Census team continues to miss me. I still don't get reckoned amongst Indian Population. Methinks, I am not such an exception. My breed must be many. This country's population is - taking a random guess - 10 per Cent more than what we are shown.
We will have approx 30 crore people coming up to employable age in say about 20 years. That is about the population of the United States. If someone thinks 8 per cent growth is great for a country of this size then he/she must be on dope. We need 20 per cent growth to fuel these numbers. And FORVER. In this context, and when things seem to be limping back to at least a close to 8 per cent growth, a few know-alls with their priorities garbled come with this supposed demonetisation decision ( there was no demonetisation as larger denominations were introduced as well). While future remains unknowable, science, experience and wisdom help us manage future better, vanity blinds us into ruining it.
Cash is what runs this economy. While we want an efficient system the fact that there are a good 20 per cent people without bank accounts makes cash a necessity than an option. People on daily wages operate just above the poverty line border. Events - mainly health reasons - push some back to below poverty line. This current episode of madness which took away many days of wages for such people has pushed many to below poverty line. For them corruption was never an issue. Subsistence was. Providing them their right to livelihood should have been a priority over tacking corruption. We don't have to run schemes sequentially. We can run schemes parallely provided one complements other. Here carpet bombing has been attempted for what should have been a laser focussed attack on black money creators and hoarders. In fact, large governments are the source of corruption. If one has to stop the flow of black money then government has to cut itself to size. It won't take ere long for ingenious black marketers to replace old stock with new currency.
Every decision is a trade off. We take decisions so long as merits overshadow demerits. Here is a decision where that logic has been throw to wind. Now rhetoric is being used to defend the indefensible.
We will have approx 30 crore people coming up to employable age in say about 20 years. That is about the population of the United States. If someone thinks 8 per cent growth is great for a country of this size then he/she must be on dope. We need 20 per cent growth to fuel these numbers. And FORVER. In this context, and when things seem to be limping back to at least a close to 8 per cent growth, a few know-alls with their priorities garbled come with this supposed demonetisation decision ( there was no demonetisation as larger denominations were introduced as well). While future remains unknowable, science, experience and wisdom help us manage future better, vanity blinds us into ruining it.
Cash is what runs this economy. While we want an efficient system the fact that there are a good 20 per cent people without bank accounts makes cash a necessity than an option. People on daily wages operate just above the poverty line border. Events - mainly health reasons - push some back to below poverty line. This current episode of madness which took away many days of wages for such people has pushed many to below poverty line. For them corruption was never an issue. Subsistence was. Providing them their right to livelihood should have been a priority over tacking corruption. We don't have to run schemes sequentially. We can run schemes parallely provided one complements other. Here carpet bombing has been attempted for what should have been a laser focussed attack on black money creators and hoarders. In fact, large governments are the source of corruption. If one has to stop the flow of black money then government has to cut itself to size. It won't take ere long for ingenious black marketers to replace old stock with new currency.
Every decision is a trade off. We take decisions so long as merits overshadow demerits. Here is a decision where that logic has been throw to wind. Now rhetoric is being used to defend the indefensible.
This post first appeared on Observations At ISB And On Life | Itheabsolute, please read the originial post: here
