Page 14 - The Indian EYE 120922

OP-ED DECEMBER 09, 2022 | The Indian Eye 14

Growing economy, poverty

and tall claims

Views and opinions from the top commentators in Indian media

he Q2 GDP numbers released
on November 30 show that the
Tmomentum the Indian econ-
omy gained post-pandemic remains
firmly in place, notwithstanding glob-
al uncertainties. More than the head-
line GDP data, structural changes
gleaned from the data are more re-
vealing. First, Indian farmers are now
better at adjusting to the vagaries of
nature. Second, the agricultural val-
ue chain in areas like livestock and
fishing that helps in jump-starting
farmers’ income has got a significant
facelift. Third, there is a perceptible
shift in government expenditure in
terms of social investment in educa-
tion and health, and away from op-
erational expenditures. In fact, 7%
growth is still very much on the cards
in the current fiscal.
Leaving aside the GDP numbers,
we move on to a very pertinent top-
ic: How has the cost of living in India
changed vis-à-vis other countries in
the aftermath of the Ukraine war?
As IMF recently pointed out, there
has been a manifold jump in cost of Prime Minister Narendra Modi emplanes for Delhi after attending G20 Summit in Bali on November 16 (ANI)
living across countries, with food and
energy prices going through the roof. estimate of poverty decline during mits and no one took note of India, White House press secretary, de-
Also, with central banks across coun- the Modi years. Notwithstanding our to now when the Indian Prime Min- scribed their interaction in Bali very
tries in the middle of a rate hike cycle, inadvertent error in the reporting of ister is sought out by world leaders,” differently: Modi and Biden, she said,
the cost of owning a house too has 2011-12 values (IHDS not DHS data), Malviya wrote. greeted and met “very briefly”. Un-
increased significantly. the incontrovertible result remains Of course, the claim was untrue: like India, the US did not put out any
that poverty decline was significant- at the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010, statement on the meeting that the
-- Soumya Kanti Ghosh, ly faster during Modi’s tenure (peri- the then US president, Barack Obama, Indian foreign office claimed took
Times of India
od II, roughly 2015-21) than during famously said after meeting Singh: place between their leaders. Instead,
POVERTY DECLINES the UPA years (hereafter period I, “Whenever the Indian prime minis- the US issued a statement on a trilat-
roughly 2005-15). We document this
ter speaks, the whole world listens.”
eral meeting that included the Indo-
A conclusion in detail below. But first, Days after the culmination of the The US further embarrassed
recent article by Jean Dreze
But it was also short-sighted. nesian president, Joko Widodo.
looks at our commentary on
some transparent discussion of defi-
multidimensional poverty de-
Modi government’s projection of the
cline and concludes that the debate nition and measurement. G20 summit, it became clear that the Modi when a press secretary cited
the Indian prime minister’s pre-
on relative performance towards -- Surjit S Bhalla & Karan Bhasin, prime minister’s importance on the 2014 visa ban— enforced by Wash-
The Indian Express
poverty alleviation during the UPA world stage at the meeting wasn’t ington after the 2002 Gujarat ri-
years and Narendra Modi’s tenure as THE G20 ILLUSION quite shared by the US. The Indian ots —in the context of whether the
prime minister should continue to be ministry of external affairs said Modi Biden administration would look to
“open” even as his own conclusion is onsider the recent G20 sum- and Biden had “reviewed” the bi- prosecute the Saudi crown prince,
that multidimensional poverty (MPI) mit. On November 15, as the lateral relationship in their meeting Mohammed bin Salman.
declined considerably faster in the Cconclave began in Bali, Indo- on the sidelines of the G20. It listed Charu Sudan Kasturi,
Modi years. nesia, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s out a range of themes — from “crit- The Telegraph (India)
The availability of multidimen- Amit Malviya posted a 35-second clip ical and emerging technologies” and
sional poverty data for 2005-06, 2015- on Twitter of Modi speaking with the “advanced computing” to the Quad, Every week, we look at what the top
16 and 2019-21, (note that poverty is United States president, Joe Biden. a grouping that also includes Japan commentators in the Indian media are
likely biased upward due to the ex- Biden had his hand on Modi’s back. and Australia — that Modi and talking about and bring to you a slice
ogenous shock of Covid in the Modi “There was a time when Dr Manmo- Biden had supposedly discussed. of their opinions and comments
period), means that we now have an han Singh returned from these sum- But Karine Jean-Pierre, the

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