India is caught in middle-income trap

By Philip Mudartha, Navi Mumbai
Bellevision Media Network

04 Aug 2024: 

Preface:

I am agonized by the tragedy that has befallen Wayanad where I vacationed many years ago. The search and rescue operations have entered its sixth day on Sunday. 373 deaths are confirmed by noon.

 

 

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh:

 

In her op-ed in financial express titled “developed India is a distant dream”, she bemoans that it has not become any easier to do business since Modi became prime minister than it was before. Socialist habits are rooted so deeply in the mind-set of our high officials that they find it impossible to give businessmen the freedom they need to continue building bigger and better.

 

“Socialism is more than an ideology in our dear Bharat Mata. It is a means of extorting vast sums of money from those who spend years of blood, sweat and tears building world-class institutions. So shameless are our officials (elected and unelected) that they do not allow fine private hospitals and colleges to be built without taking their cut. It is not Indian industrialists who have failed India. It is those who are responsible for governing this country who have not done their jobs”.

 

Tavleen concludes: ‘Viksit Bharat’ sounds like a joke. The FM in her Budget speech, said that we should be proud that our gracious PM is providing more than 80 crore Indians with free food-grain every month. No Madame, we should be ashamed that this is necessary. It comes as definite proof that we are a very long way from becoming a developed country”.

 

 

A very high percentage of our population have great expectations of freebies from the governments. This popular mind-set gives enormous power to the officials to extort their pound of flesh as they dole out the freebies.

 

India faces ‘middle income trap’:

 

In the new World Bank report, it noted that it may take over 75 years to reach one-quarter of US income per capita. At the end of 2023, 108 countries were classified as middle-income. Their GDP per capita was in the range of $1,136 to $13,845. These countries are home to six billion people of whom two out of every three people live in extreme poverty.

 

 

According to Wiki, the FY 2022-23 per capita NSDP was $6, 340 for our richest state Goa. It was $684 for our poorest state Bihar.

 

Besides Bihar, the NSDP of UP, WB, Odisha, MP, Jharkhand, Assam, CG and J&K is below the national per capita of $2, 411. About 45% Indians (62 crore) live in these poorer states.

 

For us to reach the upper range of ‘middle- income’, our economy should grow to 575% from 2024 estimated level of $3.9 trillion. We are 5th largest economy, fastest growing economy, will be 3rd largest at 5.0 trillion and ahead of U.K are only political boasts. The reality is that we rank 136 globally.

 

It is not a sin to dream:

 

Our dreams will not become reality until those who govern us recognize that it is because of the failure to do their job that India continues to resemble a country that has barely emerged from desperate poverty.

 

PM Modi alone cannot be blamed for the accumulated failures of bad governance. Yet, he and his government ministers should not look in the rear view mirror to blame Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Gandhi parivar and Congress party. PM Modi had ten years during which he failed to deliver the promise of ‘parivartan’.

 

In his Whatsapp message, Nandanan Trissur commented: “…we will definitely remain at the bottom as a poor country for ages to come. We do not have the right resources to feed our growing population.”