Surjit Bhalla

100% appreciate that nuance. The only credit I have ever given this dispensation is that they are better than the family-led INC. Their policies are in no way adequate for sustained economic growth

@surjitbhalla Dr Bhalla, you yourself has said last night that Govt should come out with its own credible poverty data which we can then compare. So, that's it.

Anyone with basic economics knowledge or even common sense can understand that upward movement is not limited to extremely poor and poor. It happens across the spectrum including middle class, upper middle class & rich. It’s also seen in per capita protein and milk consumption.

The decline in extreme poverty numbers maybe credible @surjitbhalla but I think @over2shailaja does have a point: we may need a credible standard of living index that may give a better sense of where we are in terms of transforming the lives of millions. Another more focused discussion (not debate) soon!🙏👍

On @IndiaToday at 9pm,Surjit Bhalla and Santosh Mehrotra debate the World Bank's claim that extreme poverty in India has fallen to 2.6%. Both are distinguished economists, but the viewer is left none the wiser. Is the decline credible? A person may have escaped extreme hunger and destitution but still be unable to afford adequate nutrition, housing, transport, healthcare or education. Such a person is no longer extremely poor but remains economically vulnerable. The two economists kept taking swipes at each other and even the anchor( !!) but the question is which measure is appropriate for the claim being made. The issue that Bhalla and Mehrotra should have explained to viewers is: Has India merely reduced extreme destitution, or has it enabled most Indians to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living? Surely a TV debate should help ordinary viewers understand what these figures mean, rather than leave them to decide which economist sounds more convincing.

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1/5 Sharjeel Imam has given an interview detailing his Islamist manifesto. Surprisingly, no storm has been kicked up over pronouncements that are so unapologetically anti-liberal, anti-secular, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution—in a word, anti-national. 2/5 He openly calls the Constitution fascist, labels secularism a trap, and denounces democracy as a contrivance to deny Muslims their political rights. 3/5 The piece is a litany of indictments against the liberal class. Imam rejects any difference between liberals and Hindutvadis. In his essentialist worldview, all Hindus are the same, unanimous in denying Muslims political power they claim as a divine right. 4/5 Inadvertently, Sharjeel has recognised something that liberals have been fighting shy of acknowledging: that Hindutva’s idea of India is anchored in the same “overarching nationalist framework”— that Muslims are Indians above all else. 5/5 For more, read this Opinion article by Ibn Khaldun Bharati, who looks at Islam from an Indian perspective: Sharjeel Imam’s Islamist manifesto will be forgotten. The silence of liberals will not theprint.in/opinion/sharjeel…

Have you noticed the not-so-subtle difference? This is a Reuters image of protests in France. Most of the western media reportage on French protests focus exclusively and overwhelmingly on brutality, destruction and anarchy of the protestors, portraying them as out of control monsters. In contrast, most of the visual reportage of protests in India focus exclusively on police action on violent protestors. Rarely would you find images of destruction, though these were widely noted. This isn't a coincidence. The lens is revealing. The visual imagery creates two narratives. One, protests in West are "evil". Protests in India are "against evil".

France has FREE health care, paid parental leave, paid family leave, FREE child care, FREE preschool, 5 weeks paid vacation, a 35 hour work week, generous unemployment and housing benefits, and heavily subsidized higher education. Everything the left says they want AND THEY'RE STILL PROTESTING AND BURNING SHIT DOWN.

Disagree

If one is excluded it’s an illegitimate election. Period.

If you had to pick the most charismatic of India’s Gen Z protest leaders who would you choose? (Feel free to share a comment explaining your reasons.)

The American establishment has drunk their own kool-aid - doctored academic research on India, its history and what constitutes Indian nationalism. They genuinely believe the country is an artificial construct where the state stitches together weak alliances between warring tribes and communities. Extending this, the belief is that the nation can be colonized, brought to its knees and broken. The echo chamber the Americans live in will be the undoing of the Indo-Pacific/Pivot to Asia. Relying on paid acolytes in the target country backfires in the end. It gives a colored view of the ground reality of what makes the country resilient. It also overestimates weaknesses. Refusal to understand Hindu civilization for what it is, and the Indian state as the inheritor of this civilization, leads to miscalculations and misjudgments. Moreover, a country of India’s size that has tasted progress after several generations, is unlikely to give up on the upswing it is enjoying at any cost. When a giant starts moving, it gains momentum enough to push back against internal and external sabotage. Washington’s miscalculations are not unique with respect to India. They briefly cracked Iran decades ago, but it did not last. We see how that is playing out today. They tried to turn China into a democracy, and that too failed. They believed Russia would break further after the Soviet Union fell, and yet, nothing like that happened. All efforts involved galvanizing “dissidents”. If anything, all three countries have emerged strategically stronger. Over time, the US has only lost relative power in the global order. It is no surprise that they turn to white Christian nationalism and lofty talk about mythical “Western civilization”. It is a hard coping mechanism. The US is still powerful but on the wane. The Pavlovian response to this is sharp edged, often schizophrenic foreign and economic policy, which undoes the RBO undergirding decades of unipolarity. This naturally gives way to multipolarity. The rise of the East is unstoppable. The relative decline of the West is inevitable. Europe has resigned to its fate. The US too will eventually when India breaks free. It is the last major power which will tilt the balance of power firmly from the North Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific. It is for this reason the viciousness with which the US will target India will be far greater than seen with any other country. Now, going back to the original point, their miscalculations will only accelerate India’s rise as a pole in the world.

Modi govt invited Elon Musk to invest in satellite communications in India. Modi govt amended the Telecom Act 2023 to enable allocation of Satcom spectrum administratively and not via auction. Modi govt opened up 100% FDI in sattellite communication to make way for SpaceX. SpaceX even signed infrastructure sharing and distribution agreements with two existing players Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Also recall how PM and his top aides gave Musk head of state status during Modi's US visit last year and how Musk came for that much televised meeting with his wife, children and their nanny in tow, sitting across PM and his negotiating team! So what has suddenly gone wrong forcing Musk to complain about not being allowed to operate in India. As always one doesn't know what exactly is going on inside this govt. One way or another we need to have some policy transparency and not such flip flop which doesn't augur well for foreign investment sentiment. If you don't want FDI say it clearly. Let's know what the policy is.