An outlook of the Indian economy

There are various acts aimed at looking after the Indian economy and its relationship with citizens. The local self-government had powers even to try minor cases. But these bodies were not democratic in the real sense, because most of their members were not elected but nominated by the British Indian government. They had few powers given to them and their financial resources were also limited. Broadly, this condition continued in India till 1947.

This was his views about Indian economy. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using even the modern machines and tools that they can make and can afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others.” Gandhiji further said, “India does not need to be industrialized in the modern sense of the term. It has 7, 50,000 villages scattered over the vast area 1900 miles long 1500 broad. The people are rooted to the soil and the vast majority is living a hand to mouth life. Whatever may be said to the contrary, having traveled throughout the length and breath of the land with the eyes open and having mixed with millions are living in enforced idleness for the last four month in a year.

The latest news about economy of India is that agriculture does not need revolutionary changes. The Indians peasant requires a supplementary industry. The most natural is the introduction of the spinning wheel not the handloom. The latter cannot be included introduced in every home, whereas the farmer can, and it used to be so even a century ago. It was driven out not by economic pressure but by force deliberately used as can be proved from authentic records. The restoration therefore of the spinning wheel solves the economic problem of India at a stroke.

The latest News and Events about Indian Economy

Since the early 1990s after the introduction of liberalization and reforms, policies and revolutionary changes ushered in the course of India. Soon after, the nation’s economy witnessed high economic growth and rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Government data show that the Indian economy in the last decade has been growing between 6 to 8 per cent.

India has emerged as one of the largest foreign investors both in the developed and developing world. Now India’s economy is the fastest growing economy in the world only after China. As Kaushik Basu says, ‘the economic growth following liberalization, continued and picked up steam; and from 1994 the GDP growth rate broke the 7 per cent mark for three consecutive years and over the last decade averaged over 6 per cent per annum and India's foreign exchange balance, which hovered at a precariously low level for decades, began to rise from the early 1990s and yet again India's savings rate that had hovered around 12 per cent in the late 1960s had risen to 23 per cent by the end 1970s’ (2006, pp.58). The latestnews from the Government of India also shows that India has emerged as the second biggest foreign investor in the UK (after the USA) in 2008-09, with 108 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects, a 44 per cent increase in the number of projects announced by Indian companies last year. With this increase India has replaced Japan as the largest Asian supplier of FDI projects in the UK. This is something remarkable about Indian economy.

First, they brought certain critical developmental issues and concerns like environmental degradation, deforestation, land alienation, displacements, etc. to the attention of the policy makers while also making it open for wider public debate.  Second, they experimented with various developmental models and solutions to address the socio-economic problems of the society. The models of adult education, primary health care, toilets, irrigation system, bio-gas, ecologically balanced wasteland development, etc. were developed on the basis of micro-experiments carried on by them throughout the country. Third, they contributed towards highlighting the plight of the most deprived sections of the society. Most of them worked with the women, tribal, landless laborers, informal sector workers, etc., for their political empowerment, social emancipation, and economic development and make them aware about general knowledge. Beyond the government and business, they acted as the third sector of society.

An outlook of the Indian economy with latest news and events

Indian economy has traditionally been agrarian and self sufficient with a caste based division of labor. This resulted in economic disparities among sections of the society. Economic empowerment implies the provision of training and employment-cum-income generation activities with both “forward” and “backward” linkages with the ultimate objective of making community economically independent and self reliant. It would also mean conferring, through policies, onto the economically deprived sections the strength that would alleviate their poverty, improve their living standards and help in generating assets. This fact is generally not in the knowledge of citizens. 

Objective of empowerment of certain section of the society is to grant them those rights which would make them equal with other persons or social groups. This is an interesting fact about Indian Economy. 

Hence, empowerment is aimed at equality. In order to achieve equality we also need to understand in what areas the equality is to be achieved. These areas then could be considered for empowerment. In this we need to address those areas where equal treatment can be given to all, i.e. before law, equal and inalienable rights, equal freedom or moral equality, full political equality (as equal universal suffrage), social equality (as equal status and consideration regardless of class or wealth) and equal opportunity (as equal access and equal start). These are enshrined in different Articles in the Indian Constitution which guarantees them. There are four essential areas that need to be addressed to achieve “equality”.

The latest news is that economy of India is getting empowered. World Bank defines empowerment on any economy as the expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives’. No doubt, therefore, empowerment is essentially a political process. Central to the concept of empowerment are four core elements: about general knowledge, inclusion and participation; accountability; and local organized capacity and subsequent networking with wider movement groups to create a climate of pressure on the holders of power. The centrality of the notion of empowerment is located in the dynamics of sharing, distribution and redistribution of power, which has a basis of legitimacy.