my argument to this criminal. It is better that people do it is that things in economics are not as professionally, thereby causing less harm, complicated and difficult as they seem to than they try their conjuring tricks on be. They are made so to favour a certain common populace innocent of economics. group of people. This so called But when it is practiced in close circles, inscrutability of economics can be used for and common man is unaffected then the the welfare of the society or to fool people. repercussions are less serious. That‘s how Thus, gives immense employment to economics gives employment to people, dialecticians; can make you a renowned who would otherwise be a threat to economist or a fraud. Economics is society; turn into frauds, swindlers, basically a knife in hand which can be tricksters and what not. We should used in any way we want. understand the limitation of the things in practice and why financial models should always be treated with a healthy degree of scepticism.
The greatest example of this is the financial crisis in the US. The reasons behind this crisis were recently unfolded. People far away from the US didn‘t know that what they are actually investing in is the US banks‘ NINJA loans. They thought they would end up making a huge profit but ended up losing all their money. That‘s a financial innovation that paid hugely to its practitioners. Sometimes lack of proper
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How Domestic-Global Interaction Help Global Economy
Ritisha Mishra
nature and shape of policy is ultimately contingent on domestic interests, ideas and Summary institutions.
Globalisation isn‘t just limited to goods This essay will proceed in the following and services but also ideas, particularly steps. First, on the basis of existing those pertaining to economic policy literature in the field of International making. While international trends Political Economy, I will lay out the case (pressures) might be responsible for policy for international trends affecting economic implementation, it is the domestic factors policy and the role of policy diffusion. that influence its form and diffusion. Second, I will study the role of domestic factors in shaping economic policy. Introduction Finally, I will summarise the salient features of the argument and briefly The globalization of the world economy mention its implications. has not only provided a conduit for importing international trends in policy The case for policy diffusion making, but also for exporting domestic policies and influencing global trends. In No industrialized or industrializing nation such a dynamic feedback system, it can insulate its economy from global becomes necessary to examine exactly economic pressures. (Dolowitz and Marsh, what kind of factors affect policy making 2000, p.6) Policy diffusion is the process in any economy. To that end, this essay by which policy decisions in an economy explores the case for domestic factors, the are systematically conditioned by policy case for global pressures, as well as choices made elsewhere. Four mechanisms domestic-global policy interactions. of interdependent policy-making are usually recognised: coercion, competition, The argument of this essay is that although learning and emulation (Simmons, Dobbin both domestic factors and global trends and Garrett, 2006). I will now delve into play a crucial role, their roles are quite the role these mechanisms have had to different. I argue that while international play in the six areas of economic policy. policy diffusion determines the overall course of economic policy in any In the case of privatisation in OECD and economy, it is the domestic factors that Latin American countries, Meseguer (2004) has found that learning and emulation played an important role in the privatisation wave of the of the 1990s. She limit the extent to which international finds that economic rationales alone are trends can influence policy. The exact
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Aapoorti | 2017 insufficient in explaining why so many shaped in North America and Europe and countries privatised together, and why are increasingly internationalized and then. Purely economic rationales cannot projected globally as models of good explain why countries where public governance. Coercion (through non- enterprises were working well—such as governmental and inter-governmental France, South Korea, Austria, Taiwan— organizations) and the spread of the ideas decided to divest. Efficiency of ―best practices‖ have contributed to this considerations are also inadequate as ―it diffusion. (Levi-Faur, 2005) may well be the case that privatisation merely transforms a state monopoly into a Even transitions to economic private one.‖ (Meseguer, 2004, p.302) liberalisation, it has been found, cluster in Ideology, too, cannot explain why time and space. The most influential factor countries such as France and Britain saw in this instance of policy diffusion has both right-wing and left-wing governments been found to be competition for global supporting privatisation. In fact, it is capital, i.e., governments tend to liberalise learning from the experiences of countries when their competitors do. If country A‘s which benefited from privatization or even foreign competitor B chooses to liberalise, emulating their ―best practices‖ that played B becomes a relatively more attractive a major role in the incremental rise in venue for investment. Fearing that privatization that was witnessed in the investors will be drawn away from it, 1990s. country A will feel a pressure to liberalise as well. (Simmons and Elkins, 2004) In an Closely related to the diffusion of era when developed countries are privatisation has been the rise of regulatory struggling to maintain positive growth capitalism. In an era where the logic of rates and developing countries are racing neoliberalism has gained eminence, it to grow as quickly as possible, the might seem paradoxical that regulation of significance of these pressures cannot be the private sector should increase. overstated. However, this regulation does not come in the form of old-fashioned state command Interesting policy convergence is also seen and control. Privatisation, it is argued, is in the area of central bank independence, accompanied by a new division of labour which has been on a radical rise since the between state and society, which has 1990s. (See Figure 1) A central bank is resulted in an increase in delegation and said to be independent once it has gone new technologies of regulation. The through institutional reform whose explicit following table (Majone, 1997, p.149) is purpose is to grant it more autonomy from useful in understanding the differences the government. Generally, functionalist between the traditional Keynesian state explanations are provided by governments and the modern regulatory state. to justify such a reform: to tackle high inflation, increase credibility, acquire more In fact, studies suggest that the rationale expertise, et al. However, these demand- for regulation might be stronger than the side explanations fail to explain rise of rationale for privatisation. Regulatory central bank independence in countries solutions to market failure were initially without high inflation. Moreover, studies
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Aapoorti | 2017 have failed to prove a significant governments are indeed interested in relationship between central bank doing, particularly in light of increased independence and low inflation rates. foreign participation in domestic markets. Therefore, the waves of convergence in Thus, the impact of international factors on such policies are explained by policy such policies cannot be disregarded. diffusion – in particular, though coercion and emulation. (Marcussen, 2005) The practicalities of the domestic Further, scholars like McNamara (2002) economy have critiqued this ―one size fits all‖ type As discussed in the previous section, the of governance that claims to result in impact of international factors on domestic better economic outcomes, even though no policies is tremendous. However, this is conclusive evidence is found to justify not to say that policy diffusion implies that such rationales. ‗Normative isomorphism‘, all nations will eventually have identical McNamara (2002, p.64) writes, plays a policies. On the contrary, it has been significant role in the spread of central observed that more often than not nations bank independence. tailor internationalized policies to suit Fiscal policy, too, is not insulated from domestic interests. These interests may be global pressures. Swank and Steinmo of powerful producer groups, or of (2002) conducted a study that suggests that politicians, or even (in an ideal scenario) internationalization has required a change of the citizens at large. These interests are in tax regimes across the world. Tax aggregated through institutions, i.e., how impacts of internationalization are more interests are translated into outcomes complex than globalization theory depends on the strategic domestic suggests, but it cannot be denied that there environment, especially institutions and has been significant policy convergence in information. (Frieden and Martin, 2002, this area of economic policy as well. p.120) Figure 2 illustrates how the top income tax Let us consider, first, the case of rates have fallen systematically across privatisation. The decision to privatise in various economies. most economies might have been a result Although the argument for policy diffusion of learning by experience; however, policy in the case of industrial policy is a weak diffusion proves to be inadequate in one, modern industrial policy remains an explaining regional variations in important aspect of economic policy. This privatisation. In some countries, is especially true in a globalized privatisation was undertaken for pragmatic economy—where domestic groups are reasons (for instance, in Southern Europe favoured over foreign players because of and India); in others, it reflected a shift in their territorial status. (Clift and Woll, ideology to roll back the state (examples 2012, p.308) Industrial policy as a are Mexico and several Latin American terminology has largely disappeared from countries). Thus, it is local economic and modern economic discourse; however, it is political conditions that dictate how aimed at protecting the interests of privatisation is carried out, what is domestic groups, which is something privatised and how much is privatised.
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(Murillo, 2002 and Schamis, 2002 cited in can perhaps be seen in the fact that world Meseguer, 2004) Moreover, since trade liberalisation has hardly affected the privatisation implies a change in continent of Africa, where trade-distorting ownership structure, it is the environment support measures prevent access to in which firms operate that determines the international markets as late as 2004, and outcome of the new ownership structure. even afterwards. (Amoako, 2004) (Meseguer, 2004) Liberalisation in several economies is As in the case of privatisation, the timing generally attributed to the coercive of the rise in regulatory authorities can be influence of the International Monetary attributed to policy diffusion. This does Fund (IMF). However, some scholars not imply, however, that the nature of (Mukherjee and Singer, 2010) have found regulation was the same in all countries. that IMF loans have a positive effect on The increase in regulation in capitalist capital account liberalisation of an countries implies a growth in newer and economy conditional upon the amount of more sophisticated instruments of welfare spending in that economy, and the regulation. The nature of these ability of the government to compensate instruments, in turn, depends on the nature domestic groups that are harmed by of the division of labour between state and liberalisation. society, which is contingent upon the policy goals and interest groups in the Some studies have found that liberalisation economy. This gives rise to national has been a result of democratisation, which diversity in regulatory innovations and can be viewed from an interest-based practices. (Levi-Faur, 2005) Regulation perspective. (Milner and Kubota, 2005; also sees diversity across sectors within an Hall, 1997) ―Democratic leaders‖, Milner economy. For instance, financial and Kubota (2005) write, ―…chose trade regulation in a country like the United liberalisation as a means to garner political States faces more veto points and support‖. Liberalisation can therefore be deadlocks than most other sectors in the viewed as an interest-based political move. economy. (Carpenter, 2010) Financial sector liberalisation, in particular, is heavily dependent on the The case of liberalisation is an interesting state of technology in the economy, one. Although all globalised economies especially the economy‘s ability to fully face competitive pressures to liberalise, exploit the advantages of they do not do away with protectionist telecommunications. institutions altogether fearing political backlash. There continues to be a need to In the area of central bank independence, protect vulnerable groups, especially in cross-national variations are quite clear. To underdeveloped countries. Moreover, begin with, the definition of ‗central bank‘ studies on the diffusion of liberalisation do and its functions varies from state to state. not predict a universal convergence Independence of a central bank can be towards liberalisation; rather, they predict functional, legal, financial, or any convergence among competitors only. combination of these. Moreover, the (Simmons and Elkins, 2004, p.173) This degree of autonomy and legal independence is a continuum—and no two
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Aapoorti | 2017 central banks have the same combination on the government‘s policy targets. (Clift of functions and powers. (Marcussen, and Woll, 2012) In recent times, we have 2005) The following excerpt explains such seen governments engaging in industrial variations well: policy in subtle and creative ways to avoid international criticism. Some economists ―…central bank independence also find the recent rise in protectionism quite hinges on a broad series of factors worrying and have found that countries as and customary practices, which are varied as India, Russia and USA are the partly determined by historical ―leading culprits‖. (Johnson, 2016) developments in the different countries. In particular, the way in Summing Up which certain conflicts with other bodies of government have been In this essay, I have attempted to resolved influences the extent to demonstrate how the course of economic which a central bank is effectively policy is affected by international factors protected against external and policy diffusion, while domestic interferences and marks the factors determine the objectives of policies boundaries of independence.‖ (Bini and their final forms. I have done so by Smaghi, 2008, p.447) looking at six areas of economic policy. In the case of privatisation, learning and Taxation is another area where variations emulation contribute towards international are evident. Although neoliberalism has convergence, even though the nature of required a change in the content of tax privatisation can be pragmatic, tactical or policy almost everywhere, these changes systemic depending on domestic policy themselves are specific to each country. objectives. (Feigenbaum and Henig, 1994) This is, in part, owing to the degree of Privatisation is closely associated with re- dependence on fiscal policy in the regulation, rather than widespread economy. More importantly, the design of deregulation; however, the regulatory tax policy is significantly affected by the authorities and institutions vary immensely number and nature of actors in the tax- across countries and the extent of design process. This number is far lower in regulation varies across sectors. While developing countries than in developed liberalisation is propagated by countries, and results in important neoliberalism, its limits are determined by variations. (Gould and Baker, 2002) powerful societal groups, government welfare objectives and the extent of In the case of industrial policy, domestic democratisation. Central bank interests play a vital role. An important independence for monetary policy saw a point to keep in mind is that economic drastic rise in the 1990s, despite the fact liberalism does not imply the that the nature of such independence and disappearance of the state—in fact, most the powers of central banks are as varied governments engage in some sort of as they are numerous. Fiscal policy, while industrial policy for domestic prerogatives. facing pressures to be less stringent, This phenomenon is referred to as depends on government ideology and the ‗economic patriotism‘ and can be either nature and number of actors in the policy liberal or protectionist in nature depending
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Aapoorti | 2017 design stage. Finally, industrial policy, policy diffusion plays a role in the rapid although frowned upon by champions of development of a country, making it neoliberal ideology, continues to be an difficult for the country to oppose important part of economic policies for the international trends. Second, given that logic of prioritising domestic interests. certain policies are propagated as ―best practices‖ and enforced by the hegemony These observations lead to some pertinent of certain countries and organizations, questions about economic policy in the there arise important implications about international context. First, why is it that the sovereignty of countries. The 20th global factors influence some countries century has been a century of more than others? What determines the decolonisation, but is any country truly extent to which a country can resist outside free in a globalised scenario where there is pressures? For instance, a country like hegemony of a few powerful nations? France has a more active industrial policy Interactions between domestic and than that of most other developed international forces are evidently countries. Perhaps it is possible that the complex—hence, these are some more developed a country is, the more it interesting areas where further research can afford to resist global pressures. On may be undertaken. the other hand, it is also possible that
Table: 1
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Figure 1 - Proportion of central banks with legal independence, 1870–2003 (Source: Marcussen, 2005, p.906)
Figure 2 - Top (wage) income tax rates decreased (Source: Brys, Matthews and Owens, 2011, p.4)
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Figure 3 – The diffusion of privatisation and regulatory authority around the world (Source: Levi-Faur, 2005)
References 5.Clift, B. and Woll, C., 2012. Economic 1.Amoako, K.Y., 2004. World trade patriotism: reinventing control over open liberalisation still excludes Africa. markets. Journal of European Public Financial Times, [online] 22 November. Policy, 19(3), pp.307-323. Available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/a6cf20c6-3cc2- 6.Dolowitz, D.P. and Marsh, D., 2000. 11d9-bb7b-00000e2511c8.html [Accessed Learning from abroad: The role of policy 23 June 2016] transfer in contemporary policy‐making. Governance, 13(1), pp.5-23. 2.Bini Smaghi, L., 2008. Central bank independence in the EU: from theory to 7.Feigenbaum, H.B. and Henig, J.R., 1994. practice. European Law Journal, 14(4), The political underpinnings of pp.446-460. privatization: A typology. World Politics, 46(02), pp.185-208. 3.Brys, B., Matthews, S. and Owens, J., 2011. Tax Reform Trends in OECD 8.Frieden, J. and Martin, L.L., 2002. Countries. OECD Taxation Working International political economy: Global Papers, No. 1, OECD Publishing, Paris. and domestic interactions. Political Science: The state of the discipline, 4.Carpenter, D., 2010. Institutional pp.118-146. strangulation: Bureaucratic politics and financial reform in the Obama 9.Gould, A.C. and Baker, P.J., 2002. administration. Perspectives on Politics, Democracy and taxation. Annual Review of 8(03), pp.825-846. Political Science, 5(1), pp.87-110.
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Living in Trans: A study on the socio-economic condition of the transgender community in India
Shivani Mohan and Shreshtha Mishra
and stared at. It is a life where you‘re Summary discriminated against and forced to live below what you
deserve, even by the rights of humanity. During the medieval and vedic age, Called by several names such as hijras, transgenders were not only identified but kinnars (eunuchs), Jogtas, Aradhis also incorporated in the society. They held ,sakhi,etc. , they are covered under the important positions and led respectable larger group of LGBTQ : Lesbian, Gay, lives. However, presently the prejudice Bisexual, Transgender, Queer. and ignorance of the majority has made them an object of travesty. Their position So, who are the transgender? as deteriorated to such an extent that being Unlike ‗sex‘ which is assigned at the time harassed and humiliated has become a part of a person‘s birth, ‗gender‘ is defined as of their existence. This articles sketches the range of characteristics pertaining to, out their role in society from the vedic era and differentiating between, masculinity to the present day, with an explanation of and femininity. Depending on the context, what brought about this drastic change. these characteristics may include Through this article, we also seek to biological sex (i.e. the state of being male, explain, if anything has really changed or female or an intersex variation which may whether there are any insinuations of complicate sex assignment), sex-based change. By examining the results of 2011 social structures (including gender roles census report, we try to find out the cause and other social roles ), or gender identity . of the life that the transgenders are forced Thus, "Male" and "female" are sex to live and understand what pushes them categories, while "masculine" and into the vicious circle of poverty, "feminine" are gender categories, as humiliation and helplessness. Having defined by the WHO. listed out the causes, we list out the possible solutions that can be adopted to ‘Transgender ’, as the name suggests, does make their lives better and provide them not include sexual orientation and instead with basic human rights that our pertains to gender identity or gender constitution guarantees to all its citizens. expression. Thus, their gender identity
differs from their sexual Introduction : orientation and from the generally accepted stereotypical gender norms of the ―What is different will always be society. misunderstood, but it will always find a way‖ Lifestyle : Life as a Transgender in India is a life full ―The mothers are usually called as Gurus of being misunderstood, of being shunned, and the daughters as Chelas. This was a judged family
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Aapoorti | 2017 hierarchy which is fully matriarchal. We several instances of transgenders have great grand mothers, grand mentioned in many Hindu scriptures and mothers, spiritual books. The Hindu God ‗Shiva‘ mothers, aunts, mother in laws, daughter has often been portrayed as having both in laws, daughters, grand daughters and ‗masculine‘ and ‗feminine‘ nature. The great Hindus even have a transgender God ― grand daughters. Apsara, my mother Ardhanarishwar‖, who represents neither from the trans family is my Guru. The Lord chronological Shiva or Goddess Parvati, but the two in age has no value here, whoever joins the unison. In Kama Sutra, the Hindu book on family becomes the part of the hierarchy sexuality, homosexuality is considered and permissible in some communities and trans women who join thereafter will be forbidden in others. the daughters or grand daughters of that A third sex has also discussed in ancient person. Hindu law, medicine, linguistics and This is a unique family system which the astrology. trans women have been following for In Vedic Astrology, each of the nine more than planets has been associated with male, 100 years and it is a strong bond which female or trans. unites us as a family network throughout the Role in Indian history : country. Girls from any religion or sect The word ―Eunuch‖ literally means can become a Chela (daughter). It is a ‗keeper of the bed‘ as castrated men were true bonding based on loyalty, love and in popular faith. Transwomen who run away fearing demand to guard women of the royal the stigma from their family and relatives household. During the mughal periods, usually join or create these families. they rose to well Transwomen who known positions as administrators,political stay with their biological families can be advisors, generals and even guardians of a part of these families too.‖ the harems. Hijras were considered to be (Excerpt from: My Story, by Kalki ) clever, trustworthy and fiercely loyal and (Cited) had free access to all spaces and sections of population, thereby playing a crucial His torical Role of Transgenders in role in the politics of empire building in Ancient Indian societies : the Mughal era. The Hijras also occupied high positions in the Islamic religious Transgenders and Hinduism : institutions, especially in guarding the holy The ―transgenders‖ have been mentioned places of Mecca and Medina, they were in the ‗Vedas‘ and there are several stories even able to influence state decisions and and art also received large amount of money to sculptures based on them in ancient Indian have been closest to kings and queens. culture. There is an overwhelming There is a detailed reference in Jain Texts presence of homosexual iconography in to Transgender, which mentions the Hinduism. Copulation between the same concept of ‗psychological sex‘. In ancient sexes is represented in Hindu art in Hindu traditions, transgenders were sculptures, carvings, and paintings. In accepted and considered to be an Hindu religion and philosophy, erotic auspicious group. They gave their carvings representing sexuality and blessings at weddings and childbirth since fertility, are highly revered. There are
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Aapoorti | 2017 they were considered to bring special luck Over time, transgenders began forming and fertility. their own close communities that even had their own language in some instances. So, what brought about They would go to birth ceremonies of deterioration in their status? children to give their blessings, and additionally to see if the child is normal. In case he is not, they take the child with Criminal Tribes Act 1861 them, where he lives as a part of the This legislation was enacted during the transgender community. People living in British rule to supervise the deeds of the such communities are outcastes and rarely transgender have any access to education or any other community. It deemed transgenders as government resources. They have to live innately ‗criminal‘ and ‗addicted to the their lives in poverty and are seldom systematic forced to go into sex work, to earn an commission of non-bailable offences‘. It income. allowed the colonial government to arrest transgenders without warrant and sentence Census in India started in 1871, but it was to imprisonment upto two years or a fine not until 2011 that the population of or both. Act has, however, been repealed transgenders were calculated. This was in August 1949. But the damage to the done by including them under the category social status of transgenders was done as of ―others‖. This was a monumental step now society began to view them as since it allowed transgenders a recognition, criminals. and allowed them basic rights such as
voting, and crimes against them being Section 377, IPC registered. Under the Colonial Rule, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was introduced in Census Results from 2011 : 1860. This criminalised the sexual Some salient features of the results activities "against the order of nature", regarding the transgender community in arguably including homosexual sexual the census of 2011 activities. include:
“Unnatural offences: Whoever 1. No. of transgender in India presently: voluntarily has carnal intercourse against more than 490,000 ; of which 55,000 are the order of in the 0-6 years old population. nature with any man, woman or animal 2. Literacy rate: 56.07% as compared to an shall be punished with imprisonment for overall literacy rate of 74% life, or 3. Maximum number of eunuchs found in with imprisonment of either description for Uttar Pradesh state of India with around term which may extend to ten years, and 5% of the total percentage of state shall population. also be liable to fine.‖ Because of this, the 4. Number of them found in Andhra fact that people are transgender became a Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, criminal offense. They started facing a Rajasthan and Delhi are5%, 11.0%, 6.0%, social stigma, which overtime became 6.5%, 4.5% and 2.0% of the total social abuse, with numerous incidents of percentage of state hate crimes against the LGBT community. population respectively. Instead of considering it as a state of 5. Over 66% of the population identified as being, people considered it as a social vice third gender lived in rural areas, very close which gave the power to the state and made it their responsibility to contain it.
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Aapoorti | 2017 to the 69% of the overall population that around 62 percent of the transgender in lives in villages. India are involved in sex work and number 6. Among several hideous measures that is highest in Uttar Pradesh. This leaves they resort to in order to earn money, them highly vulnerable to HIV, as many of them start working as sex workers according to studies done globally, trans which in turn has its own implications. For women are up to nine times more prone to example, HIV rates are very high among be infected with HIV than their female the Hijra community. Statistics vary counterparts. A study conducted in a between 50 and 80 %. Mumbai STI clinic reported very high HIV 7. Majority of them belonging to the age of seroprevalence of 68% and high syphilis 23, 24, 25, 26 years are dying of diseases prevalence of 57% among Hijras. In or suicide. Southern India, a study documented a high HIV seroprevalence (18.1%) and Syphilis Further explanations and evidence prevalence (13.6%) among Hijras. Even in the sex workers community, they are While transgender rights activists believe considered to be at the bottom rung of the the number of transgenders to be around sex workers and are often mistreated. They six times more than the number reported, are accepted only behind bushes and in they are surprised by the large number of dark corners of the city and most of them 0-6 year olds in the count. A surprising do not even make it to hotel rooms. In fact is that such a large number of parents event of a complaint regarding the work have chosen to identify their children as conditions, due to their class and gender, transgenders. ―Parents of transgender they are often also harassed by the police. individuals tend to be in denial. They feel that this can‘t be happening to their Difficulties in Data collection : children. There is shame associated with the issue. They worry about what people While transgenders were included for the will say or if at all the society will accept first time in the Census of 2011, there were their child.‖ (cited) An aberration from this major trust issues on their part while norm, surely provides a reason to be replying to the questions. While many did optimistic about the future not know their ages, others were afraid that the personal questions would lead to Further, the low literacy rate among the further police harassment and chose to not group is not very surprising, as answer many questions. When asked about discrimination, harassment and the fear of what they do for a living, they gave curt being misunderstood and judged, usually replies like, ―Don‘t you already know forces them to quit school (as proposed by that?‖ Further, they refused to answer Anjali Gopalan of the Naz Foundation, an many questions and asked the data Indian HIV/AIDS awareness collectors to ‗just write what was best for organization). Because of the low literacy their child‘ Refusal to spell out their exact rate and prejudices in people‘s minds, profession, age, etc. has led to a lot of transgenders find it very difficult to find confusion and statistical inconsistency for regular jobs. Even if a trans person gets a the data collectors. This problem can only job, more often than not, due to non- be solved when they are made to believe sensitisation of the workplace, they are the data collectors and are free of all fear forced to leave and go back to the street to of harassment from the local authorities. sell their body or beg for a living.A study This trepidation of theirs also speaks conducted across 17 states by Department volumes of their woes and sufferings. of Aids Control (DAC) under the National While inclusion in the census is definitely Aids Control Programme-IV found that a big step, it will not serve a purpose until
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Aapoorti | 2017 the reasons behind the dismal statistics are again we see the gap between the law and carefully studied. The low literacy rate the implementation of the law. There are among them must act as an eye opener for several examples of transgenders who are the people as well as the government. gainfully employed and happy, but these Sensitization of the workplace and cases are exceptions rather than being the encouraging companies to hire rule. The judgement in itself had a transgenders is necessary to pull them out loophole that it was not effective on the of the vicious cycle of sex work and corporate sector. The major part of the beggary. problem is that, as the census indicates only 57% of the transgender population is Supreme Court judgement literate. And even a lesser percentage has a college education and degrees from well- NALSA vs. Union of India established institutions of the country. This The case was concerned with the legal ultimately results in them not being recognition of the transgender people, and suitable to get a good job, since they are whether the not able to compete with the mainstream. lack of such measures was against the At best, they get low paying jobs, but Constitution. Before this judgement the majority still remain jobless, which throws Indian law only recognised two genders - them into the vicious circle of poverty. male and female. The gender assigned to Poverty forces them to become sex the person at birth would determine their workers, which increases the incidence of rights with regards to marriage, adoption, STD‘s among the transgenders. This inheritance, succession, taxation and strengthens the stereotypes of public welfare. Since this law does not extend to against them, who try to avoid them, transgenders, several fundamental rights ultimately outcasting them. The law, such as rights to a dignified life, equality ultimately, does nothing to change the before the law, nondiscrimination and mindset of people, which is the most freedom of expression, were being important tool to guarantee them a life of violated. The court acknowledged the dignity. discrimination that transgender people face in areas of life including health care, The other side of the tale is the employment and education, which often discrimination they face at the workplace. leads to social exclusion. Court stated People continue to gender identity to be an integral part of imagine them in the stereotypical get up personality which cannot be overruled and treat them the same way and they are through medical procedures as a part of continually conforming to two genders for gaining harassed. This forces companies to restrain legal recognition. The right to choose from hiring them as sensitization of the one‘s gender identity was upheld as workplace is considered to be a difficult integral to the right to lead a life with task. There are, however, many institutions dignity. Additionally, the court asked who have and continue to employ government to address the educational, transgenders. The Future Group, Snapdeal, social and health care issues faced by Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) being transgender people. some examples. Other examples are of Padmani Prakash, who is India's first transgender to anchor a daily television Has anything really changed ? news show on Lotus News; Manabi The Supreme court‘s judgement, Banerjee who is India‘s First transgender unfortunately did not cover the Principal, and will be heading unorganised and the corporate sector. Here Krishnanagar Women‘s College in West
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Bengal. Transgenders are also excluded Transgender kids face a lot of bullying in from the political decision-making schools, which leads to higher dropout process. Since the vote bank formed by rates. Due to lack of proper education and them is not large enough, no political party requisite degrees, they are not able to enter goes out of its way to appeal to them and the job market and hence are left behind. It take their problems into proper is necessary to reduce the dropout rate. It consideration. There is also a considerable is necessary to make the workplaces more amount of hatred and disgust against them open to receiving transgenders and reduce in the mainstream population. the harassment faced by transgenders when they enter the job market. This can The exclusion of the transgenders can be be done by training the teachers and brought down to three levels, which are - management to be more sensitive towards - Economic exclusion: Due to lack of the transgenders. There is a need to education, and hence job opportunities. improve their access to the public spaces, - Social Exclusion: Social outcasts, limited more importantly places like hospitals, access to public spaces health centres and clinics. Since many - Political exclusion: Limited rights to transgenders are involved in sex acts under participation in decision making process unhygienic conditions, they are more prone to STDs including HIV/AIDS. What is the way forward? Government should try to set up separate HIV surveillance for the Transgenders, to Now is the time for the Indian authorities educate them about the unhealthy sex to give up on their own prejudices and practices and provide adequate care to work to those suffering. implement the Supreme Court‘s directives Since transgenders face a lot of harassment successfully, in order to bring the daily and at various levels, there is a need transgenders to the mainstream for adequately trained psychologists, to community. In order to provide help them and their families deal with the transgenders equal opportunities and equal mental and standing as any their citizen of our physical harassment, the drug abuse, and country, it is necessary to deal with the continuous depression. Government problem on all three levels. We believe should take steps in order to frame that introduction of sex education as part separate social welfare schemes that of curriculum will prove to be effective. tender specifically to the needs of This must also include giving knowledge transgender community. It is easier to about the transgenders. We believe that make the law, but rather difficult to kill the imparting this knowledge is a major step in social problem. This task falls to the improvement of the present status quo. government. It is the duty of the Since, part of the reason of the hatred government that the transgenders receive against the transgender is that people fear equal rights as any other citizen of the them as they are not fully aware about nation. It is upto the government to reduce them. It is necessary to extend this not the daily harassment faced by the only to the schools, but also to the rest of transgenders and help them lead a life of the population. We believe that this can be dignity. achieved through the help of print and social media. Conclusion : Gender identity, which refers to a person‘s We can establish a campaign in support of intrinsic sense of being male, female or the transgender community to ensure that transgender, is one of the most- they are fully accepted in the mainstream. fundamental and misconceived aspects of
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Aapoorti | 2017 life. The ignorance of the society and its Ultimately, it lies in the hands of people failure to distinguish between a person‘s and that how sooner they agree to change. sex and gender has led to a life of misery For the well being of the transgenders, it is for certain sections of the society. necessary that general public understand The society likes to examine everything in their feelings and mental status. terms of black and white, with white being Government should be more sensitive attributed to all that conforms to the towards the fear, shame, gender dysphoria, commonly held belief. However, it is social pressure, depression, social stigma important to understand that there are grey that the transgenders have to face. areas everywhere, and that no one gets to dictate what is ‗black‘ ‗white‘ or ‗Grey‘. Authorities should ensure that They are many people who do not ‗swim transgenders can live safely and don‘t have with the stream‘ and everyone must have to deal with harassment, on family level or the freedom to choose who they want to in public. They should ensure that live as, what their gender will be, and be transgenders regain the respect they were respected for it. Everyone is unique and once given in our society. In the 21st that is where our diversity lies. century when the world believes it has achieved major feats, learnt from history Moral failure lies in society‘s and proved its technical prowess, it is unwillingness to accept the transgender about time that we accept transgenders as community and ridiculing them at every ‗normal‘ and not aberrations from the level. Being a transgender is not a crime, norm. Only when we live and let live, can nor is it unnatural. They have been a part be truly claim to be human, and only then, of our society since ancient times and have can any government claim to be working occupied several respectable positions, for its people. Without that, we are just a sonmuch so that some societies consider bunch of hypocrites! them to be auspicious and their blessings beatific. Still, a majority of them are References: uneducated, forced to live in a state of 1. Article: The Life of Transgenders in penury, forced to resort to sex work and India by Viji Athreye beggary. This vicious cycle of illiteracy, poverty and consequently unemployment 2. Case Studies, Statistics and Survey on or employment in such sectors can be Hijras. By Swati Bisen, GNLU traced back to a single reason: discrimination, fear of being 3. TRANSGENDER AND HUMAN misunderstood and not accepted, fear of RIGHTS – CURRENT SITUATION AND being laughed at by classmates and POTENTIAL OPTIONS teachers, being harassed by coworkers, of OF DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA people seeing right through them and Mohammad Rafeek ignoring their existence. This is how it starts and this is why their future seems so 4. My Story, by Kalki dismal. Sensitization is an arduous task but all that it takes is for one to accept and 5. Supreme Court Judgement (Union of respect that transgenders are people, they India vs NALSA) have suffered a lot and it‘s high time we started treating them as one of us.
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The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment of Delhi’s Water Supply Shocks
Anshu Kumari, Rahul Singh Chauhan, Tanya Sethi (As a part of Researching Reality Internship 2016, Centre for Civil Society)
repeatedly paralyzed Delhi‘s Water Supply. Summary This necessitates a policy framework that This paper analyses the water supply analyzes risks and associated socio- shocks in Delhi and identifies the various economic vulnerabilities posed by such possible hazards that can result in such water supply disruptions. The paper is a shocks.Further it does a risk assessment of step towards formulating this framework. these hazards by developing a risk score matrix and by likelihood description.This is complemented by primary data analysis Background & Definitions to understand the water supply problems in The present study evaluates the risk 3 areas accross Delhi. associated with water extraction, transportation and treatment on quantum
of water supply. This study does not take Water has been at the centre of political into account the distributional aspect and and socio-economic turmoil in recent the quality of water supplied. Risk times. With the ever-growing needs of a assessment in water supply refers to growing population, provision of water has evaluation of the potential risks that may become a quintessential policy issue. be involved in the process. It is, here, Water, which has been seen as an calculated as the cross product of the unalienable right and one of the basic likelihood of occurrence of a Hazard and needs for survival, has ceased to be an the severity of its consequence. The unlimited resource. In recent times, the distinction between hazard and risk needs exponential increase in demand for water to be understood so that attention and and its rampant wastage has made it resources can be directed to actions based necessary to put a valuation to it. primarily on the level of risk, rather than Hence we ask, what is the value of water just the existence of a hazard. in Delhi? Of late, that question has been Vulnerability is again a distinct concept answered by blatant water supply shocks from risk. Risk assessment examines the due to human activities. The Munak Canal ability of different groups to resist the sabotage, ammonia contamination and impact of hazard, once it has already similar detrimental hazards have taken place. In this context, it would imply how different groups respond and resist to water supply shock
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Assessment I: For the survey, a random sample of 50 RWA‘s from Central and South West districts of Delhi was taken. Both these districts were affected because of the sabotage (DJB press release). RWA‘s of both planned and unplanned colonies were chosen through methods of random sampling from telephone directory. All the RWAs interviewed had been registered with the government.
Following factors have proven to determine the vulnerability of localities in
face of water cut: Methodology
Availability of boring in locality: Though Hazard Identification 25 of the 40 localities that had access to For the purposes of Hazard Identification, borings depended on external water supply a comprehensive list of all the plausible during water cut, average out of pocket hazards is made through reading case payments of households were reported to studies of water supply shocks across the be lower than of colonies without any world and brainstorming. After a careful access to groundwater. study, relevant hazards are identified. This happened because demand of water
for non-potable purposes was fetched by Risk Assessment borings. Those who did not own one, Risk is assessed qualitatively by gauging shared from the neighbors. the likelihood of the occurrence of identified Hazards and attached severity of The ease of getting water from DJB their consequences. tankers
As noted earlier, the level of dependency Likelihood Description on tankers vis-a-vis borings has been low. Likelihood in the context of the present One reason has been the shortage of water research means the probability of while the relative ease of getting water occurrence of the hazard. The paper from boring rather than tanker is also a utilizes a qualitative assessment of grading factor. Few localities complained that they likelihood under the five heads given didn‘t get DJB tanker during the period below. In a qualitative assessment, even after repeatedly calling at the DJB likelihood may be calculated with the emergency service number. They either following parameters: - had to call incur cost of calling private a. Historical Data tanker or had to limit their water b. Trend Analysis and Forecast consumption. There were also examples c. Anecdotal evidence where RWA president/secretary pointed
out the help of sources like Zonal engineer
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Aapoorti | 2017 and MLA who helped them ease the Three different kinds of localities were process of procuring DJB water and also visited and a sample of 20 people were prioritize their locality when water supply interviewed in each. Localities: Kautilya was rationed. Furthermore, an RWA Apartments, Dwarka, Sector 14; President based his case against not calling Malkaganj; Bharat Vihar, Dwarka on tanker on an incident of murder in procuring water from tankers. There was Observations an interesting case where price paid to ● If water is being provided by DJB tanker was more than that charged by tankers which is done once or twice private tankers* The plying of both these a week, people become habitual of DJB and private tankers is subject to a lot consuming less amount of water. In of transparency issue and has been under case of Jat agitation, the provision scrutiny. Since, tankers form an important of water tankers in Bharat Vihar to contingency measure, the lack of delayed by a day or two at transparency and susceptibility to political maximum. Though some had to interests further increases the vulnerability buy drinking water cans from of localities, especially for those lacking outside, there was not much of political power. problem faced by the community. ● In case water is solely provided by Unsustainability of contingency measure water supply, people face a lot of From this analysis, it comes out very problem when water supply is cut evidently that groundwater connection can off. prove to be a lot helpful even when there is ● However, living in a society a pipeline supply of water. But going reduces the vulnerability as beyond the immediate results, it is realized collective action helps. In most that such incentive is self-destructive. societies, there also exist society Once the access to groundwater is lost, no level borings which though used to contingency measure will be left in case of water gardens are used when water any shock to supply system. Even in the supply is cut off. present hazard, since the groundwater has ● Living around neighbors with depleted in many regions and is not fit for boring also reduces vulnerability as drinking, households were forced to buy non-drinking water is obtained free drinking water even if they were not of monetary cost. buying in normal scenario. And families ● In case boring is used additionally, who couldn‘t afford the cans had to suffer. people prefer to use DJB‘s water to The accelerated rate of depletion as drink. In case of water supply cut, identified earlier in risk assessment section the only cost involved is related to means that the primary contingency procuring drinking water, that too measure is unsustainable. when RO is not put and ground water cannot be used at all. Assessment II: Data collection at household level Likelihood Index for Risk Matrix i) Point Risk (A point risk reflects the risk posed by abrupt and
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unpredictable events that last include risks posed by Climate for a short duration but may Change, Mining, and Excessive endure larger and long term Groundwater Extraction. In this damage.) case we may take into account ii) Continuous Risk (There also the rate of damage caused by exist persistent risks that the given hazards.) persevere through time. These
Risk Matrix Score
RISK SCORE Low Average High Very High Extreme
Highly likely 11 16 20 23 25
Likely 7 12 17 21 24
Somewhat 4 8 13 18 22 Likely
Unlikely 2 5 9 14 19
Highly 1 3 6 10 15 Unlikely
Risk Table
Hazard Type Likelihood Severity Risk Quotient
Earthquake
Low Intensity <3.5 Highly Likely Low 11
Medium Intensity Likely Average 12 3.5-4.5
High Intensity Somewhat Likely High - Very High 13-18 5.5<
Flood Major- Water Unlikely High 9 levels above 205m
Climate Change
Reduced river Persistent and High 13 flow constant rate of decline - somewhat likely
Reduced Persistent and Very High 21 Groundwater Increasing rate
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recharge - likely
Disappearing Persistent, Average 16 water bodies Irreversible and Increasing rate - Highly Likely
Contamination Ammonia Highly likely Very high 23
Heavy metals Likely High 17
Eutrophication Somewhat likely Average 8
Organic Somewhat likely Average 8 contamination
Mining Floodplain and Persistent and High 17 riverbed Constant rate
Accidents
Drawing water Somewhat likely average 8 tragedy
Chlorine leakage Somewhat likely average 8
fire Highly unlikely Very high 10
Power cut WTPs, Tube wells Likely High 17
Non-water Deliberate Somewhat Likely High-Very High 13-18 related acts of Sabotage violence
Water Development Disputes
International water Highly Unlikely Extreme 15 development disputes
Intra-national Unlikely High-Very High 9-14 water development disputes
Adverse change in inter-state water sharing agreements
Inter-state Highly Unlikely Extreme 15 Yamuna-water sharing
International Highly Unlikely Extreme 15
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sharing of Indus river basin
Inter-state sharing Highly Unlikely Extreme 15 of Ravi-Beas river
Inter-state Ganga Highly Unlikely Extreme 15 water sharing
APPENDIX
Severity Index for Risk Matrix Extent of shortage in water supply Severity of Risk
Major part of water cut for 30 days or more Extreme
Minor part of water cut for 30 days or more; Very High Major part of water cut for five days or more
Minor part of water cut for 15 days or more; High Major part of water cut for 1 days or more
Minor part of water cut for 7 days or more; Average Major of water cut for or more
1-5% of water cut Low
Level Description
Highly Unlikely Probability or Past frequency below 2% in a given time period
Unlikely Probability or Past frequency between 2-10% in a given time period
Somewhat Likely Probability or Past frequency between 10-25% in a given time period
Likely Probability or Past frequency between 30%-50% in a given time period
Highly Likely Probability or Past frequency above 50% in a given time period
Rate of Damage/ Damage Likelihood of Risk
Persistent, Irreversible and Increasing Rate of Highly Likely Damage
Persistent, Reversible and Increasing Rate of Likely Damage/Irreversible and Constant Rate of Damage
Persistent, Reversible and Constant Rate of Somewhat Likely Damage/ Irreversible but Decreasing Rate of Damage
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Persistent and Reversible but Decreasing rate of Unlikely Damage
Reversible and Decreasing Rate of Damage Highly Unlikely
Observations for vulnerability assessment of RWA Total Number of colonies Percentage of Number dependent on external colonies dependent Colony Profile water sources during on external water water cut sources during water cut
Number of colonies with provision of DJB 41 27 65% water pipeline for households
Number of colonies with only 23 17 N/A individual borings for at least of the households
Number of colonies with only 3 1 N/A community borings for households
Number of colonies with both 6 4 N/A individual and community borings for households
Number of colonies without any access 8 5 N/A to groundwater
Number of colonies without provision of 9 2 22% DJB water pipeline for households
Number of colonies with only 4 1 N/A individual borings for at least some of the households
Number of colonies with only 2 1 N/A community borings for households
Number of colonies with both 2 0 N/A individual and community borings for households
Number of colonies with no access to 0 N/A N/A groundwater
Total number of colonies surveyed 50 29 58%
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Research Papers
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The Story of Migrants in Delhi
Ritisha Mishra, Maitreiyee Krishna, Shubham Kaushik
This essay is a product of research congestion, considerable costs in terms of conducted under the Research Programme human development of the migrants like of the Economics Department in the year poor working conditions, lack of social 2016-17. The authors are grateful to Urja security and limited access to services like Jain and Nikita Sharma for their invaluable assistance. health and education. Despite the large number of internal migrants and India‘s history of labour Introduction mobility, internal migration streams have not been studied extensively. The State has also failed to accord due importance to this According to the 2011 Census, internal invisible ‗floating‘ population of millions. migrants make up one-third of India‘s population, with a figure close to 400 Theoretical background million. Employment and marriage are the two main drivers of migration. The widening rural-urban divide, with a lack of Theories on the initiation of migration employment opportunities and social generally make distinction between ‗push‘ services, has led to acceleration in the and ‗pull‘ factors—the ‗push‘ from the movement of people in search for rural areas and the ‗pull‘ of the urban livelihood. According to studies, Delhi is areas. However, these forces seldom one of the leading destination states for operate in isolation. Migration occurs internal migration, with most migrants when workers are unable to find suitable coming in from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, employment at their source (‗push‘) and Haryana and Punjab. expect to achieve an improvement in living by migrating (‗pull‘). Migration impacts the labour markets, expenditure patterns and relations on a household and community levels in the Neoclassical Economics focuses on places of origin and destination. The differentials in wages and employment phenomenon is an essential and inevitable conditions between regions, and on part of the economic and social life of migration costs. It generally conceives India and has potential to contribute to movement as an individual decision for economic prosperity, social cohesion and income maximization. However, according cultural diversity of the destination. to the New Economics of Migration However, due to the absence of a coherent (proposed by Stark et al), wage differential policy framework and strategy, migration is not the necessary condition for any has taken the form of issues like urban
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Aapoorti | 2017 migration to occur; households may have residence on a temporary, semi- strong incentives to diversify risks through permanent or permanent basis. A migration even in the absence of wage migrant household is one survey unit. A differentials. This is certainly true in the household was selected as the appropriate context of rural-urban migration in India, unit of analysis for migration research where high risks involved in agriculture because of two reasons: one, in all these force rural labour to migrate in search of cases, the decision to migrate was not an alternative employment. individual one even in cases where only one person in the household had migrated, An important factor in the initiation of and two, the income earned through migration is the demand for low-skill migration was consumed by the household labour generated in urban regions as they and not by the migrant alone. The survey become increasingly industrialised and was conducted on 96 migrant households modernised. This is a crucial aspect of the across Timarpur, Majnu ka Tila and the Dual Labour Market theory, which links north campus of University of Delhi in immigration to the structural requirements North Delhi, and Chanakyapuri and Okhla of modern industrial economies (Piore, in South Delhi. 1979). In the case of large, urbanised cities such as Delhi, this is observed in the The target migrants of the survey were acceleration in the inflow of low-skilled those employed in low-skill jobs like those migrants particularly in areas of rickshaw- of rickshaw-pulling, manual labour, pulling, construction, cleaning and construction, vending et al. The migrants vending. In this research, we choose to surveyed were found to hail predominantly focus on this particular class of migrant from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with a few labour as they are the ones facing the from Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, highest uncertainties and are the most Rajasthan, Haryana and Orissa. In the vulnerable. Moreover, several conditions sample, the oldest migrant came to Delhi associated with their migration are also in 1979, and the most recent in 2016. found in the case of other types of migrants. Problems with the study
Description of sample While the overall objective of the study, which was to analyse the lives of migrant For this research, primary data has been workers in Delhi, was achieved to a used—collected with the use of a formal, considerable degree, there were several structured questionnaire. The questionnaire issues during the survey process due to includes (but is not restricted to) questions which analyses of certain nature were not about family background, motivations for possible: migrating, incomes (both before and after migration), savings, remittances, health, education, living conditions, et cetera. For During surveys, we largely this survey, a migrant has been defined as encountered females of the migrant a person who has moved to Delhi from households available as responders their place of birth or place of previous due to the males being out for
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work. In most cases, women were not able to provide us with accurate figures for household incomes, Findings and analysis remittances sent, and monthly savings, because this was information the men of the 1. Income household did not share with them. Incomes recorded have been segregated into income classes of width INR 5000 for While construction workers form a analysis, to yield the following results: considerable proportion of the migrant population in Delhi, there The lowest monthly income recorded was were logistical issues with Rs. 3,000 while the highest was Rs. 45,000 surveying them. They work on – both of which were earned by food hazardous construction sites under vendors. The highest proportion of strict supervisors who would not respondents falls in the income-category of allow them to be surveyed while working, and it was difficult to Rs. 5,000 to 10,000. survey them at their residences While 79.56% of surveyed households are since most of them live in temporary tents near or at the living above poverty line, only 35.48% of construction sites and work from the earning members in these households dawn till dusk. earn at least the official minimum wage.1
Figures on the amount of loans taken and the proportion of income Consumption expenditure used to pay off debts were not In our study, per capita recorded because most respondents consumption expenditure has been were uncomfortable with calculated as a residual—first, discussing debt. remittances and savings were subtracted from total monthly One of the initial objectives was to income, then this amount was compare the standards of living of divided by the number of members the migrant households in origin of the household residing in Delhi. and destination states in terms of The average per capita their nominal incomes and access consumption expenditure of our to basic facilities like health and sample worked out to Rs. 3619, a education. However, this little under the Delhi average.2 comparative analysis could not materialise since a number of However, this average value is not respondents came to Delhi as a representative value due to adolescents and did not have several outliers: while there are a reliable information on their family couple of households with per incomes and access to facilities in capita consumption expenditure as their origin states. high as Rs. 9000, there are also
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many others where this value is primary school level, 21.6% were educated below 1000. up to middle school, and 31.1% of them were educated up to secondary school or high school. Only 1.4% of the respondents Savings and Remittances: were educated beyond class 12. Level of education of migrant workers showed no correlation with the level of income in this 30.1% of respondents in the sample study. were able to save from their monthly incomes, with the average 3. Nutrition saving being 8% of monthly Respondents were asked about their income. However, only 50.54% of consumption of various food items in such households put their savings order to ascertain the nutrients they receive in bank accounts. through their typical weekly diet. All 65.59% respondents send back remittances households consumed sufficient levels of on a regular basis to their hometown or carbohydrates through potatoes and cereal. village as the case may be. Of these, only Main sources of protein in a typical diet 63% migrants earn at least the monthly were pulses, which respondents consumed minimum wage. While a majority of the 4.07 times a week on the average. 67.4% respondents reported that agriculture is of the respondents ate non-vegetarian food, carried out by their families in their and consumed it 2.27 times a week on the village, in all but 3 cases the crop grown is average. Respondents consumed milk, a for self-consumption only and rarely sold source of vitamin D and calcium, 4.7 times in the market. Thus, such families depend a week on the average. 95.7% of the heavily on the remittances they receive. respondents consumed vegetables, with Coupled with the fact that these migrants potatoes, cauliflower, and spinach being have dependents living with them in the most accessible items. Only 51.6% Delhi—school-going children and respondents could regularly consume unemployed spouses, for instance— fruits. Most respondents and their families remittances are a large drain on their had a fairly varied weekly diet. However, incomes, resulting in very low disposable due to lack of ration card in most cases incomes per capita. On the average, the (elaborated in the following section), this respondents send home 27% of their also means that expenditure on food erodes income—and in some cases this proportion a large part of their monthly incomes. is greater than 80%. 4. Documentation and Social Integration 2. Educational attainment A major issue faced by migrants is the lack The educational attainment of the earning of documentation in the destination states, member with the highest level of education which deprives them of social services in the household was recorded. Of the they would otherwise be eligible to avail respondents, 25.7% had never had any of. kind of formal education. 20.3% of the respondents were educated up to the
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While the reach of the Aadhaar Card in the most of such migrants are unable to cast sample was 86%, only 39.13% of their votes. Travelling to their village to respondents had a ration card. 35.86% cast a vote can prove costly in terms of respondents had other forms of identity both time and money, as most of these proofs, like a PAN card, voter ID card, and unskilled migrants are daily wage earners. in one lone case, a passport. Therefore, despite being on electoral rolls, these citizens inadvertently drop out of the Voter ID cards are specific to the electorate. constituencies in which the voter has to cast his/her vote. When migrating from As far as ration cards are concerned, they one state to another, the eligible voters serve no purpose other than providing encounter a change in their current access to public distribution system (PDS). address, whereas permanent address They are two types of ration cards: red for remains the same, i.e., the state they have BPL, and blue for APL. There are several migrated from. After migration, they are issues with ration cards as well: required to apply for a new voter ID card, as they have moved into a new constituency. Now, the application form a) Since December 2013, ration cards requires proof of current residence have been issued in the name of the through: oldest woman (above the age of 18 years) in the family, as the head of a) Bank / Kisaan / Post Office current Pass the family. Other families with Book, or women who are not of voting age b) Applicant‘s Ration Card / Passport / yet, with only men, cannot apply Driving license / Income Tax Return filed for or successfully obtain ration cards. or Assessment Order, or b) While moving from one state to c) Latest Water / Telephone / Electricity / another, the family needs to apply Gas Connection Bill for that address, for a new ration card, which either in the name of the applicant or that requires proof of current residence of his / her immediate relation like parents in the form of bills or other identity etc. or cards. These proofs are difficult to d) Postal department‘s post received / acquire. c) Ration card requires proof of delivered in the applicant‘s name at the Indian nationality, which is usually given address. guaranteed by the voter ID card. Aadhar is taking over as the new In case the applicant does not have any proof of Indian citizenship, proof of residence in his name, the although, it has not been mandated verifying officer may take witnesses from by the Government of India yet. neighbourhood about the factum of residence and identity of the applicant. However, most respondents without a A majority of the low-skilled workers, ration card reported that their landlords who migrate to Delhi in search of were not willing to vouch for them on employment, are thus left without any paper. Since India does not yet have an proof of identity. Without a ration card, absentee ballot system for all citizens, they cannot avail of the benefits of the
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PDS. Sugar, oil, wheat, rice, kerosene are banking to open bank accounts. A some of the most important things that are minimum of eleven rupees is all it takes to needed by them in their day-to-day lives. open an account, and so, millions of people now have JDY accounts. However, It was also found that possession of a mere possession of JDY accounts has done ration card was in no way related to the little for the intended beneficiaries. Many number of years the migrant had lived in of the respondents reported that they Delhi. Most of the respondents who had barely save money at the end of the month, been living in Delhi for two more decades and when they do, it is too little an amount did not have ration cards. A probable to be put into the bank. Therefore, the reason for this, as reported by a large mere existence of an economical banking number of respondents, was that proof of scheme is not sufficient to ensure financial current residence was difficult to obtain inclusion for low-skill, low-income because their landlords refused to vouch workers like the targets of this study; for them. Obtaining a ration card does not supplementary schemes for social security, require a permanent address, but it does food security and affordable housing are require a No Objection Certificate from the required to raise their real incomes. landlord of the applicant. Another reason mentioned by several respondents was that 5. Other services application and receipt of ration card requires them to spend long hours in Respondents of this survey were satisfied queues, which they cannot afford to do, with the supply of electricity, which was due to the nature of their jobs. There were regular in most cases. The water supply also cases where the (male) migrant had available to respondents was through a lived in Delhi for decades, yet had not variety of sources, which included private been able to acquire a ration card because boring, government taps, and government there was no woman in the household tankers. However, wherever households (because the rest of his family lived in his could afford it, they preferred bottled native place). water for drinking.
Aadhar card is a big success in terms of Sanitation, however, was a major issue. the number of people who have it. The Even though most of the migrants in our Government of India is putting tremendous sample lived in pucca jhuggis, only effort to ensure that all citizens of India 43.95% could afford to have toilets built have Aadhar and to make everyone‘s lives inside their homes. Among the rest, simpler by linking all the identity proofs. 43.95% used public toilets while the The Government is also attempting to link remaining 12.10% defecated in the open. Aadhar to the PDS, and if successful, this Those who used public toilets on the move will render the ration card regular basis reported that despite paying redundant. Rs. 5 per day to use these facilities, Opening and maintaining bank accounts is maintenance in these toilets was very poor. another issue for these migrants. Jan Dhan Although we did not inspect the Yojana (JDY) launched in 2015 was done aforementioned toilets ourselves, the fact so as to enable those without access to that migrants who are used to defecating in
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Aapoorti | 2017 the open found sanitation in these toilets monthly payments to the police or unsatisfactory might be insightful Municipal Corporation or both for being commentary on the efficacy of the Swachh allowed to conduct their business. For Bharat Abhiyaan. these migrants, these payments are the rent that they pay for being allowed to earn a living in the city, and they do not see the 6. Perception of migration and other imposition of these fines as ―harassment‖ issues in the first place, despite them often being extremely arbitrary. However, it must be On being asked about their motivation for noted that these fines are not small migrating to Delhi, nearly all respondents amounts. In the case of one cigarette said that there was little or no scope for vendor in the Okhla area, these fines gainful employment in their village—for combined amounted to Rs. 2000. Since his most, it was a choice between migrating entire monthly income was Rs. 10,000 and and remaining practically unemployed. he paid Rs. 3000 in rent to live in Delhi, he was left with Rs. 5000 from which to Respondents were also asked questions to spend on himself and send as remittances gauge their personal assessment of their to support a family of eleven. migration experience. Of all the respondents, 77% reported that they had Migration in India – the latest mingled with the local community and numbers 82.2% were satisfied with the people in According to data cited in the Economic their neighbourhood. While 79.1% Survey of 2017, Delhi is the largest reported to be happy with their lot, only recipient of migrants in the country, 62.64% said that their expectations from accounting for more than half the number migration had been met. When asked in 2015-16. In the five years ended 2016, about their intentions of remaining in an average of nine million people migrated Delhi in the foreseeable future, 41.1% said between states every year for either that they wanted to return to their villages, education or work. This is almost double 36.67% said that they wished to continue the inter-state migration recorded in 2001- living in Delhi, and 22.2% said that they 2011. The study based on the analyses of did not really have a choice because either new data sources and new methodologies they had no avenues for employment in also shows that the migration is their hometowns or their children were accelerating and was particularly studying in Delhi, or both. pronounced for females. However, policies and institutions required to ensure We also asked the migrants about other maximum (or even minimum) welfare problems that they faced in their day-to- gains from migration have not kept pace. day lives since they migrated—such as ―Portability of food security benefits, harassment by the police and municipal healthcare, and a basic social security officials. Even though most respondents framework for the migrant are crucial,‖ reported to having faced no such issues, states the Economic Survey of 2017. further enquiry revealed that most vendors and rickshaw-pullers in fact made informal
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Internal Migration – policy contractor in one State under an agreement challenges or other arrangement for employment in an Due to the low priority accorded to establishment in another State, whether internal migration by the State, policies with or without the knowledge of the have also failed to provide any sort of principal employer in relation to such relief in terms of social benefits or legal establishment‖, due to which the law isn‘t protection to the already vulnerable applicable for most low-skill migrant population of migrant workers. While workers, such as the ones in this study, certain policies and schemes do exist to since they mostly migrate independently ensure migrant welfare, there are various and not through contractors or similar shortcomings in the existing policy agencies. The 2011 amendment made the framework. act gender neutral by amending its title and replacing the word ‗workman and Under the existing structure for policy workmen‘ by the words ‗worker and implementation concerning migrant workers‘ respectively but did not add any workers, the Ministry of Labour at the other provisions to ensure coverage of central level, and Departments of Labour more migrant workers or improve the at the state levels are responsible for implementation of the act. The act, which implementing protection measures. Certain could prove to be tremendously beneficial existing labour laws are applicable to to inter-state migrant workers with some migrant workers in general, among which revision, currently suffers from several the important ones are: shortcomings:
the Inter State Migrant Workmen - It excludes a considerable number (Regulation and Conditions of of migrants from its ambit because Service) Act, 1979 the act is only applicable to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 migrants crossing state boundaries the Contract Labour (Regulation - It does not monitor unregistered and Abolition) Act, 1970 contractors the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, - It does not cover migrants who and migrate independently and not the Building and Other under contractors Construction Workers (Regulation - It includes no guidelines for inter- of Employment and Conditions of state cooperation Service) Act, 1996 - It does not address social However, the nature of the employment protection of migrants - Important provisions such as situations of most low-skill migrant minimum wages, displacement workers practically ensures that they fall allowances etc remain unenforced out of the ambit of these labour laws and most other policies enacted for welfare and Similarly, the other listed acts also exclude security of workers. For example, the Inter low-skill migrant workers from the State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, defines benefits and protection they aim to offer an ‗inter-State migrant workman‘ as ―any by being applicable to only particular person who is recruited by or through a
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Aapoorti | 2017 kinds of jobs or their limited definitions of remittances are a considerable drain on the the term ‗migrant‘. incomes of the households in Delhi and leave them with very little disposable Conclusion income for self-consumption, let alone The aim of this study was to get an insight saving. In fact, only 30.1% of the into the living and working conditions of respondents were able to save from their low-skilled migrant workers in Delhi, and monthly incomes—on an average of 8% of to analyse this in light of their own their monthly income. perception of their migration experience. Migration also brought along issues of We found that the motivation for migration documentation and identification for most for most of the respondents was the lack of respondents, which excluded them from gainful employment in their villages or various social benefits that they would be hometowns. The decision to migrate was eligible to avail of otherwise. While made for them since it essentially came Aadhar Cards had a considerable reach down to migrating or being unemployed. within the sample of our study, only All the respondents of the study are 39.13% of the respondents had ration cards employed in low-skill jobs like those of and even few still had voter ID cards. rickshaw-pulling, manual labour, Many respondents were unavailable to get construction and vending, and the most ration cards due to requirements of proof number of respondents earn a monthly of current address, which are hard to get income between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 10,000. for them, and the restrictions of the card Moreover, jobs like manual labour and being issued only in the name of the oldest construction often involve working long woman. The lack of voter ID cards hours in hazardous conditions. While amongst respondents also signalled to a 79.56% of surveyed households are living political exclusion of this already above poverty line, only 35.48% of the vulnerable group from the electorate. This earning members in these households earn political exclusion is especially relevant at least the official minimum wage. Water given the low priority accorded to internal and electricity supply were satisfactory for migration by the State. Most low-skill most respondents while sanitation, in migrant workers fall out of the ambit of the terms of access to toilets and their existing policy framework due to the cleanliness, was an issue. nature of their work, leaving them without While the households‘ decision to migrate any binding social benefits or legal has accorded them with some form of protection, almost making them second employment enough for their sustenance, it class citizens in their own countries. is evident that in most cases it has done The constitution of India guarantees all very little beyond that. In fact, migration citizens the right to move freely comes with costs of its own for households throughout the territory of the country, and surveyed. The incomes earned by workers the quasi-federal structure of India allows in Delhi were sent back to their villages or for easier coordination of policies aimed at hometowns in 65.59% of the cases in the internal migrants. With the large number study because their families back home are of internal migrants in India and India‘s dependent on this income. These
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Aapoorti | 2017 history of labour migration, it is imperative exclusion and social and legal that the policy framework integrate this vulnerability may be remedied with a show portion of the population so as to reduce of political will for more inclusive the heavy costs on human development policies, and more stringent and brought on by poor working and living implementation of existing policies. conditions. The issues of political
Monthly household % of surveyed Educational % income (rupees) households attainment < 5000 2.17 5000 to 10000 45.65 None 20.4 10000 to 15000 27.17 Primary school 15000 to 20000 16.30 20.4 20000 to 25000 5.43 Middle school 25.8 25000 to 30000 0.00 30000 to 35000 1.09 Secondary/HS 32.3 35000 to 40000 1.09 Graduate > 40000 1.09 1.1
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References pp.126-142.Kapoor, P., 2017. Economic Survey 2017 says labour migration higher than earlier estimates, Live Mint. Available at: Abbas, R. and Varma, D., 2014. Internal Labor http://www.livemint.com/Politics/bK0wi486ff Migration in India Raises Integration 4HkV3NDcCTVI/Economic-Survey-2017- Challenges for Migrants, Migration Policy says-labour-migration-higher-than-earli.html Institute. Available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/internal National Capital Region Planning Board, -labor-migration-india-raises-integration- 2008. A Study on Counter-magnet Areas to challenges-migrants Delhi and
Chandrasekhar, S. and Sharma, A., 2015. National Capital Region, Chapter 3. Ministry Urbanization and spatial patterns of of Urban Development, Government of Delhi. internal migration in India. Spatial Available at: Demography, 3(2), pp.63-89. http://ncrpb.nic.in/pdf_files/06_Chapter3_cma. pdf Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi. Website: Piore, M.J., 1979. Birds of Passage: http://ceodelhi.nic.in/Content/FAQ.aspx Migrant labor and industrial societies. Department of Food, Supplies and Srivastava, R. and Sasikumar, S.K., 2003, Consumer Affairs, Application form for June. An overview of migration in India, getting food security under National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.Available at: its impacts and key issues. In Regional http://nfs.delhi.gov.in/Citizen/CitizenOnlineA Conference on Migration, Development pply.aspx and Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia (pp. 22-24). Government of India, 2017, Economic Survey of India 2016-17, Ministry of Stark, O. and Bloom, D.E., 1985. The new Finance, Department of Economic Affairs. economics of labor migration. The American Economic Review, 75(2), pp.173-178.
Harris, J.R. and Todaro, M.P., 1970. Migration, unemployment and development: a two-sector analysis. The American Economic Review, 60(1),
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Pratyaksha Hastaantarit Laabh (PaHaL) Scheme: A move towards fixing India’s broken subsidy regime
Rituparna Sanyal, Shraddha Shrivastava, Payal Priyadarshini, Enakshi Panda
I. Introduction recommendations of the 2010 Expert Group, the Government of India launched "If the JAM Number Trinity can be the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG seamlessly linked, and all subsidies rolled Scheme in 2013. into one or a few monthly transfers, real progress in terms of direct income support The PaHaL (DBTL) Scheme for direct to the poor may finally be possible," stated transfer of subsidy to the LPG customers, st the Economic Survey 2014-15. It which was earlier launched on 1 June acknowledged that price subsidies are 2013, and covered 291 districts, made often regressive3. In a move to eliminate Aadhaar mandatory for the customers to leakages in subsidies without reducing the avail the subsidy. A modified version of amount of subsidies themselves, the JAM the scheme, re-launched in 54 districts on th (Jan dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) Number 15 November 2014 in the first phase and st Trinity was extended to directly transfer on 1 January 2015 in the rest of the subsidies to LPG customers, and is being country, removed the requirement of considered for food and kerosene subsidies having an Aadhaar number. With effect th as well. The Trinity can cut the from 15 May 2015, all LPG customers government‘s subsidy burden by 25-30%. obtain cylinders at market price and only those who enter the scheme receive a one- The Indian government has been providing time permanent advance and subsidy LPG subsidies since late 1970s, in order to directed to their bank accounts on the make clean cooking fuel affordable for purchase of each cylinder. As of January Indian households (Jain, Agrawal, & 28, 2016, the scheme covered 149.7 Ganesan, 2014). With the rise in LPG million domestic connections (more than consumption and prices, the overall annual 90% of the total active user base) subsidy burden on the government has (MoPNG, 2015). PaHal is now the world‘s more than tripled over the last 10 years, largest subsidy benefit transfer scheme from INR 10,246 crore in 2005/06 to INR (MoPNG, 2015). It aims to curb diversion 36,580 crore in 2014/15 (Petroleum and weed out fake/duplicate connections. Planning and Analysis Cell, 2015). In order to target the rising burden on the Our study aims to analyse the overall government, among other major issues, efficacy of the scheme, while highlighting direct cash transfer of subsidy and its challenges and providing our targeting the beneficiaries was recommendations to overcome awareness, recommended. In line with the availability and administrative hurdles. We also wanted to study whether the 3
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Aapoorti | 2017 beneficiaries are able to access their encountered by the stakeholders, primarily money easily. LPG consumers. After a detailed study, the committee strongly recommends that the In this paper, we start off with reviewing DBTL scheme be recommenced as it is a existing literature on the topic and very efficient way to disburse subsidies. outlining our methodology. We move on However, it has suggested several systemic to talk about the existing banking scenario changes and enhancements to mitigate the among the poor (especially urban poor) hardships reported by the LPG consumers. and give a brief overview of the LPG market in India. Finally, we discuss the The Council on Energy, Environment and scheme in detail, its limitations and our Water (CEEW) is one of India‘s (and suggestions for its improvement. South Asia‘s) leading think-tanks with a vast scope of research and publications. II Reviewing Existing Literature CEEW addresses pressing global challenges through an integrated and Over the past few years, many reports and internationally focused approach. CEEW articles have been written, reviewing the conducted an independent performance functioning of the DBTL scheme. evaluation of the modified DBTL scheme The Economic Survey (2015-16) examines (April, 2016), with a focus on assessing the first variety of JAM—the PAHAL the efficacy of the scheme against its scheme of transferring LPG subsidies via stated objectives and its implementation DBT. The Pahal scheme has been a big process, as well as the experiences of key success. The use of Aadhaar has made stakeholders with the scheme‘s black marketing harder, and LPG leakages implementation and impact. The study also have reduced by about 24 per cent with unravels the difficulties faced by different limited exclusion of genuine beneficiaries. stakeholders and puts forward suggestions However, diversion of LPG from domestic for reforms. Finally, it provides insights to commercial sources continues, because into the lessons learned from the scheme‘s of the differential tax treatment of implementation. Besides achieving its ―commercial‖ and ―domestic‖ LPG. In objectives to a significant extent, the other words, the One Product One Price DBTL scheme elicited high levels of principle is still being violated. Despite consumer satisfaction. Moreover, all the huge improvements in financial inclusion key stakeholders expressed a positive due to Jan Dhan, the JAM preparedness outlook towards the scheme, except the indicators suggest that there is still some banking personnel. way to go before bank-beneficiary linkages are strong enough to pursue DBT III Methodology without committing exclusion errors. This paper is based on a household survey A Government Committee (May, 2014) covering 100 urban households in the has examined the functioning of the DBTL capital city of New Delhi. With an aim to scheme in depth by meeting all evaluate the modified DBTL scheme and stakeholders to understand every aspect of assess its efficacy, we surveyed urban poor the scheme and the difficulties households with an average income of Rs
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7,365 per month. A purposive sample4 was distance the person travels to have access chosen to see whether the poor had access to banking services. While the Pradhan to the subsidised LPG cylinders. Our focus Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has increased the was on the customer only, not on the other number of rural households with bank stakeholders5. We carried out the surveys accounts, we need innovative payment in Timarpur, Vijaynagar, Patel Chest approaches to fill the gap of last mile Institute area, Burari and Adarsh Nagar in access to banking services. Our survey that North Delhi, and Dhaula Kuan and was conducted in urban poor areas gave Chhattarpur in South Delhi. The areas the result that only 12% of the households were selected based on our convenience, in knew when the subsidy is delivered, while terms of proximity and access. We also 22% knew the amount of subsidy interviewed a few support staff in our delivered. Our inference from the data is college. that though banks are located close to households, they aren't used at frequent We personally interviewed the respondents intervals and very few people keep a check and prepared a comprehensive on their bank account activities. questionnaire for the same. Interviewees were asked about their awareness of the Of the sample urban poor population, only scheme, whether the payment of subsidy 1% did not have a bank account and 4% was regular and whether they had any did not have an Aadhaar card. Reasons of difficulties in accessing it, among other not having an Aadhaar card included questions. The questionnaire was designed distance between people's homes and the to understand consumer awareness, their enrolment centre and the inconvenience of perspective and their experience of the the process. We assessed the scheme‘s scheme, as well as the issues they faced. efficacy in terms of the extent to which it We also tried to elicit the users‘ views on could achieve its stated objectives. Close how the scheme has affected them. to 71 % of the consumers enrolled in DBTL reported receiving their subsidy in All the interviews were conducted in their bank accounts. However, issues such September-October 2016. (Note, the as non-receipt of subsidy and lack of survey was undertaken before the information about the subsidy transfer government‘s demonetisation move.) The need to be resolved urgently to ensure that paper was written in January 2017. the subsidy reaches all deserving IV Financial Inclusion and households, not only for economical purposes, but also in the quest for Literacy providing clean fuel across the As LPG coverage expands in rural areas, nation. Thus, the DBTL scheme could the subsidy program could create help accelerate PMJDY, the financial additional barriers for economically inclusion scheme, to cover the unbanked weaker strata of the society. These could households. This would also improve the be in the form of no bank account or the overall outlook of the scheme for the public at large.
V The LPG Market in India
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The rising preference for LPG (Liquefied Marketing Companies (OMCs). Heavy Petroleum Gas) for domestic consumption subsidies in domestic LPG sector by the has been witnessed through the expanding government makes it difficult for private customer base of the LPG market in India. firms to survive in this sector. As per our At the same time, as our data suggests, 8% survey, there were three major market of the sample still uses coal for their players, all from the PSU sector, viz. cooking and heating needs, whereas Indane, Bharat and HP. Their respective another 8% uses LPG along with coal. market share was 69.2%, 24.7% and LPG customers are tied to LPG 12.4%. distributors, usually determined by the geographical location, thereby providing customers very little freedom to choose their distributors. LPG distributorships are appointed by the Public Sector Oil
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References Subsidies Regime‖, https://swarajyamag.com/economy/jam- Jain, Abhishek et all, ―DBTL Performance ming-leakages-to-help-the-poor, May 2015 Evaluation: Insights from the world‘s largest subsidy benefit transfer scheme‖, Lahoti, Rahul, ―Questioning the International Institute for Sustainable ―Phenomenal Success‖ of Aadhaar – Development and Council on Energy, linked Direct Benefit Transfers for LPG‖, Environment and Water, April 2016 Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 51, No. 52, December 2016 Expert Committee Report, ―Review of Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG Scheme‖, Mundle, Sudipto, ―The pros and cons of New Delhi, May 2014 subsidies through direct benefit transfer‖, Mint, May 2016 Economic Survey 2015-16, Volume I, Chapter 3 ―Spreading JAM across India‘s Press Information Bureau, Government of economy‖, Department of Economic India, ―PM reviews PaHaL Scheme for Affairs, Government of India, February Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG Subsidy‖, 2016 January 2015
Khera, Reetika, ―Cash vs In-Kind Wetzel, Deborah and Economico, Valor, Transfers: Indian Data Meets Theory‖, ―Bolsa Família: Brazil‘s Quiet IEG Working Paper no. 235, 2013 Revolution‖, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinio Mathew, Santhosh and Goswami, Dwijo, n/2013/11/04/bolsa-familia-Brazil-quiet- ―Doing More with Less: Developing revolution, November 2013 JAM+ to Reform Public Finance Management in India‖, Economic and Press Information Bureau, Government of Political Weekly, Volume LI, No. 17, India, ―Over 80% LPG consumers have April 2016 joined PaHaL‖, March 2015
Gangopadhyay, K and Sensarma, R, ―Can Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, The JAM Trinity Fix India's Broken ―About the PaHaL scheme‖, http://petroleum.nic.in/dbt/whatisdbtl.html
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P Upadhyay, Jayshree and Roychoudhury, Jain, Abhishek, ―LPG for every Indian Arup, ―JAM trinity can cut subsidy burden household‖, The Hindu, March 2016 by 25-30%: Jayant Sinha‖, Business Standard, New Delhi, March 2015 Press Information Bureau, Government of India, ――Pahal‖ acknowledged by the Press Trust of India, ―'JAM Trinity' linkage Guinness Book of World Records as the will check subsidy pilferage: Survey‖, largest cash transfer program Business Standard, New Delhi, February (households)‖, August 2015 2015
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To Identify and Study Variables Affecting the Demand for Swadeshi Products
Shreshtha Mishra, Aanchal Goyal, Khushboo Goyal, Shubhangi Sharma
This essay is a product of research secondary sources, we break down this conducted under the Research Programme shift and attribute it to several variables. of the Economics Department in the year 2016-17. The authors are grateful to Due to lack of perfect information, Tanya Sharma and Annapurna Kumar for inadequate knowledge of economics terms their invaluable assistance. by the general public and the enormity of variables that affect the demand for We are witnessing an era where ―Start-up swadeshi products, we restrict our India, Stand Up India‖ and ―Swadeshi Lao, attention to a few variables only. While we Bharat Bachao‖ are establishing norms of seek to increase the number of variables the society. With the Prime Minister and make the paper wholesome in the urging people to buy Swadeshi or future, presently, we consider a few direct Domestic goods, there is a of shift in and indirect variables. consumer behaviour across the country. This is akin to the Swadeshi movement Direct variables are those that a respondent first begun by Mahatma Gandhi during the does not have to carefully think about struggle for independence. Though, much while answering like age, income, gender, less in intensity, the changes in the education level etc. economic behavior are very apparent and Indirect variables, on the other hand, are startling. subjective and require careful analysis like Indian companies are increasingly trying the effect of advertisements, brand to portray themselves as a better reputation, recommendations etc. alternative and trying to woo the buyers by In the paper we also seek to examine the evoking a feeling of ―nationalism‖and intricacies such as: in which sector does it patriotism. In this backdrop, it is not matter if the product is swadeshi or extremely important to ascertain whether not, whether people believe that these such a shift is occurring or not. brands focus on certain religious identities Through our research paper, we aim to rather than the ―Indian identities‖, if establish whether there is a surge in people believe that Indian companies make demand for swadeshi products. If yes, then products better suited to the demands of we also seek to study the variables that the public or believe that foreign brands affect this demand. make better quality products.
Using methods of direct interrogation (interviews and questionnaires) as well as
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This paper has important implications. Not The idea of labelling goods as swadeshi or only will it help us to ascertain if non-swadeshi has been quite prevalent in patriotism is indeed a determinant while pre and post independence era of the demanding goods, it can be used for policy Indian economy. In the pre-independence purposes too. In an era when domestic period, people of the country joined hands demand is considered to be the most together and swore to boycott the products sustainable form of demand, an analysis of made by British companies. The hint of consumer behavior and the distinction that Swadeshi movement, which aimed consumers make between foreign and specifically at boycotting foreign (British) domestic goods is very relevant. goods and resurrect the Indian handloom industry in order to attain self sufficiency This surge in demand has been attributed during the British rule, can also be seen to several variables like Age, Gender, today, through the trends of an average Income levels, Awareness levels, Indian‘s consumer behaviour. Whether this Education levels, Advertisements, is a phenomenon originated from demand Promotion techniques, Brand Reputation, side or a consequence of marketing Price, Quality, Habit (Elasticity) etc. strategy of Indian companies, is the These variables have been studied and question of interest. trends noted in the research paper. 2. Relevance-
** Swadeshi products: Products made by The taglines of various Indian brands: Indian (fully owned by an Indian or more than 50% shares under Indian ownership) ● AMUL- The taste of India. companies ● TATA salt- Desh ka namak. ● Hero- Desh ki dhadkan. INTRODUCTION ● Voltas- India ka dil, India ka AC. (SECONDARY RESEARCH) and their marketing strategies focus at forming a local/ national image among the The word Swadeshi is derived from Indian consumers, show how crucial the Sanskrit. ‗Swa‘ means ‗self‘ or ‗own‘ and ‗Indian identity‘ is for the brands. ‗desh‘ means ‗country‘ ,so Swadeshi means 'of one's own country‘. A case study on Uber Technologies Inc. reveals how important the Indian origin is Corresponding to this Swadeshi product / for the sellers to win the battle of acquiring domestic product refers to the products or maximum market share. The CEO of Ola, goods that are produced in one‘s own Bhavish Aggarwal, accused Uber of country. In the context of our paper, it capital dumping and urged the govt to refers to products or goods produced in design policies in favour of homegrown India . companies, at the Carnegie India Global Technology Summit, saying: ―It is much easier for non-Indian companies to raise 1. Origin- capital because they have profitable market elsewhere. You might call it capital dumping, predatory pricing or anti-WTO
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Aapoorti | 2017 but it is a very unfair playing field for HAIR OIL : Marico (29%) Indian startups‖.[1] To which the Uber CEO replied: ―I will apply to be a citizen SHAMPOO : Hindustan Unilever of India if that is what will get us over the Limited (47%) [2] hum‖. ORAL CARE : Colgate (54.9%)
However, the companies accusing Uber, SKIN CARE : Hindustan Unilever Ola and Flipkart, are themselves not Limited (54%) completely Indian and have raised huge amounts of foreign capital.[3] So, what is FRUIT JUICE : Dabur (55%) the hullabaloo about? Indian companies are already doing fine Another case study on Patanjali Ayurved in the FMCG sector. However, larger share Ltd. shows how Baba Ramdev made of market is still with the foreign optimum use of the ‗Indian Identity‘ in the companies. marketing of his brand and captured a The following information is available on wide proportion of Indian FMCG industry. the condition of Swadeshi products in ―Apart from regularly criticizing the India: MNCs for taking up Indian money abroad, he always stressed to use the swadeshi ● Sale of Khadi registered a 6% products,i.e., Products that are made in growth in 2013-14 across the India.The general elections in 2014 too country.[6] helped Ramdev to showcase the concept of ● 63.3% of the people Strongly [4] swadeshi‖. agree with the Swadeshi factor for the reason behind their decision of The result was an increased turnover by buying Patanjali products.[7] almost 150% from 2,006 cr.(INR) in fiscal ● Various wholesalers across the year 2014-15 to 5,000 cr.(INR) in 2015- country have reported 10-20% fall 16. [5] in demand of chinese goods: The wide reach that a brand can get by ―Retailers from NCR and other correctly sensing the need of ‗Swadeshi- states come to this market to fication‘ of their products is a very purchase items. And, there has important factor that companies should been huge demand of chinese items keep in mind while making decisions as they are cheaper. But, this time based on marketing. they have taken lesser amount of such items. Instead, they 3. Direction of shift - specifically asked for Indian [8] According to the information available on items.‖ the website of Indian Brand Equity Clearly, there has been a shift of Foundation, following companies are the consumers towards swadeshi goods. market leaders of Indian FMCG However, the volume of the shift cannot be sector(January, 2016): determined due to lack of economy-based availability of information.
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promote the use of khadi and other indian textiles. PM said in his 4. Reasons behind the shift- speech, ―Only 15% of the clothes The ‗boycott of chinese goods‘ is among we use now are handloom one of the major reasons for the shift products. If we just increase our towards the demand for swadeshi goods. usage by 5%, the handloom sector will grow by 33%. We need to ―The development is an indication of a popularize this among our youth. nationalist sentiment sweeping the country This will give the much needed in the aftermath of terror attack on Uri boost to the handloom‖. [9] army base.‖ ➢ On October 15, 2016, IndiaToday reported in one of its articles that ―There was an unprecedented patriotic Indian railways is very soon going wave across the country and the market to give Advertising and On-board cannot remain unaffected‖, Praveen promotion rights in trains to Khandelwal, Secretary General of the various swadeshi brands as Confederation of All India Traders.[10] railways long term strategy to As china voted against the banning of Jem improve its financial health. chief Azhar Masood (mastermind of 5. Is India the only country?What is Pathankot attack) in the 71st session of UN happening to India today, can be explained General assembly, the boycott of chinese through the concept of ‗Consumer goods comes out as a revenge card played ethnocentrism‘ ( refers to ethnocentric by Indian consumers. views held by consumers in one country, the in-group, towards products from RSS has dedicated its annual India-only another country, the out-group (Shimp & products fair in Delhi to the boycott of all Sharma, 1987)), which is a worldwide foreign goods, especially China, reported phenomenon observed in consumer [11] IndiaToday. behaviour. Consumers may believe that it is not appropriate, and possibly even The wind of swadeshi movement started to immoral, to buy products from other blow yet again as a result of the massive countries. Purchasing foreign products appeals of the government to buy more of may be viewed as improper because it Indian goods: costs domestic jobs and hurts the ➢ In September, 2014, Department of economy. The purchase of foreign Industrial Policy and Promotion, products may even be seen as simply under Ministry of Commerce, unpatriotic (Klein, 2002; Netemeyer et al., issued a statement proclaiming the 1991; Sharma, Shimp, & Shin, 1995; possession and sale of chinese Shimp & Sharma, 1987). firecrackers as illegal, as reported The following examples can help in by all the leading daily newspapers making this claim: and news channels of the country. ➢ On August 7, 2015, Govt of India ● A case study on various airlines in Celebrated its first ‘National South african countries‘ marketing Handloom Day‘ in order to
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strategies during the post- content analysis of advertising in 2004 independence period (and for suggested that japanese companies were decades afterwards) and local not disclosing the country of origin (of people‘s reactions through their product)‖.[15] demand behaviour, depict the same case. ―For decades, the main marketing ● The Government of South Africa messages for AA (Air afrique) and GA launched its ‗buy-local‘ campaign (Ghana airways) were to appeal to africans ‗Proudly South African‘ in year in the diaspora that it was unpatriotic, 2001. ―Buying South African harmful to the domestic country or likely stimulates an increased demand for even to bring back colonial rule if they fail locally-produced products and [12] to fly with local airlines‖. Africans services. This translates into the reacted to this appeal just the way the safeguarding of existing airlines wished them to. ―In many employment opportunities, instances, national affiliation was so strong economic growth, and the creation that it superseded affordable and reliable of more quality employment services offered by rival airlines. Despite opportunities in our country. By the fact that decades have passed since the buying Proudly South African, colonial rule, patriotic Africans strongly both consumers and businesses are opted for their national airline over a making a personal contribution to [13] foreign airline (ARB, 2008)‖. nation-building.‖, says the its official website. Consumers get an assurance of quality because only ● Kenichi Ishii stated in his paper quality products carry the Proudly (Sample size= 600) on South African mark, while ‗Nationalistic sentiments of chinese members of the Campaign are consumers: The effects and furthermore committed to an determinants of Animosity and uplifting ethos and socially consumer ethnocentrism‘ (2009): responsible business practices ―The results indicate that the which are reflected in the effects of animosity and consumer membership criteria.[16] ethnocentrism are significant in the case of Japanese and U.S. producers in the case of china, and Relevance of the paper : that chinese consumer The paper is relevant to the present day ethnocentrism is a combination of scenario when most Indian companies are [14] patriotism and internationalism.‖ trying to showcase themselves as ―swadeshi companies‖ and are trying to He gave an example: After mid 90s, capture the interests of the common Indian growing nationalism in China has by evoking the feeling of nationalism and compelled foreign companies to change patriotism. It is thus, extremely important their marketing strategies. ―Results of a to know if such a phenomenon is taking
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Aapoorti | 2017 place at all or are most people still We followed the stratified sampling oblivious to the sudden surge in demand technique for data collection i.e. divided for products by Indian brands. Through the population in several parts and this paper, we seek to establish whether randomly selected certain localities and there is an increase in demand for markets in Delhi. This was done primarily swadeshi products. If yes, then we seek to to increase the diversity of the data set and understand what are the variables which to include individuals from different affect this demand and in what direction. backgrounds so as to examine the effect of We also try to examine the effect of different variables. advertisements on the demand for swadeshi products as well as seek to Offline surveys were conducted to test the examine if people believe that relevance of the questionnaire and advertisements by certain Indian brands people‘s interpretation of it. Subsequently, cater to a certain religious group rather offline surveys were conducted. 199 than on the ―Indian‖ identity. filtered responses were analyzed.
This is important for both policy as well as Methods of analysis: industrial purposes. The findings can not We used the Chi square independence test only be used by relevant industries to to find whether an association exists understand the sentiment of the market but between the variables being considered also to determine future marketing and the use of swadeshi products. While strategy. It can serve as a major boost to the chi-square test reports whether two the Indian companies. The paper can also variables are related, it does report the be used to affect policy changes in a time direction of relation. As a rough estimate when domestic demand is considered to be of the direction of relation, we found the the most sustainable form of demand. proportion of people who use swadeshi products from different ranges for each variable and identified the important Research methodology: trends, if any.
Through our research paper, we seek to Further, we used mode ratings to identify find out if there is a correlation between some other variables of interest that affect the usage of swadeshi products and the the demand for Swadeshi products. We following variables : Age, Income, Price of also used basic statistical methods and the product, Awareness levels, religion, noted some other useful findings. gender and education level. Qualitative:
Data collection: Methods used for collecting primary data: Apart from the surveys, we took personal Quantitative: interviews to increase the purview of the data and understand in detail various Data collection: factors that affect the behaviour of consumers towards different products.
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This was done to understand the reasons Sample dynamics: behind the findings as well as to get an intuitive idea of consumer behaviour Sample size - 199 towards swadeshi products. Median class of population studied - 25-40 years Method of Analysis:
In our research project we have tried to see Median income class of population studied the effect of internal - 6-10 lakhs factors(age,education,income) as well as Median range of educational qualification: external factors (Advertisements Graduate ,promotion techniques,Prime Minister‘s initiative to promote swadeshi products) % of people who use swadeshi products: on the demand for Swadeshi products. So, 86.93% in order to study these variables we have Analysis of obtained data: conducted a diverse Interview of around 30 people(of different age group,education Quantitative : level,income level and religion) and asked them questions like:Does the Prime Minister‘s urge to promote Swadeshi - We used the Chi squared product has any effect on your independence test to find out if consumption? , Do you think that there exists an association between promotion technique for the indian and the two variables. foreign products is different? etc inorder to - We‘ve tested the hypothesis for a know the behaviour of consumers. significance level of 5% i.e. alpha Data limitations and Assumptions: = 0.05 - The null hypothesis for all the tests There are a lot of variables that affect is: consumer‘s demand for any product. Null hypothesis: There is no relation However, due to lack of time and methods between variable X and the use of of analysis, we have omitted those in this swadeshi products paper. Thus, we have inherently assumed that apart from the factors at hand, no Alternative Hypothesis: There is a other factor affects the demand for relation between variable X and the use of swadeshi products. Also, we have been swadeshi products able to undertake this research only in (where, X= Age, Education Level, Annual Delhi which may not be an adequate Income, Religion, Gender) representation of the general behavior of consumers all over India.
As we expand our study in the future, we - We reject the null hypothesis if the plan to eliminate these limitations and calculated chi square value exceeds make the paper more wholesome. the the critical chi squared value
General Observations :
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(as seen from the chi-squared people below the income level of 2 lakhs distribution table). tend to have the highest proportion of - Here, we report the calculated chi people not using Swadeshi products. square values and the critical chi square values for each variable. With an increase in Education level, we have noticed an increase in the usage of Thus, we can see that for all the variables, swadeshi products (with the proportion of the calculated values of chi square exceeds people who are Post Graduates and above the critical value (defined for a given being only slightly lesser than that of degree of freedom and alpha), and hence, Graduates) the sample evidence is strong enough to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, in each case, we notice that there does exist a To identify other variables that are relation between the variable under study determinants in the demand for swadeshi and the use of swadeshi products. Hence, products, we asked people to rate how these variables are determinants of demand these particular variables affect their for swadeshi products. demand for Swadeshi products on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being ‗highly affects‘. Further, we calculated the mode rating for - To identify the direction of the each variable and analyzed the results. relationship between the variable Certain important trends were noticed: and the demand for Swadeshi products, we found the proportion **We had calculated the mean, median of each category of people who use and modal ratings for each variable and swadeshi products, for every they turned out to be nearly the same, and variable. Further, we identified hence, we have considered only the modal trends in how the proportion of ratings. people using swadeshi product From the table, we note that ―Previous changes to figure the direction of experience with a product‖ highly affects association. consumers when deciding whether to We found the following results for purchase a Swadeshi product or not. different variables: Brand Reputation and price of a products Using this table, we find that with an are also major factors in the decision increase in age, the proportion of people making process. who use Swadeshi products, first increases. On the other hand, whether a product is available online or not, matters least. It was also noted that the proportion of people using swadeshi products among Other useful findings: females is higher in comparison to males.
People who belong in the Income range of 2-6 lakhs have the highest proportion of - When asked if people would prefer people using swadeshi products, whereas a swadeshi brand product over a
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foreign product if the price of the television and radio ads more former were higher, 21.11% agreed frequently. This is an important to doing so, while only 11.1% said observation for companies looking they would prefer the product by to increase demand for their the foreign brand. This shows that products. 21.11% people have inelastic demand when it comes to products by swadeshi brands and they are Qualitative : unwilling to shift away from these No. of respondents: 30 products even if it were slightly more expensive. Effect of Education on demand for Swadeshi products: When asked about the general reaction of We have kept education as a variable to people towards Swadeshi Products, most study consumer behaviour because people accepted that they like ‗what the education level depicts the level of indian brand stands for and it makes them awareness of a consumer and feel good buying from them‘. 34.17% of consequently, allows them to make the people believe in the motto of the informed choices. Indian brands. This is one major factor that causes people to buy Indian products. This After examining the interview responses of can be attributed to the feeling of various consumers, it was found that: with ‗Nationalism and Patriotism‘ associated a rise in the education level, the number of with purchasing Swadeshi products. people associated with any religious foundation (Ex:Art of Living products,Patanjali products) decreases and - To study the effect of Ads on the they do not trust the products of these demand for swadeshi products, we foundations blindly. found that 26.633% people believe that ads are extremely important in The most important factor while affecting their choice for a product purchasing a product for school graduates whereas 42.221% people admit to is the price of the product whereas, for being affected by only certain types graduates and post graduates quality of Advertisements. This combined matters most. with our findings from the qualitative data shows that The effect of advertisements seem to fall advertisements of swadeshi brands as education level of a person rises and so which focus on the ―Indian it is plausible to conclude that people with identity‖ and significantly differs higher education pay less attention to from the promotion technique of Advertisements and rationally decide foreign brands attracts more which product they should chose with the attention and thus, affects the help of : Reviews of the product and demand for swadeshi products. reputation of the brand. Among various advertising It is seen that as education level rises techniques, 60.3% people notice people‘s choice become more inelastic
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Aapoorti | 2017 indicating that people are habituated to use Through our survey, we found a positive of certain brands.It is noticed that people correlation between the income level and with a Postgraduate degree and above awareness level of people.With the rise in seem to prefer foreign brands over income, people have more access to swadeshi brands as they trust foreign technology and thus are more aware of brands more and they also believe that things happening around them. As income they make products of higher quality. In rises, people care less about price of the contrast, people with lower education level product they consume, rather they decide are more open to Indian brands because the product on the basis of its brand they believe that it will help in the reputation, quality and reviews. country‘s progress and that Indian brands are best suited for their needs. It is seen that the demand for products becomes less elastic with the rise in PM‘s urging to buy local goods has income, which means that people of high influenced school graduates and college income group are habituated to use certain graduates to buy local products because brands. people of this education level believe that this is for the betterment of the society. In People of all income groups trust Dairy contrast, post graduates are less influenced Products and Agro based products of an by the Prime minister‘s initiative. Indian Brand.
It is also noticed that people of any It is noticed that the maximum number of education level prefer automobile , gadget people of all income groups prefers Indian and telecom services of a non-swadeshi brands over foreign brands, with the brand. reasons quoted as: it leads to the country‘s development, that Indian brands are more Thus, with an increase in education, people trustworthy and are suited to the Indian tend to move away from the usage of taste. swadeshi products as they believe that foreign brands make better quality Effect of age on demand for swadeshi products and these consumers are very products: inelastic in their demand. This can also be We have kept age as a variable to study attributed to their indifference to the consumers behaviour because the age of a initiatives taken by the government to person often determines his/her knowledge increase the demand for goods produced and experience. We have found through domestically. our research that there exists a positive relation between the age of a person and Effect of Income on demand for swadeshi products: his awareness level. Advertisements have great influence on people aged below 30 We have kept Income as a variable to years and above 60 years ,as people of study Consumer‘ s behaviour because these age groups have rated advertisements budget plays an important role in the to be the most important factor in deciding decision making process of whether to buy whether to purchase a product or not. On a good or not. the other hand, people of other age groups
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Aapoorti | 2017 have rated price and quality as important swadeshi products in India. While this can factors in their decision making. It has be attributed to several reasons, we been noticed that people of the age group identify certain variables that affect this 50-60 years have inelastic demand i.e. they demand and identify the groups of people stick to certain brands especially, Patanjali. who are most likely to purchase swadeshi This can be attributed to the fact that they products. This can not only be used by the are highly affected by advertisements and swadeshi brands to identify their target Patanjali has attractive advertisements. group, but also find ways in which they People also associate a feeling of can expand their consumer base. It can Patriotism with buying goods from a also be used for policy purposes if the swadeshi brand. government wants to increase the demand for swadeshi products and spur economic People of any age group trust dairy growth. products of an Indian brand but prefer gadgets from a non-Indian brand. This Based on the analysis of the sample as well indicates an urgent need to improve India‘s as the interviews undertaken, we conclude electronics sector. that the demand for swadeshi products does have a relation with Age group, It is also concluded from our analysis that Gender, Education level, Income level. as age of the person rises, the belief that Female consumers are more likely to buy a Indian brands should be preferred over swadeshi product as compared to an foreign brands becomes stronger, showing average male. Education level and the an association with nationalism in people demand for swadeshi goods shows a of higher age groups. The initiatives of the negative relationship. Highly educated government to spur the demand of local consumers believe that ‗foreign brands are products has influenced people of higher of better quality than swadeshi brands‘ and age groups more with 75% of these people have highly inelastic demands for the wholeheartedly supporting the PM‘s same. initiative. They believe in boycotting foreign brands and purchasing goods from Further, we have identified other key Indian brands. This is in stark contrast to variables that are directly related to the people of a lower age group among whom demand for swadeshi products: Brand only 18% of the people are influenced by Reputation and Previous experience with a these initiatives. This can also be attributed product. to the fact that people believe that products by foreign brands are of a superior quality Apart from this, we also found that in and consumerism highly affects people of healthcare sector it matters least to the a lower age group. consumers whether the product is from a swadeshi brand or not. Majority of the consumers prefer foreign brands over swadeshi brands in automobile and tech Conclusion: gadgets industries. Thus, there is a scope Through our research paper, we conclude of improvement in these sectors for that there is indeed a surge in demand for swadeshi brands,
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Majority of the people have reported that will help the Indian economy to grow and the Government of India‘s initiatives thus, they take pride in purchasing from an (especially, PM‘s speeches) have had a Indian brand. Hence, we conclude that huge impact on them and we found a patriotism is indeed an important factor positive relation between the number of that affects the demand for products in people affected by Government's general.This phenomenon is explained by initiatives and the demand for swadeshi ‗Shimp and Sharma‘ (1987) as Consumer goods. ethnocentrism.
Many of those who use swadeshi products attribute it to the feeling of Nationalism and patriotism while many believe that this
Variable X Calculated Chi Critical chi square Result square value value
Age 11.5471 9.488 Null is rejected
Educational 7.8357 5.992 Null is rejected Qualification
Annual income 19.482 9.488 Null is rejected
Gender 4.034 3.84 Null is rejected
Religion 13.156 7.815 Null is rejected
Variable Range with maximum proportion Range with minimum proportion using using swadeshi products swadeshi products
Age 40-55 (0.9672) 18-25 (0.8059)
Gender Female (0.9247) Male (0.8301)
Annual 2-6 lakhs (0.9265) Below 2 lakhs (0.6571) Income
Education Graduates (0.9318) Below 12th (0.76086) level
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Variable Mode rating
Nature of Advertisement 3
Brand Reputation 4
Time for which the brand has been in the 3 market
Price of the product 4
Online availability 2
Recommendations 3
Whether the brand is Swadeshi or not 3
Previous experience with the product 4
Packaging 3
External Factors 3
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Bibliography: register-6-per-cent-growth-in-2013-14- 114100101322_1.html [1] The Economic Times: Flipkart‘s Sachin Bansal, Ola‘s Bhavish Aggarwal [7] International Journal of Commerce and seek government‘s help in battle against Management Research (Vol. 2; Issue 11; Amazon and Uber (Dec 8, 2016) Nov. 2016; Page no. 26-28): ‗Customer preferences towards patanjali products-A http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small study on consumers with reference to -biz/startups/flipkarts-sachin-bansal-olas- Warangal district‘ bhavish-aggarwal-seek-governments-help- https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j& in-battle-against-foreign- q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja rivals/articleshow/55862027.cms &uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj50Nyuv8bRAh [2],[3] The Economic Times: Can become VMqY8KHfOYCDEQFggnMAI&url=http Indian if it helps-Uber CEO (Dec 16, %3A%2F%2Fwww.managejournal.com% 2016) 2Fdownload%2F230%2F2-9- 62&usg=AFQjCNHJGbOiezZ0XOM79X_ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small Nc5ySs1cOvw&sig2=XNPPpVDhqEot3X -biz/startups/uber-ola-both-foreign-owned- CGFzLIjw&bvm=bv.144224172,d.c2I says-travis- kalanick/articleshow/56006139.cms [8],[9],[10] IndiaToday: ‗Indians boycotting ‗made in china‘ wares for [4] International academic Institute for beijing‘s support to Pak: Traders‘ (October Science and Technology; International 7, 2016) academic journal of Business Management (Vol. 3, No. 2, 2016, pp. 1-12): ‗Desi http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/chinese- bustle v/s MNC muscle- How Ramdev‘s goods-made-in-china-facebook-whatsapp- patanjali is setting trend for HUL‘ (Neha social-media-campaign- Gupta and Vishal Garg) diwali/1/782272.html http://iaiest.com/dl/journals/2- [11] IndiaToday: ‗Goodbye chinese goods- %20IAJ%20of%20Business%20Managem Swadeshi jagran manch says India needs to ent/v3-i2-feb2016/paper1.pdf conserve identity‘ (October 20, 2016)
[5] Wikipedia http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/chinese- goods-rss-swadeshi-jagran-manch- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patanjali_Ay diwali/1/791091.html urved [12],[13] ‗The rise of multinationals from [6] Business Standard: Khadi sales register emerging economies: Achieving a new 6 percent growth in 2013-14 (October 1, balance‘ (Book on keynotes of speeches, 2014) special sessions and some selected papers presented at the annual conference of http://www.business- Academy of International Business UK standard.com/article/markets/khadi-sales-
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Aapoorti | 2017 and Ireland; April 2014) consumers: The effects and determinants https://books.google.co.in/books?id=dti_B of Animosity and Consumer wAAQBAJ&pg=PT166&lpg=PT166&dq= ethnocentrism: 21, 299-308 (page no.), patriotism+in+african+consumers&source 2009 by Kenichi Ishii =bl&ots=n1QpDYo9WB&sig=TC5bN7W IVqoWlx256JsqDyf0XqU&hl=en&sa=X& http://www.academia.edu/1064618/Nation ved=0ahUKEwiV7dygysvRAhWBpI8KH alistic_Sentiments_of_Chinese_Consumer V9AAsUQ6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=pa s_The_Effects_and_Determinants_of_Ani triotism%20in%20african%20consumers& mosity_and_Consumer_Ethnocentrism f=false [16] Text from the website of the members [14],[15] Published in the Journal of of ‗Proudly South African‘ campaign International Consumer Marketing- http://members.proudlysa.co.za/Index.aspx ‗Nationalistic sentiments of Chinese
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In Conversation with Urvashi Butalia
Do you think women's issues are often trivialized in the context of various historical events? Could you elaborate on the above specific to the case of Partition on which you have extensively written?
Yes, women‘s issues are trivialized, you only have to watch historical serials on television to see this. During Partition this was very complicated. I don‘t think there was a trivialization, the State took very seriously the fact of women‘s abduction, the sexual violence they faced, but they did not see this as a violation of the women‘s rights as citizens, the state did not see its failure to ensure safety for women as a failure of its commitment to its citizens, rather it saw itself as a parent protecting its children, and sometimes taking decisions on their behalf which it believed the women were not capable of making – although when the women had the chance to make those decisions they showed themselves very capable of doing so. But in not allowing the women autonomy the State and women;s families trivialized them. They infantilized them.
Isn't history what we choose to remember? How did you deal with this aspect of history while compiling the oral narratives of the victims of partition?
History is equally what we choose to write, what we choose to document, and what is then seen as immutable ‗fact‘. Just think of who writes history, who documents the happenings around us, what they choose to document and what they choose to leave out. Why has history for example always been about kings and rulers? Not because there was no one else around, but because it is their stories that got recorded and everyone else, the poor, the marginalized, women, the lower castes, got left out. So how reliable are the ‗facts‘ of history? Similarly memory is selective, people choose to remember certain things and forget others, sometimes States wish to suppress the memory of certain things, such as lower caste uprisings, or the killing of minorities as in Nellie in Assam, so certain memories surface, others don‘t. The point is not whether memory is better than fact, just that the two inform each other, and enrich each other, and should be seen together not in antagonism to each other. I often recount the story of my experience in documenting the anti Muslim Pogrom in Bhagalpur in Bihar in 1989. When we were trying to get the figures of how many had been killed, we got three different sets of figures, one from the people, one from the police and the third from
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Aapoorti | 2017 state records. Who were we to believe? Which figure was the truth? And yet the point was not to arrive at a precise figure (although that is important) but to know that even one death was one death too many.
How do you interpret the term 'slavery' in the context of the 21st century?
This is a big question and not so easily answered. Slavery in the 21st century means many things, but basically it means that while there may be no such thing as formal slavery as we knew it in the past, there are instances all over the world of people being held in situations that are virtually like slavery, whether it is in factories, or in refugee enclaves or in other similar situations.
You have done an extensive work on Gender and Partition. In what ways do women become the signifiers of national boundaries?
They don‘t become signifiers, but are made to be. This happened during partition when they became the carriers of the so called ‗honour‘ of the community (for example when Sikh men killed their women ostensibly in order to ‗save‘ them from the ‗dishonour‘ of being raped and impregnated by men of the other religion, or when Hindus and Muslims raped women in order to ‗dishonour‘ the other community (the men of the other community to be more precise), and when the burden of retaining this honour was then placed on women‘s bodies. This is happening even today when women who step our of line, or who choose to marry outside their community or caste, are branded as loose and dishonourable women, and are often killed, sometimes by their own parents or by people who arrogate to themselves the right to be guardians of that honour.
Both the nations on either side of the barbed wires were (and still are, up to a considerable extent) primarily agrarian one's. How, in your opinion did the partition affect the feminization or otherwise of the workforce in these two nations, what was the spatial distribution of this phenomenon? Did it differ in respect to the context of culture?
Many things happened to change women‘s lives after Partition. People who were primarily agricultural workers, often moved into urban spaces – I am talking about India as that is what I know more. So for example when given the choice to get compensatory property, people in agriculture often asked for urban property as their families, their children, mainly their sons, did not want to remain in agriculture. This impacted women‘s work in the fields, and in livestock rearing etc. Then, for urban women, the field of social work opened up as an area to get into. For many middle and lower middle class women, whose lives were disrupted and who could not marry, certain kinds of jobs were opened up, such as clerical jobs, or working in stitching centres and other places, but by and large this is an area on which not much work has been done.
What kind of impact does a situation like being displaced or migration have on the degree of a women's economic independence?
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Once again there‘s not much work on this but migration and the new uncertainties of being in a land you do not know and are not familiar with, was bound to cause certain anxieties and uncertainties. The widespread sexual violence that has recently taken place could not have helped and people must have felt insecure. The only thing was that sometimes when people settled as communities in the same place, so people from Rawalpindi settling in Jangpura say, they recreated the old structures of familiarity and that helped in creating some sense of security for the women.
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In Conversation with Bela Bhatia
What, in your opinion, are the implications of the systematic marginalisation of tribal communities, not just for them but for the nation?
Well, it is a big loss for all of us. And, a big failure. Loss because what we have been witnessing in the last decade in Bastar is the death of a civilization. Failure because like in other parts of the world, in India too, we have not been able to appreciate or respect the indigenous peoples, their way of life, their knowledge, histories, and aspirations. The government, the public, and often even the rebel groups have tended to relate with them out of relative ignorance. Our "nation" is not fully conscious of itself. It does not know of its own richness. It does not know, for example, that a place like Bastar is not only rich in minerals and forests but that the tribal world holds within itself rich human resources and knowledge systems.
The tribal people of Bastar may seem to be "underdeveloped" to someone who understands "development" only in material terms. Who may have only one idea of what being modern is about, and, therefore, the "mainstreaming" of modernity -- the mukhyadhara -- to which all who are judged aberrant or seen to be lagging behind need to be brought to. In this imagination, the aberrant is not acceptable unless s/he desires to be part of the mukhyadhara. It is often not understood that a society and a people may have less in some respects, and be able to benefit from scientific advancements in some ways, and yet in other ways they may be far more advanced than their 'developed' counterparts, even those who belong to the 'higher' castes and classes. This imagination aims at a kind of economic homogenisation of society where its members desire the same consumer goods, resulting in similar habits and lifestyles. But this homogenisation is only at the consumer end of the bargain, and does not question structural inequalities even remotely. The continuing concentration of wealth and power in a few hands and the resultant widening of inequality is not seen as a problem.
Increasingly, the mukhyadhara involves an imagination not only of economic homogenisation but also of cultural homogenisation, with the hindutva ideology at its core. Since this imagination is being propagated by the dominant sections of society, it excludes other plausible ways of life including those that have been practiced by the tribals for centuries. This way of life has proved in its simplicity to be sustainable, environment friendly, and one that depends on cooperation and mutual aid and therefore keeps the community alive. Tribal economies have also proved to be largely self-sufficient and the extent to which they are able to be self-reliant is awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, all that is getting lost. The tragedy is that in this process, where the talk is of their 'development', what is happening is that whatever they had is also being wrested away from them. For the adivasis, this process hides a greater loss -- a loss of self.
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Do you think that the indigenous knowledge base (especially their systems of resource management and organisation) have the potential to be developed into sustainable models that can be implemented at the macro level? How?
To my mind, it would be useful to study these systems of knowledge for the understanding that we can acquire, and while doing so try to also observe the values and principles that informs them, not with the idea of replicating the same as "models" at the macro level but in order to be able to appreciate what worked in their specific context. Trying to see models and replicate them would be falling into the trap of centralised thinking. The tribal way of life invites us to think in a decentralized, context specific, and freeway.
How much scope for development do the people caught in the crossfire between the state and insurgent groups have?
The tribal residents of the war zone live as though in a cage. Their movements have become severely restricted in the last decade. Many of those who had run away across the borders to Telangana during the height of the first phase of the counter-insurgency (2005-2006) have become permanent settlers there. Families have got divided and communities dispersed. For many years, these displaced families could not cultivate their lands or could do so only furtively. Their unoccupied homes fell apart; in many cases they were also burnt by the security forces or the Salwa Judum. Their belongings were looted and their greatest wealth, in the shape of cattle and livestock was lost, died or became feral. During these years, the government had also withdrawn all welfare services (schools, health centres, the public distribution system) from the conflict areas and restricted these services to those who were in the camps. Many schools were also demolished or blasted by the Maoists, who did not want them to be occupied by the security forces. Most of these villages in the interior regions are not electrified and road connectivity is poor. Thus, what the people had by way of public services, in any case, was quite minimal and even that was no longer available to them. Those who had run away to Telangana were not eligible for these services there either. The war, therefore, has caused much hardship to people. Over the years, even though many families have returned, rebuilt their homes and resumed farming the situation is far from normal. Armed actions by Maoists as well as counter-insurgency operations continue. While the rhetoric of development continues, in reality their survival is at stake. The tribal residents of the war zone have become prisoners of state repression and class war.
How practical, in your opinion, is the state's proposal to link the PDS with Aadhaar? What would be the impact of linking the same with mid-day meal scheme?
This latest development (ie, linking of welfare schemes to Aadhaar) shows yet again the extent to which our government is out of touch with ground realities. Aadhaar is turning into an all-powerful biometric identification system. In a region where a large proportion of the adult population is illiterate or semi-literate and there is very poor internet connectivity, this is not only impractical but quite dangerous. It is an unnecessary invasion of people's lives which has a high potential for causing damage. A technology should be such that it is within the control of the user. It should increase rather than decrease the freedom of the people, and decrease rather than increase the power of the state because a state by its nature is coercive. Aadhaar magnifies state power because it is a tool of mass surveillance. The government has been denying these charges and maintaining that Aadhaar is not compulsory but the recent linking of Aadhaar card to basic services like the PDS and mid-day meals exposes its
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Aapoorti | 2017 duplicity in this respect. Moreover, both these schemes are crucial for ending hunger and improving people‘s nutrition. What this move of the government shows is that people‘s food security matters less to it than "national" security. Here, 'national security' seems to mean maintainence of the status quo.
Can you tell us, from your experience, about the lesser known instruments deployed by the state to oppress and exploit the communities at the periphery?
Besides fake encounters, sexual violence, use of draconian laws like the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967) and CSPSA (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005), there are other methods deployed by the state, which are more "everyday" in nature. For instance, during the searching and combing operations by the security forces through the villages, it is very common to find them helping themselves to rice, cooking oil and other edible items like poultry. Cash and ornaments have been stolen. When women have demanded money, they have been beaten and even raped (as happened in the mass rapes in Bellamlendra village of Bijapur in January 2016). Beatings are very common. This may happen while people are being questioned, or when they protest. Illegal and wrongful confinement is very common. Individuals, especially youth, may get picked up from public places like the market, or from the forest, and family members may not know about their whereabouts for a few days and may spend their time going from police station to police station looking for them, which in these areas is difficult since a lot of travelling has to be done on foot. Generally, people from the interior villages considered to be strongholds of the Maoists are viewed with suspicion. Arbitrary arrests, and false charges under Naxalite cases, are common.
You have been helping women from tribal communities who have been sexually exploited by the state forces to come forth and protest. How would this experience be different had these women belonged to the relatively privileged, mainstream parts of the society?
Because of the on-going decade-old war, the women of these villages have been at a receiving end in myriad ways. Except one or two, most of the women who were raped and sexually assaulted were illiterate. The villages where these women reside are also quite inaccessible, and at a considerable distance from the police stations and district headquarters. These women were also not familiar with government offices, police stations and courts. Moreover, since people from the interior region are looked at with suspicion if not hostility by others, because it is assumed that they are with the Maoist organisation in some capacity, it becomes all the more difficult for them to overcome these biases and be regarded by the authorities as citizens who are also entitled to a legal recourse and due process. Had these women been from relatively privileged sections of society, some of the hurdles would not apply. However the more common experience that women, irrespective of caste, class or community, face while getting the police to admit a complaint of rape or sexual assault is much the same everywhere in India.
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