Home » Languages » English (Sr. Secondary) » Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Equity is Impossible without Adequate Growth” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Equity is Impossible without Adequate Growth” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Equity is Impossible without Adequate Growth

All the technological advancements aim to make an even more significant contribution to the development of our economy in the years to come. Asia is now emerging as the manufacturing workshop of the world. In view of the capacities we have developed in the field of science and technology, India can legitimately aspire to be a major player in this regard. However, this requires sensible economic policies which place premium on efficiency, promote extensive application of science and technology to improve the efficiency of our production processes and the quality of our products and help to make India an internationally competitive economy.

The basic objectives of India’s economic policy since Independence have been removal of poverty and unemployment through rapid economic and social development with maximum possible emphasis on self-reliance. All the Five-Year Plans have recognised that removal of mass poverty and unemployment in a reasonable time period would require a minimum annual growth rate of national income by five to six per cent.

Self-reliance in an increasingly inter-dependent world does not mean an insulated economy. Self-reliance means accepting the challenge of making Indian economy competitive and the Indian rupee convertible in international market. Self-reliance means a self-confident economy willing and able to compete with the rest of the world. There are very few instances in the world where import needs have not increased in the wake of successful development. Thus, a self-reliant economy is one whose export growth is high enough to sustain the imports required for accelerated growth. The achievement of self-reliance is therefore crucially dependent on our ability to increase our exports and to encourage import substitution in areas and commodities in which India had a long-term comparative advantage.

Our ability to raise living standards of our people and to emerge as an internationally competitive economy is crucially dependent on rapid growth of our productivity and absorption of new technologies We have to adopt a mission-like approach to achieve concrete results in areas of critical national importance. Even when we import technology, a lot of work is required to absorb, assimilate and adapt it to Indian conditions. For Indians to increase her share of exports in the world market, it must improve the quality of its products and reduce cost. This requires close coordination between industry and technical institutes. To encourage this interaction, government has provided tax concessions on expenditure incurred on research and development. A certain amount of tension is necessary for the growth of creativity. A competitive economy will, therefore, provide the needed stimulus in this regard.

Public sector has played an important part in India’s development and will continue to have a vital role in India’s economy. However, public sector investment can be an engine of growth only if the public sector is run efficiently and generate adequate internal resources for its future expansion. It is also necessary that these resources are generated in a competitive environment and do not represent exploitation of monopoly. Loss making public sector enterprises involving large scare budgetary subsidies contribute neither to growth nor to equity. Our general attitude towards the public sector is to give full scope for expansion to units which are efficient and viable. We are also making serious efforts to rehabilitate those sick units which are potentially viable.

We recognise that the public sector must be given adequate managerial autonomy and flexibility to ensure efficient operation. Admittedly, this is an area where the pace of reform needs to be greatly accelerated. In the meanwhile, government has been selling a part of its equity in selected public enterprises to workers and the public at large. However, the scale of equity will not exceed 49 per cent so that the public sector character of these enterprises will not be disturbed. The sale of equity in selected public sector undertakings has not only helped in reconciling the objectives of fiscal control and greater social expenditures, but is also helping public sector enterprises to be more sensitive to market signals, efficiency and profitability. This by no means can be called an anti-public sector policy.

The bulk of resources for India’s development has always been mobilised domestically. This continues to be the position even today. We have to increase our domestic savings. There clearly are no imported solutions to the development of an economy of India’s size and complexity. However, at the margin foreign investment can play an important role in augmenting investible resources and upgrading our technological and managerial capabilities. This is all the more essential because the climate for concessional assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors, on which we have relied heavily in the past, is now distinctly unfavourable.

 Several countries of East and South-east Asia have greatly improved their growth prospects by encouraging inflows of foreign investment. Before 1991, foreign equity participation approvals were given on a case-by-case basis. This caused lot of uncertainty and delays which hampered the flow of foreign investment. The new policy has sought to debureaucratise the process of approval of foreign investment proposals and reduce the scope of uncertainty and delays. It may be noted that private investment in public utilities-such as Power and Telecom. raises more complex issues than in manufacturing, and has therefore been characterised by teething problems.

Furthermore, there has to be an all-around recognition that private investment in the power sector is not a viable action if we are unable to fix power tariffs which cover full costs of production. However, it will be a sad day if compulsions of domestic politics create an environment whereby India is deprived of its major advantage, as a destination for foreign investment. as being a country governed by the rule of law, and taking pride in honouring its contractual obligations.

Acceleration of pace of modernisation requires an efficient financial system capable of mobilising savings and deploying them into production channels. Our financial system must be able to meet the demands of an economy that seeks to become more competitive globally. This requires reforms of the financial sector including the capital markets. There is an urgent need to improve the quality of services provided by our banks to depositors and borrowers and to strengthen the investor protection in the capital market. Rigidities in public sector policy and procedures and labor laws have, however, slowed the pace at -which public service can be improved.

The success of our development strategy depends vitally on the progress we make in agriculture. The remarkable progress that is being made in food crops, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, aquaculture and poultry is primarily due to the efforts put in by our scientists, and the enterprise of our farmers. We are all proud of them. Indian agriculture has now to be further modernised to meet the increasing domestic and foreign demand for our products. Special efforts have to be made to improve the productivity of small and marginal farmers and the development of dry land agriculture. The chronic shortages of pulses and vegetable oils should be treated as a major challenge facing our agricultural scientists. The biotechnology revolution should help us to bend considerably the constraint set by the scarcity of land for increasing production. Agro-processing activities including productive use of agricultural wastes and residues also deserve greater attention of the scientific community. Developing new renewable sources of energy for decentralised development is another area of priority. Rural sanitation, housing and public health engineering are also relatively neglected areas. Another area which requires the urgent attention of our scientists and technologists is environmental deterioration. Land and water degradation are threatening the livelihood of millions of our people.

It is believed that the new economic policies have created a much more favourable policy environment for stimulating growth and employment opportunities. Further, the rapid, broad-based and sufficiently labour intensive industrialisation is absolutely essential to solve the problems of chronic poverty and unemployment.

As Indian industry has come of age, we can, and we must, progressively reduce the level of protection so that our industry has a sufficient incentive to reduce costs and improve quality of its products Those who believe that we can close our markets and yet expect other countries to keep their markets open for Indian exports are highly mistaken.

In all countries, public policies are influenced both by rational as well as irrational considerations. Different interest groups compete with one another to influence the formulation of these policies. It is the duty of intellectuals to create an environment where the role of irrationality is minimized so that the country’s economy can be steered along the right lines.

India is already on the threshold of new opportunities provided we have the wisdom to seize them. Momentous developments are taking place in East and South-east Asia. China in the last decade has managed to grow at annual rates in excess of 10 per cent. Foreign trade and foreign investment have played a major role in the rapid transformation of China’s economy. If India’s policymakers do not take adequate note of these developments and remain mired in thought process unrelated to the needs of the contemporary Indian economy. India is bound to be further marginalized in evolving global economy. After all, the world is not going to stop moving simply because we wish to get off the train.

About

The main objective of this website is to provide quality study material to all students (from 1st to 12th class of any board) irrespective of their background as our motto is “Education for Everyone”. It is also a very good platform for teachers who want to share their valuable knowledge.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *