Varun Hari Prasad

The Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman presented a White Paper in the Parliament on the Indian Economy. Usually, White Papers are well-researched & academic documents. But the document tabled by the Finance Minister turns out to be a political document which does nothing but accuses the previous Government of economic mismanagement and hides the failed promises of the present dispensation. Any unbiased and academic document should have started from the Balance of Payments Crisis (that started in late 1980s) and ended with impact of COVID-19 on the Economy. But this document fails to do so. The Promise of ‘Ache Din’ The BJP led by Mr Narendra Modi promised ‘Ache Din’ (Good Days) to the people of India if they were voted to power. Some of the promises were: ·          Bringing back black money stashed abroad within 100 days of assuming office ·          Providing a portion of the black money t...

In the previous part , I wrote on the situation of the four ‘castes’ formulated by the Prime Minister. In this part, I wish to share my views on the Interim Budget 2024-25. Boastful Interim Budget On 1 st February 2024, the Finance Minister presented the Interim Budget for 2024-25. The Budget Speech was used as a platform to repeat the boastful claims which were already articulated in the President’s Address to Parliament and the Economic Survey. Youth & Unemployment The Finance Minister used the word ‘Youth’ in her speech but did not speak about unemployment. According to the State of Working India Report (of Azim Premji University), the unemployment rate in youth between the age of 15-29 is 10%. Among graduates, the unemployment is 9.8% (between the age of 30-34) and among graduates under the age of 25, the unemployment rate is 42%. The Finance Minister did not acknowledge this problem nor did she spell out any policy action to address the problem. In ten year of bei...

A couple of days ago, the Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman presented a White Paper on the Indian Economy as a report card of sorts on how the Government has managed the economy in the last decade. Also, since we are heading into elections in two months, it is an appropriate time to review the performance of the Indian Economy under Modi Government in the last decade. In this three part essay, I wish to share my views on the state of the four 'castes' in part one, then on the Interim Budget in part two and on the White Paper in part three. The Four 'Castes' Prime Minister Modi gave a new 'Caste' formulation:  poor, youth, women and farmers. In this part of the essay let us see how these four 'castes' are living under the Modi Government. 1. The Poor The very fact that the Government is continuing the scheme of providing free ration of 5 kg per person for 80 crore people speaks volumes about the level of poverty. It is unfortunate that the Governmen...