Business & Economy
Amartya, Meghnad clash over
idea of Indian nation-state
What is India News Service,
Tuesday, 4 January 2005, 2000 hrs IST
Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen and Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics,
on Monday disagreed on whether India was a conglomerate of different nationalities, with the former arguing that the concept of an Indian nation state existed since the ancient times.
Lord Desai traced the fragmentation of Indian politics to historically low rates of economic growth. “Because the rate of growth was low in the first 30 years since Independence and the planning strategy capital intensive, poverty did not go down and employment did not grow”, he said while speaking at the national seminar on ‘Development and Nationhood: An Indian Perspective’, organised by Ficci and Sri Ram Centre for Industrial Research (SRC) here.
As literacy levels continued to stagnate and health care and social development programmes received lip service, the marginalised sections of society threw up a new breed of leaders whose sole purpose was to capture the State.
“This rapacious class gave back to its cluster of vote banks a share of the State spoils, ensuring in the process, the forceful emergence of a third force in Indian politics”, Lord Desai
argued.
Describing the reassertion of regional parties as the direct outcome of social and spatial disparities, Lord Desai said this sowed the seeds of India becoming a multi-national polity. The primary loyalty of leaders of these political parties lay with regional aspirations, the notion being that prosperity in States and regions would lead to national prosperity, he added.
Govt looks for clean-fuel breather:
The petroleum ministry is likely to approach the Supreme Court to extend the April 1 deadline to introduce the next grade of cleaner vehicular fuels in the country.
Economy must grow at 10 pc, says Kalam:
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today said it was necessary for the Indian economy to grow at the rate of 10 per cent on a sustained basis for over a decade for the uplift of 260 million people living below the poverty line.
Transport
Congress seeks simplified tax regime: The All India Motor Transport Congress today called for simplification of tax regime besides changes in the legal framework governing the road transport sector.
Despite tsunami, growth to be 6.5 pc:
The World Bank said the Indian economy was expected to clock a growth rate of 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal, despite the devastation caused by the tsunami disaster. “Our estimate is 6.5 per cent growth for this fiscal. We don’t yet know the economic impact of tsunami.
A-I floats bids for 4 leased freighters:
In the wake of its board decision recently to take freighters on lease for separate cargo operations, Air-India (A-I) has issued tenders to induct four freighter aircraft on lease by March to start operations from April.
Pay order for Reliance Info:
The Supreme Court today rejected Reliance’s plea that it did not have money to pay BSNL and could only give a bank guarantee.
Polymer prices cut:
Reliance Industries Ltd today slashed prices of fibre intermediates, polymers and polyester across the
board.
Use depository network to expand reach of MFs:
Citing limited infrastructure for mutual funds, a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) panel has recommended the use of network of depositories and distributors, including investment financial
advisors.
Sensex, Nifty rewrite history in New Year:
The stock markets greeted the year 2005 with a big bang today with the key indices - the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) Sensex and National Stock Exchange (NSE)’s Nifty - scaling new life-time highs after the broad-based market rallied on the first trading session of the New Yea
Satyam donates Rs 2.5 cr:
Satyam Computer Services Limited and its employees have jointly contributed Rs 2.5 crore towards relief work being undertaken by the government to rehabilitate those affected by the recent tsunami tragedy.
Essar Steel hikes prices of HR coils by Rs 500 per tonne:
Faced with rising input costs, domestic steel major Essar Steel on Monday hiked prices of hot rolled (HR) coils by an average of Rs 500 per
tonne.
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