US Inflation and India’s Economic Recovery

THE very day, December 11, when the Indian finance ministry spuriously claimed a robust recovery in the post-pandemic Indian economy, newspapers carried news of an acceleration in the US inflation rate. The inflation rate in November 2021 over November of the preceding year had been 6.8 per cent in the US, which was higher than the corresponding rate in any month over the previous 40 years; in particular, petrol prices had increased in November 2021 by 58 per cent, which was the highest for any month since 1980.

India’s Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery

THE pandemic alas is not yet over, but there are no economic disruptions in the current fiscal year in the form of lockdowns or workers’ absence. The economy’s performance therefore can no longer be attributed to the prevalence of the pandemic; whatever it is, it is caused by economic factors.Government spokesmen are busy claiming that the economy is displaying a robust recovery, and that the current fiscal year will post a double-digit growth rate.

The Strangulation of the MGNREGS

THE MGNREGS was introduced by the UPA-I government despite opposition from the neo-liberal lobby within it, owing inter alia to the active intervention of the Left which was supporting that government from outside. It was restrictive from the beginning: it promised a maximum of only 100 days of employment in a year, and that too for just one member of a rural household. But within those restrictions it conferred an economic right: employment could not be refused and if it was not provided within a certain period then the person seeking employment had to be paid a compensation.

The Peasantry’s Victory over Imperialism

PARTICULAR battles often have a significance that goes beyond the immediate context, of which even the combatants may not be fully aware at the time. One such was the Battle of Plassey, which was not even a battle since one side’s general had already been bribed by the other not to lead his troops against it; and yet what happened in the woods of Plassey that day ushered in a whole new epoch in world history.The battle between the kisan movement and the Modi government falls into the same genre.

Fiscal Folly

THE Modi government has been raising taxes on petro-products as its main instrument of resource mobilisation for government spending.

The Scourge of Demonetisation

IN the entire history of post-independence India, no single economic measure has been as devastating for the people and as utterly futile in achieving its stated objectives, as the demonetisation of currency notes, of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination, decreed by the Modi government on November 8, 2016.

Misconceptions about Agriculture

THERE are a number of misconceptions about Indian agriculture which, if not removed forthwith, can have potentially adverse effects on the ongoing kisan agitation against the three farm laws. The first of these is the belief that corporate encroachment on peasant agriculture is a matter concerning only the corporate encroachers and the peasants. This is wrong: corporate encroachment on peasant agriculture is a matter that affects the economy as a whole; it concerns everybody. This is not a rhetorical statement; it is literally true.

The Homogenisation of Education

EDUCATION in post-independence India was supposed not just to provide knowledge and skills to students, but also to facilitate the process of “nation-building” (to use a clumsy word).

Foodstocks, Bio-Fuels and Hunger

THE Modi government’s attempt to “explain” away India’s slipping from being 94th on the world hunger index in 2020 to 101st in 2021, a rank well below that of neighbours Pakistan, Nepal or Bangladesh, by questioning the “methodology” of the index, is jejune enough; but even more shocking is its total inability to see the reason behind the acute hunger in the country.Precisely when India has been slipping on the hunger index, the country has had more foodgrain stocks than are required by it according to official “norms”; in fact on September 1, 2021, the FCI had 50.2 million tonnes of foodgr

Measuring Unemployment Trends in India

UNLIKE in the advanced capitalist countries, a reduction in employment opportunities in India takes the form not of a larger proportion of the work-force being shut out of employment, but of almost everyone having lesser number of days of work. This is a reflection of the fact that only a tiny segment of the work-force is employed on a full-time basis. Most are either self-employed, like peasants or shop-keepers, where many more or fewer family-members can share a given amount of work; or are causal workers who may get work on a given day but not on another.

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ECONOMIC NOTES