It is necessary to keep reviewing whether the economic policies are benefiting the public or not.

The rate of economic growth of India is showing a very fast pace and the pace of economic progress is expected to accelerate further in the coming times. Moving too fast in any field has its advantages as well as disadvantages. While making progress in the economic sector, it is very important to keep in mind whether the policies being adopted for progress in this context meet the expectations of the public or not. Along with this, wrong economic policies should not be implemented to speed up economic development in the country because increasing economic resources by adopting wrong economic policies is not in the interest of the country and the public. In this period of economic progress, it is also necessary to pay special attention to whether clean policies are being followed in India’s economic progress or not. Indian culture does not accept economic progress at any cost and even if the citizens of the country have to pay a heavy price for it in the future. To take India to the level of ultimate glory, it would be beneficial to follow the path of Dharma. In many other countries of the world, when the pace of economic development has accelerated and these countries have attained the status of developed countries, during this time many types of moral, social and economic problems have arisen in these countries due to the adoption of wrong economic policies. There are, whose solution these countries are not able to find even today. That’s why it is necessary for India to be cautious from now while implementing its economic policies so that such problems are not created in India in future.

Today America, Europe and many other countries are facing various types of economic, moral and social problems and are finding themselves unable to solve these problems. In fact, the model of development that these countries have adopted, due to not being able to fill many clearly visible holes in this model, many types of problems are getting worse and worse in these countries. Such as continuous decline in moral and human values, lack of happiness and peace, development of violence and spread of mental diseases among the people living in these countries, inflation, increasing inequality of income, unemployment, debt. Increasing burden, Deficit financing, Rapid depletion of natural resources, Energy crisis, Rapid reduction in forest area, Annual forest fires, Rapid depleting ground water level, Climate And continuous changes in the form of rain, etc. The capitalist model adopted by the developed countries for economic development is believed to be at the root of all these problems.

Although many types of shortcomings have started appearing in the capitalist model, but it would be appropriate to describe a burning economic problem of recent times. Almost all the countries of the world are facing the serious problem of inflation especially after the period of corona pandemic and due to the problems arising in the supply chains due to the Russo-Ukraine war. Almost all countries, according to the capitalist model, are trying to get rid of the problem of inflation by reducing the demand for products in the market by continuously increasing the interest rates. But, this continuous effort for the last one year does not seem to get rid of the problem of inflation. Inflation is not coming under control in many economies due to continuous increase in interest rate, but many other types of economic problems are definitely emerging. For example, decrease in the business of companies, decrease in profitability, retrenchment of employees, decrease in collection of taxes and increase in unemployment, decrease in the growth rate of the country, etc. For this reason, it should now be thought whether increasing the interest rates is the right way to control inflation in these circumstances. Such measures have been undertaken in the past by developed economies that have decided to pursue their economic development according to the capitalist model. Whereas, now these measures are proving to be both. In the midst of continuous rising inflation, many companies in developed countries have not shown any hesitation in taking inhuman decisions like retrenchment of their employees and more than 2 lakh employees are being retrenched by these companies.

Similarly, there are many countries in the world today whose 20 percent citizens have accumulated more than 80 percent of the country’s wealth; While 80 percent of the citizens have only less than 20 percent of the country’s wealth. Today, there is no limit to how much profit MNCs make on their products. Due to these reasons today, along with the economic development of different countries, the rich person is getting richer and the poor person is getting poorer. Today, even in the richest country in the world like America, there are about 6 lakh people who do not have a house to live in and are forced to live in the open. Almost all developed countries have the same condition in terms of income inequality. 11.4 percent of the total population of America, 15.7 percent of citizens in Japan and 15.5 percent of citizens in Germany are living below the poverty line. Almost the same situation is in other developed countries as well.

On the contrary, there is no description of the word inflation in the history of very old times of India. Because goods were produced in abundance through cottage industries in the rural areas and the supply of goods was always ensured, hence the imbalance in demand and supply was never allowed to arise. India has also recently raised interest rates, but has kept inflation relatively under control, especially with a focus on the supply side of agricultural products. Similarly, inflation should be solved by increasing the supply of products instead of continuously increasing the interest rates by other developed countries. In particular, the problem of inflation arises because the supply of products in the system falls short of the demand. The supply of many products in many countries has been disrupted due to the war between Russia and Ukraine during and after the Corona pandemic. Due to which inflation has spread in these countries.

In fact, western philosophy is materialistic and the individual is dominant there, hence there is limitless consumerism. That’s why the western person gives priority to immediate physical pleasure only. To get physical pleasure, he believes that it is appropriate for him to do anything, whether it is legitimate or illegitimate. Because of this, the economy in the West is such that through which all citizens, especially the poor, may or may not be benefited, but some individuals, classes or communities definitely get all kinds of amenities, their capital increases, their profits grows. The result of Western culture and their philosophy on economics is that due to personal consumption, personal profit, the tendency of exploitation increases in Western people, which affects the entire economy of the West.

In contrast to Western philosophy, Indian philosophy describes the entire existence, the universe or the world as a whole. The economy in ancient India has been such that all the citizens of the country have been prosperous and happy. In Indian scriptures, it has been talked about restrained consumption. In India, the idea of ​​animals and plants has also been done with intimacy. The general public in India has been thinking that the idea of ​​Artha i.e. wealth is the same for all human beings. In the Indian tradition, there is also the idea that all the things, all the facilities in the country, all this together is the wealth of the country, ‘Earth’. In India, these ideas have been implemented at a practical level.

However, at present some shortcomings are clearly visible in India as well from the economic point of view, which are absolutely necessary to be rectified. The income of the bottom 20 percent of the population in India is 5 percent of the total income of the country while the income of the top 20 percent of the population is about 50 percent of the total income of the country. The unemployment rate in India in January 2023 was 7.14 per cent, while ideally it should be at the level of zero. The number of people living below the poverty line in India was 10.2 percent in the year 2019. The per capita income in India is very low as compared to many other countries. The average income of every Indian is US$ 2,200 per year while the average per capita income in the US is US$ 70,000 per year and the average income of a Chinese citizen is US$ 12,000 per year.

Ancient texts on meaning in India, including spiritual texts, also state that it is the duty of the king to try to find solutions to his subjects’ problems related to meaning. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay ji has also said that for any political party, gaining political power should not be the ultimate goal, but it should become a medium, so that the benefits of economic development can be extended to the poorest of the poor in the country. . Upadhyay has also given a model in this context which he has named “Integral Humanism”. Implementation of this model will lead to the development of the person standing at the last end of the society. He will have an all-round rise. The said model has been removed from communism, socialism, capitalism or imperialism etc. and given the ground of nationalism. India’s nationalism is world welfare because it has considered “Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah” as its ultimate goal based on the concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. This should be the goal of all of us Indians.

In this way, at the time of its economic progress, India should move forward by adopting Indian philosophy in place of Western philosophy, so that the moral, economic and social problems arising in Western countries can be avoided in the early stages of economic development.

– Prahlad Sabnani

retired deputy general manager

state Bank of India