Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee is back in his motherland, winning praise for his prize-winning research and related academic and other works based out of the US. Fittingly, he had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the two exchanged ideas. The meeting took place at a time when India is facing a serious economic crisis, which the government itself has admitted, and is contemplating remedial measures. Banerjee is sure to have great ideas to propose relating to economics, social development etc., to take the nation out of the present crisis.
Banerjee’s diagnoses of India’s present ills, reflected also in his recent media interactions topped by one in Delhi on Tuesday, is notably on the right lines. He has stated that the NPA crisis in the banking sector needs serious attention as it would otherwise cause unimaginable disaster to the nation. At his latest media meet, he has blamed the Central Vigilance Commission for its “wrong” actions which “forced” PSU banks to go on and on with issue of loans to a breaking point. If so, this needs the attention of the Finance Ministry.
Banerjee has hailed the UPA government’s employment guarantee scheme for rural sector, which helped the poor get jobs, earn a living, and escape the pain of poverty – a subject which won him the Nobel. This is well-understood to all those who have watched the scenario in rural areas. So with the erstwhile Vajpayee government’s huge funding mechanism for the highway development, which helped the rural areas overcome joblessness. The present government seems to have given less importance to the employment generation scheme. The problem got reflected in the latest sample survey, which for the first time in many years showed consumption levels going down in rural areas which are starved of funds – as the Nobel Laureate too now noted.
The issues pointed out by the PM, and as revealed by Banerjee, included the failure of the Indian bureaucracy to measure up to the need of the times. Several governmental initiatives are defeated at the bureaucratic level, known for red tape, corruption and much else. Hope is that the PM’s interaction with the Nobel Laureate would have opened his eyes to India’s serious problems on the ground, about which Banerjee has eminently shown an academic interest too as was reflected in his choosing of the subject for research. Such interactions throw up new ideas to rulers, and can work to the greater advantage of the nation.