India’s move to extend a sum of $10 billion to dissolve Eurozone crises looks as if one beggar is sharing his already scarce meal with another beggar.
With policy paralysis, sluggish economy, high inflation,
presidential controversies and a row of issues enveloping our country, Indian
government should and must focus on improving our economy instead of making
donations to countries richer than us. The move might have brought accolades in
G-20 summit, with India scoring a decent slot in ‘big donors’ tag amongst
Russia, China, Japan, etc… But was the move necessary?
The amount could have been better utilized in health sector,
education sector, infrastructure or the already battling aviation sector. Our
country today faces uncountable problems, thanks to population explosion. And
when it’s own citizens struggle to make their both ends meet, how is it
possible to help other countries? Take China’s example, it first funded money
in various sectors to boost it’s own economy. Only after securing a position as
a ‘Developing country’, did it extend help to other countries.
But…but.. first let us understand the complications behind
Eurozone crises. It began as an aftermath of the great 2008 US and UK
recession, like a contagion effect. There was a big build-up of debts in Spain and Italy before 2008,
and when it resulted into a pressure cooker situation, the interest rates fell
and entire Eurozone was dept-ridden. It might not directly affect India, but an
indirect impact on financial markets is inevitable. Chief Economic Adviser
Kaushik Basu commented that if the crises does not end they will hit India in the
face. But since Europe is no longer our biggest export destination, only an
indirect impact will be observed.
PM Manmohan Singh said that the crisis in European banking
system was going to prevent economic growth not just in Europe but the world at
large. And I agree. European crises will affect India’s economy. But the consequences
of not investing in one’s own country and donating that amount somewhere else
will be far greater. The solution? Simple. A smaller amount could have been agreed upon
for IMF’s additional firewall of $430 billion.
With socio-political issues visible in every nook and corner
of our country like a spider’s web, a whopping figure of $10 billion is simply
unaffordable at this stage. Our GDP of January-March quarter is scarily dangling at a 5.3% and
there are no surplus funds to spare too. Besides an even more worrying issue is
the devaluation of rupee, it touched an all time low of 57.37 to the dollar.
Enough mounting tensions already, and to top it up, we have the raging
presidential election controversy too.
Instead of playing ‘Kaun-banega-president’ games I hope the
government focuses more on such critical issues…. Issues like providing
subsidies to agriculture or health sector, or doing something about the bursting inflation.
The UPA is receiving criticism from all quarters, and yet it has it's ears buried deep in the ground.
The UPA is receiving criticism from all quarters, and yet it has it's ears buried deep in the ground.
Even Pritish Nandy tweeted: “Govt. promises booster shot for
the economy on Monday. Hope it’s not another $10 billion for the IMF to bail
out Europe”!
Ahem well, Mr. Prime Minister, are you listening?
