Growth amidst adverse global economic slowdown

Statistically, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely may be correct that the country has been able to grow despite global economic headwinds not being supportive, but the impact of economic growth is altogether different on the ground. Inflation rate may have fallen on paper; the price of essential commodities is rising without any check. The price of all food items is also rising. The pulse is the only food item from which the poor are getting protein but it is being sold at more than Rs. 150 a kilo. How can the poor people afford to purchase pulse? There has been no creation of jobs. There prevails an atmosphere of disillusionment among the youth because of growing unemployment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the youth as BJP PM candidate during the last Lok Sabha elections' campaign that with his coming to power, he would create two crore jobs. But the situation is just opposite to what he claimed at that time. Rather job rate is falling since Narendra Modi-led NDA govt came to power. Farmer suicide is rising day by day. All its claim of economic growth is only on the paper. Export has also fallen down. Merely by opening Bank accounts people can not fill their stomach. The ground reality is that the rising prices are breaking the back of the poor. Modi govt. should have created opportunities of earning for the poor. When there would be flow of money, the poor could have opened bank accounts under Dhan Jan Yojna to deposit it. Empty bank account has no meaning. Undoubtedly, govt. is beating drums about their achievement of economic high growth rate despite global economic slump. This economic growth has no meaning for the poor. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The gulf between the poor and the rich is getting deeper and deeper, which is also perceptible. The common people have got no relief in the last two years of Modi govt. It has not yet come to people’s high expectation. People had voted overwhelmingly for Modi govt. only in the hope that it would provide relief and remove an atmosphere of disillusionment that had set everywhere in the last phase of the regime of the previous UPA govt. This is for the first time in the last 25 years that a single political party (BJP) got a two-third majority in the Lok Sabha. Unless and until Modi-led NDA govt. translates its claim of economic growth into reality on the ground, the people can not believe its claim. The burning problem among the youth is unemployment. Almost two years of Modi govt. have elapsed. And if it continued to make tall claims on paper and speech in public only, it is bound to face the same fate in the elections as the previous UPA govt. faced. We all know that ours is a resilient economy at a time when the global economy is not doing so well. Foreign investors find India a good investment destination. But they would invest in India only when the govt. would do away with bureaucratic hurdles and the license raj in letter and spirit. It is true that India is able to grow at 7 to 7.5 % at a time of global economic turbulence. But where is the result. The sharp fall in crude oil price has also contributed to the govt. claim of economic growth but benefits have not filtered down to the people of the lowest strata of society.