There was a day when India, ‘the abode of the gods’ was reputed as the golden bird, blessed with affluence, prosperity and political and economic freedom. In the days of Emperor Vikramaditya no one was allowed to live in, or die of, want and privation. But a continued series of incursions and aggressions on India, by the Turks, the Moghals and the Britishers and the British policy of draining all resources out of India, in order to enrich the British economy reduced our country to the pitiable status of a land of mediants with a beggar’s bowl, tattered beggar; and snake-charmers. As a result, when. India became politically independent, her economic condition was in shambles. She was far from being self-dependent or economically sound.
After independence our economy was re-shaped and given a radical change under the able guidance of the great democratic socialist, Jawaharlal Nehru. He launched Five Year Plans for planned economic development under a Planning Commission, for which he yoked in all the eminent economists of the land. It cannot the-gainsaid that our country has been making steady -progress in the economic sphere. Both agriculture and industry have been growing steadily; the foreign trade has been improved and the equilibrium between imports and exports has been achieved. We have almost achieved self-sufficiency in food grains and the other agricultural and industrial products. However, the rate of economic progress has not been commensurate with our plans and ambitions. There is a huge gap between our in-put and out-put, if we compare the crawling pace of our achievements with the vast strides of countries like Japan in even times, we cannot but arrive at the inevitable conclusion that all is not well with the Indian economy, that it is rather out-of sorts, or shall we say, ailing.
Six Five-Year plans have been completed and we have launched the Seventh. Yet the country’s economy has not become sufficiently sound. Symptoms of unsoundness can be seen everywhere around us. To begin with, there is the problem of unemployment. The number of unemployed people on the live registers of the employment exchanges is just staggering. Besides total unemployment, there are also the problems of seasonal unemployment, underemployment and unemployment. There are frightening disparities between the haves and have nets, the poor peasants and landless labourers and the landed or propertied capitalists. The general standard of living in our country when compared to that in other countries is very low. Just a little less than half our population lives below the poverty line. Prices are constantly soaring. The value of the rupee is constantly being eroded. It is true that the per capital income has registered a slight rise, bat the purchasing power of money has become so low that the rise in per capital income has been completely neutralized. In fact, food prices in India being the highest in the world in terms of per capita income inflation, affects us more than anybody else. Corruption sets at naught whatever progress is made in this direction.
The Government of India has repeatedly declared that one of its major aims is establishing a socialistic pattern of society in the country. This aim could be realized only through our equitable distribution of wealth, which is still a far cry. In Fact, economic disparities are increasing and economic power and wealth are getting concentrated in much fewer hands, This leads to capital formation, a great social and economic evil. The country is also suffering from such economic ills as black-marketing, smuggling and hoarding. There is running in the country a very prosperous, parallel black economy. Black-marketers and hoarders have sometimes the audacity of holding the entire country to ransom. There is widespread labor unrest, in the country. Another contributing factor is urbanization and industrialization, resulting in rural impoverishment, labour unrest, strikes and lock-outs. Workers everywhere are discontented and are adopting agitation approaches to get redress for their grievances. Strikes and lock-outs have become a common feature of our life. Last of all, one of the important criteria of a sound economy is self-reliance. But we are nowhere near achieving it. And with the population boom, this is just not possible.
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It is not difficult to diagnose what ails out economy—why our economy has not shown satisfactory growth, We shall realize that one of the basic mistakes made by us was a wrong choice of priorities in our planning. After the completion of the first Five-Year plans, emphasis was shifted to industrial development and agriculture was neglected. This led to a number of serious problems. India is basically an agricultural country. Here rural development holds the key to total economic growth. Unless we undertake rural development with a sense of single-minded devotion, we shall not be able to achieve self-sufficiency in food or solve our problem of unemployment. Indians will continue suffering from grueling poverty, gross economic disparities, will continue and our standard of living will show no signs of improvement.
Another factor that adversely affected our economy is the fixing of unrealistic targets. Our planners grossly overestimated the financial resources of the country and set before themselves unrealistic targets. Sometimes natural calamities in the form of floods and droughts and sometimes external aggression upset our plans and played havoc with our economy. Sometimes targets had to be revised midway through the plans, Following hostilities with Pakistan a stage came when we had completely to suspend the planning programme. A number of projects had to be left incomplete. This involved a great deal 5f wastage in terms of human .capital and financial resources. Yet another potent cause is the political and economic instability through which our country has been passing these days.
India is currently passing through a period of character crisis. Corruption is rampant all over the country. People are busy in feathering their own nests, utterly disrespectful of the wider interests of the nation. Moral and spiritual values have been discarded in preference to materialistic advancement. However sound a plan may theoretically be, unless its implementation is sincere there can be no positive results. Sincere implementation calls for sound moral character, which we all lack. Instead of pursuing Rajiv Gandhi’s 20-point programme, if we pursue a single-point programme of eradicating corruption, our economy shall be restored to sound health.
Measures to accelerate the growth of the economy and to make it sound immediately follow from the diagnosis of the malady. First of all, our priorities should be set right. It is absolutely essential that we follow Gandhian economics and effect growth at the village level. Once our agriculture starts flourishing and we are able to achieve self-sufficiency in food, most of our economic problems will be automatically solved. Small scale and cottage industries should be given encouragement. This will ease the problem of unemployment and strengthen the economic position of the village people. Targets of economic growth should be realistically fixed so that the masses do not have to face disillusionment and frustration Industrial policy should be made more pragmatic and tax-structure more rational, so that the growth of black money may be arrested. Last of all, some harsh steps should be taken to weed out corruption from amidst us. If these steps are sincerely taken, there is no reason why our economic situation will not improve.