PRE BUDGET MUSSINGS


On the eve of the Budget,  the futility is depressing but the ignorance is becoming a tragedy. 

 We boast, or at least the lords who govern us asks us to digest, that we are the 4th largest economy!  

Fact: 

#  Nominal per capita income stands at roughly USD 2,818  per annum. In  *nominal per capita terms, India is ranked around 144th globally*..  

For whom are we 4th largest , exactly?

Yes, India has overtaken Japan in total GDP. But when that wealth is divided among 1.4 billion people, reality looks very different.  Even on purchasing power parity, we are still only around 125th. These rankings are not academic. They define how people live.

Net FDI is now negative

Wealth continues to concentrate at the top, with *one percent of the population controlling nearly half the country’s wealth*.

Consumption keeps struttering. Lending or credit off-take is  a laggard. Sluggish  deposts. Unemployment consistantly at alarming levels. Fuel that drives the economy is the costliest even when Brent was much lower. Rupee is being beaten blue. 

We are still a hugly importing nation and exports remain pathetic after all the slogans. 

So what's the opium that's keeps people still quite? 

Right wing nationalism keeps people mesmerised on issues of  majoritarian religious identify, a false sense of past glory. We are made to  fantasise about our   perceived superiority.

All this  while suppressing enquiry, discourse and counter opinion.

 Economic equality, social equality  and freedom from bondages of a decadent culture , a cultivation of  scientific temperament are issues not in normal discourse. 

So what is the Budget? 

The Budget is an entertainment show, bytes for a bonded media and wannabe economists and financial  experts. Even an accounting report and accountability is absent. 

Forgotten in a day till the next one arrives.

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