Simplenomics
In response to my posting the link to Swaminathan Iyer's 'Swaminomics' column in TOI dt 2nd Dec, '07 on "Gujarat's SEZ - a blessing" in a greens' Y-group, Mr L, responded as below:
Swaminathan is a master of simplenomics. In this article he arrays all the reason why the kind of SEZ policy we have adopted can only work in Gujarat.
That salt pans and mudflats aren't necessarily "waste lands" may be an ecological question and one does not expect a limited view economist such as Swaminathan is, to explore the long term consequences.
Point is, the rest of the country does not have a draconian Chief Minister (barring recently Buddhabed, perhaps a trait of the Right and the Left), and also does not 'have such expanses of "wastelands". So should not all the countries SEZ be in Gujarat then? Not only can it be a Special Economic Zone, it can surely be a Special Exploitation Zone and without doubt is soon to be India's Special Eco-disaster Zone. In short, India's China is gujarat!
To which, I responded as below:
Narendra Modi has certainly committed a lot of wrongs - there's no denying that. But, that does not mean that everything he does is wrong. Besides, like the article has stated, there was hardly any resistance from the owners to part with their land. So, there was no need for Mr Modi to resort to any 'draconian' measures, in the first place.
There have been enough reports in the past about exploitation in the salt farms, apart from the totally hazardous conditions that the workers were exposed to. With the advent of TATA's into salt farming/ industry, perhaps things have changed - may be somebody would like to do a study on that? Whatever, even as contract labour in Mundra Port (where large numbers of displaced have been absorbed), I am sure, the workers are far better off than they were when working on the erstwhile salt farms. And, if the labour laws are reformed, they will be employed directly by the likes of Mundra Port, and will hopefully begin to enjoy the same quality of life as the steel workers in Jamshedpur.
'Simplenomics' perhaps is when you can only see every industry and industrialist, including a Narayana Murthy, as an exploiter.
Swaminathan is a master of simplenomics. In this article he arrays all the reason why the kind of SEZ policy we have adopted can only work in Gujarat.
That salt pans and mudflats aren't necessarily "waste lands" may be an ecological question and one does not expect a limited view economist such as Swaminathan is, to explore the long term consequences.
Point is, the rest of the country does not have a draconian Chief Minister (barring recently Buddhabed, perhaps a trait of the Right and the Left), and also does not 'have such expanses of "wastelands". So should not all the countries SEZ be in Gujarat then? Not only can it be a Special Economic Zone, it can surely be a Special Exploitation Zone and without doubt is soon to be India's Special Eco-disaster Zone. In short, India's China is gujarat!
To which, I responded as below:
Narendra Modi has certainly committed a lot of wrongs - there's no denying that. But, that does not mean that everything he does is wrong. Besides, like the article has stated, there was hardly any resistance from the owners to part with their land. So, there was no need for Mr Modi to resort to any 'draconian' measures, in the first place.
There have been enough reports in the past about exploitation in the salt farms, apart from the totally hazardous conditions that the workers were exposed to. With the advent of TATA's into salt farming/ industry, perhaps things have changed - may be somebody would like to do a study on that? Whatever, even as contract labour in Mundra Port (where large numbers of displaced have been absorbed), I am sure, the workers are far better off than they were when working on the erstwhile salt farms. And, if the labour laws are reformed, they will be employed directly by the likes of Mundra Port, and will hopefully begin to enjoy the same quality of life as the steel workers in Jamshedpur.
'Simplenomics' perhaps is when you can only see every industry and industrialist, including a Narayana Murthy, as an exploiter.
posted by Muralidhar Rao at
2:17 AM
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