For a Prosperous India

This is in the light of the Oxfam survey report which was released very recently. The liberalization policies India has been following for the last about two-and-a-half decades have certainly increased the wealth generation in the country. However, as India’s economy grew rapidly, the inequality between the richest and the poorest rose. There is no doubt that lives of people have changed for better because of liberalisation but the promise of poverty eradication still remains to be fulfilled. The gains have thrown new concerns of exclusion which needs to be addressed. The rise and rise of a small pool of India’s super rich population has worsened this divide, the ultra-wealthy alone, comprising 1% of the country’s population. In the last few decades, the rich in India have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. According to Oxfam survey report, the richest 1% cornered 73% of wealth generated in India in 2017 and the rich-poor divide is widening. It is a pity that 67 crore Indians comprising the population’s poorest half saw their wealth rise by just 1% in the last year.

The Oxfam report underlines the imperative necessity of the Government revisiting the liberalization philosophy by re-orienting the focus towards more equitable distribution of wealth in the society, having prosperity for all in place of prosperity for only a fortunate few, encouragement of labour-intensive sectors that will create more jobs, more social welfare and protection measures, rationalization and streamlining of various of pension schemes, extending pension benefits to the deprived sections,  investing in agriculture, bringing more discipline in the financial sector, mercilessly dealing with cornering of wealth through illegal and unlawful means, incentivising honest sections of tax payers etc.