Integrity Score 240
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The Strategy for Economic Reform in a Globalised World continues....
Since one Socialism differs from another Socialism only in degree, therefore there are unlimited varieties of Socialism varying from those of Hitler’s Nazism, to Jawaharlal Nehru’s Socialism, to the democratic Socialism of Sweden. This has only caused confusion and given ample scope for hyprocrisy!
I need not dwell any further on the demerits of other ideologies, but consider in concrete positive terms, what steps should be taken for the rapid economic growth and development of the nation. India becoming a developed country and world power by 2020 is feasible if we ensure that:
[a] the GDP grows at an average of 10% per year for the ten years from 2008 onwards, and 7% thereafter till 2020. This growth has to be achieved within the framework of globalization, which process has become inevitable, irresistible, and irreversible. But globalization has opportunities and risks.
India has therefore, to make participation in globalizaion, socially tolerable and morally adequate.
[b] education is fostered to empower the people with IT savy self-employment skills, and also to develop a secular patriotic ethos that courageously resists fundamentalism and terrorism. Such an orientation will enable the country to remain focused on development issues.
[c] harmonious international alliances are effected on various levels of bonding—such as cultural (with SAARC, Afghanistan, Burma and ASEAN), strategic (such as with China, Isreal, and Iran), contractual (such as with the United
States e.g., help US in Iraq), and develop pre-emptive contingency plans (e.g., if the Pakistan President is dislodged by Taliban).
The first requirement can be met if we are able to raise the rate of investment from the current 24 per cent of GDP to 30 per cent while increasing the efficiency in the use of capital by reducing the capital output ratio from the present 4.0 to 3.0. How this level of investment can be achieved is a policy challenge. Increased investment can be effected for example, by abolishing income tax and by simplifying excise and custom duty levies. This will raise the rate of domestic saving but it will require a major overhaul of the Budgeting process.
to be continued....