December 2013

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 dec 2013

Urbanization is a reality and a challenge that India continues to face and manage. According to recent studies 350 million Indians are expected to migrate to urban areas by 2030 and this number may increase to 700 million by 2050. In the article Amitabh Kant (CEO & MD of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation) shares his views and insights to effectively and efficiently manage the exodus of rural population towards cities and inturn make it a growth and development platform for the better future of India. He mentions examples from China that managed similar urbanization process with sucessful results and built new cities as part of industrialization and modernization policy. According to him agriculture can only sustain a growth rate of 3% while Indian economy requires 9-10% growth to uplift vast segments of its population out of poverty. He says that cities are centers of growth, innovation & creativity and India has to take active steps to upgrade infrastructure of current cities and evolve a framework to build and develop new cities with focus on sustainable urbanization. Read on...

Mail Online: The future of India's growth process lies in its cities
Author: Amitabh Kant

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 dec 2013

Consumer spending is an important indicator to gauge the market conditions and economic activity. It is proportional to the disposable income of consumers. Current state of Indian economy shows less consumer confidence resulting in sluggish consumption activity. Article provides detailed analysis of the Indian consumer and how the various segments of the consumers and their spending patterns will affect the economy in near and distant future. The top 20% of Indian households by income, account for 40-50% of total household consumption and 40-60% of household income. This segment (50 million households, 45% of urban India & 10% of rural and per capita GDP of US$ 4000) is divided equally between urban and rural households, with 1/3rd of rural and half of urban having a salaried primary wage earner with stable and predictable income. This 'Top 20' segment holds the key to the Indian consumption scenario in 2014. Moreover marketers also have to play their role confidently in attracting investments from this group. The other two segments, 'The Next 40' (40% with per capita GDP of almost US$ 1000, account for 40% of consumption expenditure and are 2/3rd rural & 1/3rd urban) and 'The Bottom 40' (1/3rd urban poor and 2/3rd rural), have challenging prospects and less potential to make significant impact on improving the consumption activity. 'The Next 40' due to budgetary constraints and 'The Bottom 40' due to their dependence on welfare schemes and insignificant disposable income. Read on...

Live Mint: The future of Indian consumer markets
Author: Rama Bijapurkar

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 dec 2013

Local and global economists have diverse views and approaches to assess and predict India's economic future. Particularly since the elections for the next parliament are due in 2014 the debate has got further exacerbated on which model will evolve after the formation of the new government. Jagdish Bhagwati and Amartya Sen debate has currently been in the news with Professor Sen focusing on investments in social infrastructure and inclusive development while growth will follow and on the other hand Professor Bhagwati advocating growth as the primary and main catalyst for development and long term sustainability of the economy. In this interview Professor Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University, and co-author of the book 'India's Tryst with Destiny' with Jagdish Bhagwati, explains his views on various aspects of Indian economy, political and economic scenarios and future prospects for India. He suggests three things that the government can do to steer the economy in the right direction - (1) Speedy clearance of projects to continue economic recovery (2) Build infrastructure at faster pace (3) Reforms need to happen with long term perspective and would include land and labor market reforms and replacement of a large number of welfare programs. He also suggests further opening of FDI and scaling back public distribution system. He mentions that Food Security Bill will not have any impact to boost cereal consumption and India will surpass China in terms of growth rate. Read on...

The Wall Street Journal: Arvind Panagariya on Fixing India's Economy
Author: Sriram Balasubramanian

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 dec 2013

Finance Minister of India, Mr. P. Chidambaram, provides analysis of the past 33 years of economic reforms and performance of the Indian economy during this period. He also shares his perspective on how the future of India's economy will shape itself and what would be the critical and game changing ideas and steps that should be taken to achieve inclusive and balanced growth. According to him in the past the game changers of the Indian economy were - Making the rupee convertible on the current account (1991); Slashing of tax rates (1997); Value added tax (VAT) that replaced sales tax (2005). While in the future the game changers would be - Direct tax code; Goods and Services Tax (GST); Insurance and pension reforms; Uniform financial code recommended by the commission for financial sector legislative reforms; Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. He also suggests that India has to find the right balance between the three main institutions of democracy - Executive; Legislature or Parliament; Judiciary - for better governance. He mentions that in recent times the balance has swung away from the executive and also from legislature and more power seems to have gone towards judiciary that might have altered the balance that is required for governance and sustained long term growth. Read on...

The Economic Times: Future of India depends on inclusive growth and reforms driven by game changing ideas, institutions
Author: P. Chidambaram

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 dec 2013

Historical and traditional art forms of cultures and communities play a very important role in the ever evolving world of fashion design. In his latest book 'Traditional Motifs of Indian Textiles', Prof. Swagat Kumar Rout Ray of ATDC (Apparel Training & Design Centre, Chindwara), considers fashion as timeless and says that old forms of Indian textiles like Patola, Ikat, Kalamkari, Madhubani and Bandhani are often adopted to suit the current trends in fashion. Moreover according to him, designs from stone-works, frescoes, carpets, ceramics, jewellery and folk paintings are also liberally used in modern Indian textiles. Read on...

Jagran Post: New designs come from traditional forms, says book on fashion
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 dec 2013

According to Dr. Madhav Deo, member of Academic Council of MCI (Medical Council of India), the estimated 90% of healthcare providers in rural India aren't even graduates. While mentioning the government's recent scheme to create mid-level rural healthcare professionals by providing a Bachelor of Science in Community Health, he also said that it will not completely solve the rural healthcare challenges and there has to be a nationwide debate regarding the condition of rural healthcare and solutions have to be evolved. India's healthcare direction seems to be similar to what US has gone through in 20th century, particularly regarding the state of healthcare education. This bleak period in US medical education history is often referred to as Pre-Flexner Era. Abraham Flexner, an educator, submitted a report regarding the condition of medical education in 1908, and provided the recommendations that became the blueprint defining the future of healthcare in US. It considered Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as the benchmark and model for medical schools in US and helped standardize medical education all across the country. India may not have to fully copy and adopt this model but it has to create its own ideal medical school considering local realities (AIIMS can be a model to follow) and standardize medical education in the country with strict norms and conditions keeping in mind the numerous challenges and issues that medical education and healthcare services delivery are currently facing in the country. Read on...

India.com: Is the government pushing medical education into the dark ages?
Author: Nirmalya Dutta

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