Inequality in Developing Countries, India

-




http://richmondvale.org/effects-of-poverty/

An older article on Inequality by the author has been popular in this blog. It talked of rising wealth and income inequality over the last forty years, primarily in the richest country of the world, US. Suggestions were given as to how the problem may be overcome.

This year, 2017, OXFAM carried out a study of inequality in 152 countries of the world including both rich and poor countries. According to a report in times of India  based on the study, India has been ranked 132 out of 152 countries on the basis of inequality. Sweden ranked the highest while Nigeria was at the bottom. The US had the highest level of inequality among developed countries, though it is the wealthiest country in the world. However, most of its budget goes on military spending and maintaining wars and military bases around the world.

In India, the new Narendra Modi government has been seized of the problem and his approval rating is one of the highest in any country in the world. One may question why it so if inequality is so high. The reason is simple. India had been declining on many fronts until 2014. Ever since he came to power PM Narendra Modi has arrested the rate of decline and thing have begun to change for the better. Nevertheless this Oxfam study indicates that mere platitudes, posturing and tinkering would not be sustainable and more aggressive measures are required to tackle this very fundamental problem of inequality that concerns well being of majority.

The solutions suggested in the earlier note by this author were relevant for all countries but have greater significance for the developed world. As regards the developing world, other additional measures are required. The best way to discover these are from examples of other developing countries that have been successful in dealing with this issue. Namibia is the shining example for other developing countries to emulate.


According to a report in the Guardian  Inequality is not inevitable. It is a policy choice. For proof, look at Namibia , Here is a country that inherited the highest levels of inequality in Africa when it gained independence from apartheid-era South Africa in 1990. Yet the Namibian government has since managed to systematically reduce the gap between rich and poor, more than halving the poverty rate from 53% to 23%. A key factor has been its investment in education: Namibia has the world’s second-highest percentage of overall budget spent on education, enabling it to provide free secondary school to all students. It also spends a greater proportion of its budget on health than Finland.


As a comparison, the following list reveals spending ranks of some countries on health, education and social protection


1 Ireland
2 Germany
3 Finland
4 Belgium
5 France
-
148 Bangladesh
149 India
150 Laos
151 Myanmar
152 Nigeria

As can be a seen there is a close correspondence if not a precise one between inequality and education and social spending. Thus if lagging countries like India and Nigeria wish to improve conditions of misery in their countries, aside from measures of the earlier note, a hugely increased proportion of the budget would have to be spent on health and education rather than progressive increases of salaries of government employees much is excess of what most in the country earn and temporary gifts that may bring votes in an election. It is true that health and education do not bring the same hefty commissions to the bureaucracy as for example infrastructure spending to the corrupt among the bureaucracy. For this very reason the pressure to increase budgets in these necessary area for well being of people is less. A wise leadership must necessarily overcome such pressures for progress of a nation.

As an example a lot of social spending in India has gone on providing homes to the poor. These are of poor quality and where provided they turn into hell holes soon after. A wiser approach would be to to work on alleviating poverty and provide the poor plots to build homes on in well demarcated areas with roads, water supply and drainage to build their own homes. At the most a toilet may be built. The poor will then gradually build their own homes in it even starting with a mud hut and end up with much finer homes eventually. However, in this latter approach there are no series of commissions between the officials and contractors.

Unless corruption is eliminated all other measures howsoever well meant shall fail.



Update October 14, 2017:

The Consequences of Inequality


While GDP growth has taken place in India, inequality has grown too, leading to rampant hunger as brought out by this study.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-ranked-100th-among-119-as-hunger-gets-worse/articleshow/61060319.cms

The precise details and methodolgy of this report can be contested but the presence of much hunger and malnutition cannot be debated. India cannot afford to make policy choices that lead to growth as for example by rate cuts by the central bank while also leading to inflation. Food inflation in India is leading to not just to hunger but also deaths of its children with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. India needs to focus not on inflation of commodities like steel and cement because the poor can survive in mud huts but they cannot survive without food. Food inflation has to be the central focus for policy. The trickle down economics theories of earlier years have been thoroughly discredited as homelessness and hunger has even entered the richest countries of the world such as US and UK. The world now looks to Scandinavian countries for more just models of economy where social spending, health and education for all is the priority.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Exhaustive Review of WriterBay.Com - My Experience

-
R ecently, through a Google search, I discovered WriterBay.Com. It is an online website that provides help to anyone who might wish a written report on just about any topic, for a fee. It also provides freelance online work to anyone who may wish to undertake such work. I applied to this website and have been with them for about a week at the time of writing this review. This review is based on my experience with them in this period. Before writing this post, I grappled with the question if I should write a review at all because it has criticism. However, I decided in favor writing it so that it would help huge number of persons who scout for freelance online work as well as numerous students that approach this website for help. My criticism is a constructive one with suggestions for improvements. If Writer Bay took it in this light, this report shall help them to reinvent themselves into a productive outfit that helps the world rather than the other way around and the
Read more

Possible scientific reason why water of River Ganges does not spoil

-
   River Ganges in Rishikesh F or long those living in the shadows of Himalayas have heard and experienced that harmful microbes do not survive in the water of Ma Ganga or River Ganges and that water brought from the Ganges and stored at home does not spoil. This was even more true in earlier times when there were fewer dams and pollution on the river to change its quality in drastic ways. Could there be a scientific reason for that? The possible scientific reason is that some of the dissolved minerals in this water are silver (perhaps also copper). It would exist in the ores that lie in it path in the Himalayas and silver even in very microscopic quantities does that as proven by recent scientific studies. The principle is employed in some municipal towns in Mexico of ridding municipal supply of dangerous bacteria. See this note in a companion blog on silver and these studies, http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/06/antibiotic-of-gods-silver.html In some plac
Read more

Era of Inequality since 1985 – Causes and solutions

-
From: https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/01/the-key-factor-behind-the-rise-in-income-inequality/ from https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/01/the-key-factor-behind-the-rise-in-income-inequality/ A recent excellent article by Scott Bixby at the World Economic Forum has brought out some startling facts about the world economy, led by the US.   The data is illustrated in two graphs, repeated here for discussion. The graphs show that an era that may be termed the era of economic exploitation, an era in which the rich get richer while the poor get nowhere or poorer began in 1980. It is an era of rising inequalities. The trend appears to have begun with the richest 0.1 percent in 1980 and then spread on to the 1 percent by 1985. For some reason that is not fully clear or merely coincidental this era of inequality has begun around the time of creation of the World Economic Forum and its meets in Davos. Perhaps the forum provides for a sharing of techniques or a
Read more

On Revival of Soma plant of Rig Veda

-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Path_between_sugar_canes_%285216462193%29.jpg Similar Document also available for view or download at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/290825034/On-Revival-of-Soma-plant-of-Rig-Veda Abstract An ancient plant was described as a god amongst plants in the Rig Veda, an ancient sacred text of Indo-Aryans. The proper identification of this plant has been lost to mankind since ancient times. Scholars have made several diverse attempts to identify what this plant might be but none of the proposals come near the original Soma plant. In the present note a possible identification of this plant is made with a likely extinct variety of a sugar cane plant. It is suggested how an existing varieties may be genetically modified to yield a variety close to original Soma 1. Introduction There was a plant of earth that grew around the Himalayas known as Soma. It was regarded by ancient Indo-Aryans as godly plant. Ancient Indo-Aryans
Read more

Hemp, a possible wonder crop for food, fodder, bio-fuel, paper and more

-
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_Roche_Jagu_chanvre_1.JPG P rior to nineteen thirties, hemp plant was grown widely in the world as a profitable crop. In the years since, it seems, because of other competing commercial interests and banning of cannabis, the shorter cousin of hemp under false propaganda perhaps with a motive of profit for some, this plant too is not as widely used. Now that it has been discovered through modern science that the propaganda was false its re-legalization has begun in the world, various countries where climate is suitable for its growth must re-examine this crop. It may turn to be a highly profitable and useful crop because of its use for bio-fuels, food, fodder and paper pulp. Hemp does not contain as much of  intoxicating chemicals that cannabis does. Hemp produces most biomass of any crop, which is why it is a natural choice for an energy crop. Hemp converts Sun’s energy into cellulose faster than any other plant, through
Read more

Some FAQS about city water supply that must be known

-
Q. Will our cities become short of water with expansion? As cities expand a greater pressure is being put on water resources required to meet the needs of urban populations in cities around the world. There is a need to maintain adequate water supply as well as the quality of the water supplied so that health of urban dwellers does not deteriorate. It must be remembered that water for the most part is not destroyed by use. With proper recycling and management, urban dwellers need not suffer water shortage. This point needs to be highlighted before we proceed, With proper management and recycling, urban areas can avoid shortages and poor quality of water Q. What is the proper and inexpensive way to recycle water? There is a proper way to recycle water and an improper way. The proper way mimics natural processes through which water has been recycled on land for millions of year, which is collecting it in ponds where an initial purification takes place by aerobic and anaero
Read more

Postmodern Designer Villages

-
This note is useful for developed as well as progressive developing countries How to take farm lands to town and generate sustainable green employment and create shelters for the homeless, unaccompanied minors, employment for the unemployed and a resort for the aged too. A Postmodern designer Village S everal developed and even some of the developing economies are undergoing a change, leading to a loss in manufacturing jobs and employment opportunities. It has been proposed that some new jobs in future could come from a return to land and undertaking modern agricultural activities on it. Certainly a rural setting does offer a much healthier and greener environment compared to traffic and concrete filled modern cities. However in the traditional rural setting other difficulties arise that can make life and living difficult especially for those who have not been used to that from childhood. Traditional rural agricultural areas are primarily of two types. On
Read more

Three Effects of Deforestation on Climate Change

-
Widespread deforestation has taken place on the planet over the last century due to human activity. While this deforestation affects the planet and all life that dwells upon it in numerous ways, this note mentions three effects on climate change that includes climate extremes 1. Atmospheric Turbulence The greater the atmospheric turbulence, greater are the chances of unexpected climatic phenomenon i.e. climate extremes. Winds move over the surface of earth in what scientists call as atmospheric boundary layers. It is well known phenomenon in turbulence science that turbulence in such boundary layers is damped when roughness exists on the surface. Forests with tall trees are one such roughness. Therefore the fewer the forests on land the greater the atmospheric turbulence and greater the chances of climate extremes. 2. Evaporation from Trees Evaporation from tree leaves absorbs the sun’s heat that falls on the planet. It is for this reason, during day ho
Read more

Maha Shivaratri

-
May the Lord known as Shiva bless all mankind today on the auspicious occassion of Maha Shivarari. Just returning from a visit to a Shiva temple and the fair outside it. Picked up a lot of things needed at home as shown in the picture. Everything was at prices much lower than in stores, about a third. They are indeed gifts from the Lord.
Read more

Need For Dehydrating Onions and other Vegetables in India

-
NOTE: The present note emerged as a result of educational initiatives to reduce hunger and malnutrition in India by https://facebook.com/ohmm11 Scroll towards end for curry and cocktail recipes V egetable prices tend to fluctuate widely in India depending upon season and climate and when prices of essential vegetables like onions, tomatoes and potatoes suddenly shoot up they result in great stress on most households. On the other hand, in some seasons there is a glut and farmers are forced to destroy vegetables. A similar situation prevails in several other countries around the world leading to expensive vegetables in some seasons and wastage in others. This note is therefore relevant for almost all countries. Food processing has been suggested as a means to avoid wastage and reduce price fluctuations. However, while some food processing does not produce very healthy food, particularly when it involves much process and addition of chemicals, the simplest form of foo
Read more