A few viksits that are before NaMo 3.0?

Ramesh Babu K

During every polls, in particular General Elections public concern was always with livelihood issues. This is not a blunt staatement. Recently on a TV debate on opinion poll outcomes this was discussed in detail. Major issues like Secularism Vs Communalism, Law & Order Problem, Defence issues, Corruption face lack of importance as against Inflation, Unemployment, Lack of income and poverty. Why people’s thinking surrounding this very survival than other issues which catch first page coverage in print media and top news in electronic channels as well as digital portals? Because India still after 75 years of independence could not feed and provide enough jobs to its toiling masses and have approximately 25% of it’s population under poverty.

What has to be done and what was being done by the Narendra Modi government in the past decade? The answer is there are good attempts with moderate success and still many of the goals are to see the light. We have state governments who are always think in terms of their own ends, not beyond political gains, since they are run by state parties. Chances for meeting common benefits by both of them is a rare event. Hence, it is not possible to execute any ideas that are beneficial to entire population. In this background what Narendra Modi government tried in the past has some importance.

Every common man has one thing in mind is how to run the household within the income of the entire members of the HH earn during a particular period of time, say every month. India has a large middle class and lower middle class population who are daily wage earners, salaried and other means of income earners. Today both urban and rural India has a such population uncertain with income and employment. Therefore, the matter is curious to know how the cost of living or hike in the same would impact the mass under both short and long term. However, the Namo government has made few attempts to address the issue but with limited success. And they have to go long way to achieve the goal of moderate cost of living in India.

Considering the issue there are seven major expenditure items that a typical Indian middle class Household has to care about. Food, Shelter, Clothing, Medical, Education, Transportation and Communication (along with Entertainment) are the seven overheads that make the life ease of living.

Food

In India official statistics say that nearly 140-60 million hectares are under cultivation. Feeding the population 140 billion+ as a whole, they have to bear the pressure of feeding the hunger. During the Covid-19 the central government brought three farm laws to regulate the anatomy of food industry. By doing so it can leverage the food inflation there by sustain the affordability on food by every HH of the country. The farm laws may be new to the current times but were implemented with different approach by the erstwhile Janata Party government under the Premiership of Morarji Desai. They made the country a single agricultural market, resulting free moverment of food grains which lead to Janata meals revolution. However, farm laws were later repelled and yet to see a turnback.

Shelter

PM Aawas Yojana designed to built millions of houses across the country to facilitiate a dignified housing for the disadvantaged. But it has inherent problems and land pooling like done in Gujarat has not been attempted by the state governments to build mass multistoried houses to be occupied. Therefore providng shelter have met half-success.

Clothing

Handlooms industries unlike the machinery lead textile units face tough times and the cost per cloth unavoidably increasing. The market is complex as spending is increasing but with less consumption. To be short the clothing has become Urban conscious rather than a traditional way.

Education

Though New Education policy is being promoted many states like Tamil Nadu has half-hearted approach towards the change. Overall people are not aware of the changes being made in state run school syllabus. The private English medium schools may benefit in the short run it seems and expenditure for education has become unaffordable to the disadvantaged sections. So the chaos prevails.

Health

Ayushman scheme has made a inroad and seems to be a success as a whole. However, still there are shortcomings. State health facilities are still in poor condition and people are forced to spend out of pocket.

Transportation

Following the Delhi Aap governments free ride for women passengers caught attention many state parties are copying the idea but risking with long term financial crisis. It may hinder further expansion and providing amenities to the mass, cautions experts. Namo government has some idea in cutting the cost of fuel with few experimental projects like methanol, ethanol and sewage bio-crude production. Minister Niting Gadkari openly states to change the import fossil fuel bill through encouraging desi-fuels. So far state governments are less interested towards the idea.

Communication

India is burdened with its communication revolution? Though mobile and internet are cheaper compared to across the world we yet to provide affordable and effective communication facilites. At the instant of the revolution then A B Vajpayee government chose CDMA technology against GSM which was considered costlier. After almost 25 years government is yet to clear the overload of expense with cheaper and reliable mobile services. The vast rural mass need better access than the urban dwellers. Encouraging the CDMA technology may provide a solution and the state corporation BSNL shall get a life through providing the service than competing with private GSM players. Namo 3.0 may consider the idea as we hope!

So the summary is that there should be a cohesive approach by both central and state to bring down the cost of living of a billion plus population. Just bringing BRICS currency would not be wiser as our own Rupee is losing its value as cost of living or Inflation is an ever ending turmoil. Since India is the only country which can make the BRICS currency stable and acceptable, it is inevitable for the Namo 3.0 to look into the affair more seriously.