{"id":259267,"date":"2023-09-08T21:03:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=259267"},"modified":"2023-09-08T21:03:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T15:33:10","slug":"do-subsidies-and-safety-nets-take-focus-away-from-generating-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/do-subsidies-and-safety-nets-take-focus-away-from-generating-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Do subsidies and safety nets take focus away from generating jobs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cDo subsidies and safety nets take focus away from generating jobs?\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>\u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on <strong>8th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Inclusive growth<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; With five States going to the polls at the end of the year, political parties have been announcing several promises, largely to address concerns of price rise of essentials.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the effectiveness of electoral?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It appears to be a <strong>mixed scenario.<\/strong> In Chhattisgarh, certain promises like the Old Pension Scheme cater to a <strong>small segment of the population <\/strong>and may not be advisable. Reintroducing the OPS would <strong>worsen inequality. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Madhya Pradesh, <strong>nearly 13% of the overall expenses<\/strong> go towards OPS, but it <strong>benefits less than 2% of people<\/strong> who were in government jobs. So, it essentially <strong>transfers wealth <\/strong>from the poor to the affluent.<\/p>\n<p>However, others, like reducing the cost of gas cylinders, appear to be<strong> reasonable. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A recent <strong>&#8216;Data Point&#8217; in The Hindu<\/strong> revealed that 25% of those who benefited from the Ujjwala Scheme, either didn&#8217;t request a refill or only requested one.<\/p>\n<p>This is significant in the context of providing \u20b9<strong>1,500 per month to women<\/strong>. There is a need to take into account <strong>specific target groups<\/strong> when discussing this <strong>populism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why do political parties make election promises?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s crucial to consider the <strong>broader context of our political economy and society<\/strong>. The economic experts don&#8217;t have a <strong>definitive solution for unemployment. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, in the absence of a definitive solution, <strong>temporary measures<\/strong> are used. Electoral promises can be likened to <strong>temporary measures<\/strong>. They become necessary when we lack <strong>more fundamental solutions<\/strong> to address the underlying issue.<\/p>\n<p>Field of economics has fallen short in <strong>serving societies<\/strong> on a larger scale. This problem isn&#8217;t unique to India.<strong> Jobless growth <\/strong>is a widespread issue in nearly every country today.<\/p>\n<p>The<strong> focus on productivity, <\/strong>especially since the rise of the <strong>neoliberal consensus,<\/strong> has primarily benefited a <strong>small segment of the population. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There exists a <strong>portion of the population<\/strong> that doesn&#8217;t benefit from growth. It necessitated the implementation of <strong>populist measures<\/strong> to include them. Yet, some measures may be driven by <strong>political considerations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Should GDP growth be the only focus area for economists?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>GDP growth<\/strong> remains important. If we look at India&#8217;s<strong> growth trajectory<\/strong> over the years, it&#8217;s clear that during periods of high GDP growth, <strong>poverty <\/strong>has reduced.<\/p>\n<p>GDP growth had a <strong>positive impact <\/strong>in the initial 10-12 years <strong>after liberalisation<\/strong>. It has ceased to be <strong>effective<\/strong> since then.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the way forward for inclusive growth?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Traditional manufacturing sectors<\/strong> like car production, steel manufacturing, and semiconductor chip production, which used to be associated with <strong>job creation<\/strong>, no longer generate substantial <strong>employment<\/strong>. The reason is <strong>automation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is a need to invest in<strong> mining for the energy transition<\/strong>. India has barely tapped into its <strong>extensive mineral resources<\/strong>. Mining can<strong> generate local jobs<\/strong>, including opportunities for <strong>historically marginalised castes. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Developing economies<\/strong> are undergoing <strong>two important transitions<\/strong> that need to be considered. One is a <strong>structural transition <\/strong>that often keeps them stuck in the <strong>middle-income category<\/strong> due to difficulties in <strong>pushing industrialization. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The second is a<strong> significant energy transitio<\/strong>n with substantial implications for employment.<\/p>\n<p>There is a need to ensure the <strong>stability of prices<\/strong> for <strong>agricultural products<\/strong>. India has witnessed recent increases in the prices of tomatoes, yet farmers lack a <strong>guarantee of a consistent minimum price. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Government should seriously consider <strong>technological interventions<\/strong> aimed at<strong> transforming agricultural output into higher-value products<\/strong>. This represents a <strong>long-term solution<\/strong> to the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cDo subsidies and safety nets take focus away from generating jobs?\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 8th September 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Inclusive growth News&#8211; With five States going to the polls at the end of the year, political parties have been announcing several promises, largely to address&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/do-subsidies-and-safety-nets-take-focus-away-from-generating-jobs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Do subsidies and safety nets take focus away from generating jobs?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,8184,10498],"class_list":["post-259267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-economy","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}