Governance and Indian Nationalism (GAIN)

In May 2020, India and China faced the worst ever military face-off at Galwan Valley, Hot springs, Gogra and Pangong  region in Ladakh. With the loss of 20 Indian soldiers and 43 Chinese soldiers, the Galwan valley clash was the bloodiest of all.  Growing tensions between India and China not only shook the geo-political relations across the world but it also led to the build up of hostile domestic sentiment against China's arrogance. As a result, calls for #BoycottChina grew louder and louder with each passing day.      Rising anti-China public sentiment compelled government to take some policy level measures such as stricter FDI norms for countries sharing the border with India. While this may restrict Chinese investments to certain extent, it isn't enough to neutralize the influence of China in Indian market. Recently, People's Bank of China raised its stakes in HDFC bank to more than 1% and later also invested in ICICI Bank through the FPI route. Although the...

BJP leader and eminent economist, Dr Subramanian Swamy, invited as a Chief Speaker at a recent webinar of TiE on "Making India Succeed", spoke at length on India's existing challenges and viable solutions to address these challenges. However, Dr Swamy categorically focused on three major areas, which will help to improve India's world status and restore the country's past glory.  These are explained below: Improve the state of Economy Abolish income tax to boost consumption and savings among households. Bring down interest rates on business loans up to the level of 6% p.a for MSMEs. Increase interest rate on FDs to 9% per annum to facilitate higher savings from households.  Build roads to connect all villages with nearby towns. This will improve connectivity, reduce unemployment, increase purchasing power and spur demand. Social Revolution Indians must start believing in themselves as belonging to the same ancestral tree and identify themselves as prod...

Indian MSME sector accounts for 30% of India's GDP and 40% of India's exports. It is a major source of employment in the informal economy of the country. MSME sector was struggling with multiple challenges before Covid-19 crisis, however, the current pandemic only amplified the issues in this sector.  Current state of MSME sector is primarily due to flawed monetary and fiscal policies of the past and present governments. It all started with import of so-called foreign educated Indian origin economists like Raghuram Rajan, who mindlessly applied western economic theories in Indian context.  During his tenure as RBI governor, Rajan had adopted self-defeating monetary measures that triggered stress in the MSME sector. For example, increasing interest rates for business loans while reducing the interest rates on saving schemes like Fixed deposits. This single step adversely impacted the earning capacity of small income households which form the core of MSME sector.  ...

Even after 70 years of independence, the GHOST of British legacy continues to haunt our country in the form of policies that subdue aspirations of native Indians. The administrative structure and prevailing governance system reflects the same mindset as that of British, where government is the ruling class and citizens are mere subjects of the ruling class. What else explains the brazen hike in petrol and diesel prices by the government on account of increased taxes??   Since Modi's rise to power in 2014, taxes on diesel prices have increased five times whereas those on petrol have doubled. Taxes on these fuels now comprise nearly 66.67% of retail prices at petrol pumps.  In May 2020, when global crude oil prices had reached record lows, the government increased excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹10 per litre and ₹13 per litre respectively. Since additional burden of excise duty was absorbed by oil marketing companies, retail oil prices didn't witness any in...

Modi government is nearing a cusp - a new phase, where it will emerge as another face of Congress. It's current position on different policy issues is a grim reminder of the Congress legacy that ruined our country for decades. At this rate, the ruling party risks losing its core character.  BJP's unfriendly economic policies, copied from Congress era, have brought unimaginable misery to common citizens. Although right-wing parties are supposed to be champions of 'Free-markets' , BJP adopted the model of 'Gandhian Socialism' since it's inception. The current economic policies seem to be inspired by this model, which glorifies the virtues of a socialist state. However, it brings unimaginable suffering to the citizens of the country. Whether demonetization or GST, the government explored options that expanded harassment of general public and businesses. In the modern era, GST emerged as a prominent driver of tax terrorism and caused irreparable damage to existi...

While BJP has just recently come to power on the back of popular mandate, it doesn't have much time to rest on its laurels. This is predominantly due to the extent of damage inflicted by the anti-national UPA regime over the last 10 years. For example, India faces multiple challenges on different fronts such as Economy, Defense & Security and Home & Foreign affairs.  In case of Defense, the past UPA government has considerably weakened the strength of armed forces primarily on account of lack of modernization and limited stockpile of weapons. Moreover, Congress unleashed more corruption within Army ranks which is evident by the extent of defense scams and penetration of ISI controlled drug mafias. This has led to the creation of a strong defense lobby that operates an anti-India agenda.  The recent controversy over the affidavit submitted by BJP government has not done any good either to the reputation of Government or its own MoS Gen VK Singh. While Congress dr...

"The most important thing to do today is to generate enthusiasm. No economy can improve if people feel defeated and become risk-averse. Therefore, we have to bring the positive feeling back by implementing measures that would revive the outlook. The other step that should be taken is increase the savings rate, help people save more, as this would translate into more investment which in turn would boost growth." -- Dr. Subramanian Swamy  Nearly 35-40 million Indians pay taxes annually; however, only 1% of the total tax payers account for a major chunk of tax collections. For the remaining tax payers, filing returns is a complex process involving extensive paperwork.  While skeptics highlight an annual loss of INR 2.47 lakh crores of revenues; they tend to overlook the inherent benefits (monetary as well as non-monetary) that will accrue with such a system. Moreover, the system of zero taxation is also working effectively in nearly 15 other countries around the worl...