oppn parties PM at Davos: Much to Do Before Red Carpet

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC said that an accused in a NDPS case is not entitled to default bail if a charge sheet, even without the chemical report, is filed within time
  • 21 killed in a hooch tragedy in Amritsar. Police arrested 10 persons
  • Incoming CJI Justice B R Gavai said that he will always strive for social and political justice
  • Although US Prez Donald trump once again claimed his administration brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, India clearly refuted the claim and said it was workd out by the DGMO
  • Centre tells the Supreme Court that since women are not in combat roles, there has to be a separate selection board for them
  • India briefs 70 nations on Operation Sindoor
  • PM Modi asks Pakistan to vacate illegally-occupied portions of Kashmir
  • PM Modi tells Pakistan that it faces annihilation if it does not stop supporting terror
  • PM Modi visits Adampur IAF base, poses before the S-400 surface-to-air defence system to destrot Pakistan's claim that it had bombed the base and destroyed the defence system
  • 5 US companies make offers to GAIL for stake in LNG projects
  • Retail inflation dipped to 3.2% in April, the lowest since July 2019
  • Stocks tumble on Tuesday: After the all-time single-day gain on Monday, stocks lost heavily on Tuesday - Sensex went down by 1281 points to 81148 and Nifty lost 346 points to 24578
  • Indian tour to England: A new look Indian team with a new skipper will be announced when the selectors meet later this week in view of the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin
  • IPL: Most overseas players to return and teams likely to be full strength
  • Sharad Pawar calls for an all-party meet to discuss Operation Sindoor, says such matter cannot be publicly discussed in Parliament as the Congress had earlier demanded
PM Modi warns Pakistan - stop supporting terror or face annihilation /////// Also asks Pakistan to vacate illegally-occupied portion of Kashmir
oppn parties
PM at Davos: Much to Do Before Red Carpet

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2018-01-25 19:20:04

By putting protectionism right up there with climate change and terror as the three biggest challenges before the world, Prime Minister Modi chose to hit the Western world where it hurts the most. For, the erstwhile champions of globalization, US and its satellite countries, are now putting up trade barriers. When it suited them, they cried hoarse about free movement of goods, services and ideas across national boundaries. They used the WTO to exert pressure on emerging economies to open up their markets. But faced with rising unemployment, Donald Trump now talks of “America First”.

It fits in Modi’s grand vision to have a bigger scale of globalization. Given India’s abundant resources and cheap labour (compared to China where rising aspirations have made labour wages uncompetitive), Modi has been pitching for Make in India. He knows that instead of Indians importing foreign goods for local consumption, it is better to have those goods made in India. It will bring in investments that will create lasting assets, it will generate employment opportunities and it will generate revenues in local taxes.

But there are many internal barriers and issues that, if not addressed properly and with great speed, will derail Modi’s grand vision. Despite tinkering with this or that law, India is still way behind in ease of doing business. The red carpet is nowhere to be seen. Instead there is still red tape all over. Then, the atmosphere of intolerance created by the Hindu right wing is something as bad as terrorism. The infrastructure boom announced three years ago has not taken off. It takes more than just cheap labour and a huge consumer base to attract investment. The sooner the prime minister realizes this the better.