Modi's "Hindu" economics: Development sans investment? Calling bluff from officially-released facts

By Hemantkumar Shah*

Capital investment is essential for development. Production, and thereby national and people's income, increase when small and big companies and enterprises make investment. Yet the fact is, under the Modi regime capital investment is not going up.
In 2016-17 Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), that is investment in machinery, was 28.5% of national income, i.e. GDP. It remained at the same level in 2017-18.
After Modi came to power, the base year for this calculation was changed to 2011-12. With that base year, the Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of GFCF during two year period of 2012-14 was 11.20%.
With the previous base year of 2004-05, for the eight-year period of 2004-12, the AAGR of GFCF remained at 20.57%. If we take in to account the 10-year period, it works out to 15.88%.
During the Modi regime of four years, 2014-18, the AAGR of GFCF was just 2.09%. In 2016-17, it reduced by 6.13%! It was Rs. 40.03 lakh crore in the previous year and reduced to 37.98 lakh crore in 2016-17!
These figures show that the Modi government has failed in attracting small or big, Indian or foreign investment in the country.
Is this Modi's Hindu economics? Clearly, the claim of Modi government is wrong when he says that in 60 years nothing has been done and only he is developing India.

Foreign direct investment

It is claimed that Narendra Modi successfully attracted foreign investment in India by touring various countries in the world during last four years. This is another great bluff. Let us examine the facts:
The 2006-07 year was a watershed year for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India, when FDi went up by 2.5 times of the previous year. Since then it went up continuously.

The above table shows that the AAGR was highest during 2004-14 period in the 21st century. During Modi's regime it was reduced to an almost half of it, and it went further down to 8% in 2016-17 and mere 3% last year.
This simply means that foreign companies do not see India as an attractive destination for investment under Modi regime.

Rupee's decay

During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign, it was claimed that the Indian rupee will be brought to level of 40 with respect to one US$, if Modi comes to power. It has now been proved beyond any doubt that it was a bluff par excellence, propagated by Modi himself and his bhakts.
When Modi assumed power on May 26, 2014, the exchange rate was Rs. 58.73. On June 28, 2018, it was Rs 69.10. Thus, average annual rate of depreciation works out to be 4.41%.
The exchange rate was Rs. 45.32 in 2004. Thus, the average annual rate of depreciation of value of Indian Rupee was 2.96 % for the 10-year rule of Manmohan Singh.
It shows that Indian Rupee has been comparatively devalued with higher speed in last four years of the Modi raj!
(Sources: Reserve Bank of India; A note dated 31-05-2018, published by the Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India; Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India)
---
*Professor of economics, Gujarat University

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Weaponizing faith? 'I Love Muhammad' and the politics of manufactured riots

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* A disturbing new pattern of communal violence has emerged in several north Indian cities: attacks on Muslims during the “I Love Muhammad” processions held to mark Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This adds to the grim catalogue of Modi-era violence against Muslims, alongside cow vigilantism, so-called “love jihad” campaigns, attacks for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” and assaults during religious festivals.

Counterview

Search This Blog