New Delhi: Negating the popular belief of more the merrier, the Economic Survey tabled in the Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that India needs to move towards fewer farms and farmers but more productive ones.
“So the irony is that the concern about farmers and agriculture today is to ensure that tomorrow there are fewer farmers and farms but more productive ones. In other words, all good and successful economic and social development is about facilitating this transition in the context of a prosperous agriculture and of rising productivity in agriculture,” said the survey.
The survey also highlighted the need of urbanization as a compulsory parameter for development.
“(The transition) will also facilitate good urbanization and rising productivity in other sectors of the economy,” said the report.
Quoting Dr. B R Amdekar, the survey said, “He (Dr. B R Ambedkar) famously derided the village as ‘a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism.”
“In the long run people need to move and be moved out of agriculture for non-economic reasons,” added the report.
The survey is prepared by Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramania and his team.
The survey quotes the celebrated Indian poet Tulsidas: “Upkaar Kaa barakhaa, jab krishi sukhaanee (What’s the use of that untimely rain after the crop has dried up).”
The Economic Survey is usually presented a few days before the Budget is tabled in Parliament.
The survey reviews the developments in the Indian economy in the last one year post the last Budget, summarises the performance on major development programmes, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy.
Economic surveys have been used before to recommend policy changes, sometimes even sweeping measures. Last year, for instance, the survey recommended the rollout of Universal Basic Income (UBI), a poverty alleviation plan involving direct money transfer to people’s bank accounts.
Comments
0 comment