One day, one of our directors in a meeting, said that India is currently going through a recession. It got me thinking that how come amidst all the developments and improvements, we are facing recession. So the first thing I did was, check if the news is at all relevant. To my surprise, I found out that not just India, but the whole world is currently facing similar issue.
What is recession? In simple word, it is the time when the cycle of business is at its lowest and there are less business activities around. It can take place due to various reasons, like increase in unemployment, Lower rupee value, reduction in interest rates, increase of cost of living, lower savings, etc.
Now it got me thinking, that with so much worse things going on around the world, to add recession into that list is really difficult for India’s growth. So I studies some facts which I think is necessary to learn.
A few months ago, we were struck with inflation of onion prices. The price of onion, a basic commodity, was as high as 150 Rs per KG. The price of onion were so high, that we missed the inflation of another basic commodity, i.e. potato, which became 40 Rs per KG. Now, an economy where the basic commodities prices can’t be contained, how we can manage the macro aspect.
We often talk about big things, missing the small things, like the meeting agricultural production for consumption, solving cold storage and logistics problems of agriculture. And this is not the first time we heard about sudden inflation of the basic commodity, this is becoming a regular thing in India now a days.
I believe, when the basic food crisis is met, it is then India can think about eradicating other issues like education, electricity, healthcare, sanitation, etc.
Another amusing fact is the rate at which there is a realty growth in India, we are pondering many natural resources in developing the realty sector. A day will come when a person might have more flats than cars. But the pace at which we are taking down agricultural land and building ownership flats, it is really scary that people might have a flat to live, but no food to eat.
Another aspect which baffles me is the expenditure of people’s money on different social activities, including functions, social gathering, etc.. It seems that some authorities has distributed petty funds for these activities. These activities are neither productive but, serves welfare to some sections of people. We all know why these activities are done and who get the benefits from these activities, but are powerless to say otherwise. It is easier to die without treatment, but very easy to dance in the tune of those ‘Social Events’.
I believe a change is required, not just implementation of some policies or rules, not imposing stringent expenditure policies, not disclosure of mandatory income by public sector workers, not socialism, but a change in the outlook of common people. It is difficult to come out of a comfort zone, but times like this demands that we step out of our comfort zone and do something.
parijanam 