Democracy delivers: India's path to economic prosperity

The unprecedented political and economic turmoil facing the world has triggered concerns about the current world order, leading voters in many countries to turn to far-right political parties, which have found easy scapegoats in immigrants who they blame for taking away local jobs.

While many Western countries are encountering a crisis of democracy, India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is optimistic about the future of democracy, which he says is thriving in the world’s most populous country and delivering economically.

At the recent Munich Security Conference alongside Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, US Senator Elissa Slotkin and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, Jaishankar dismissed the view that democracy is in trouble globally.

Speaking during a panel discussion on 'Live to Vote Another Day: Fortifying Democratic Resilience', he said: " We are optimistic about the direction of our democracy, and for us, democracy has actually delivered.”

"Senator, you said that democracy doesn't put food on your table. Actually, in my part of the world, it does because today, because we are a democratic society, we give nutritional support and food to 800 million people, and for whom that is a matter of how healthy they are and how full their stomachs are."

According to the pan-European think tank, European Council on Foreign Relations, ”the nature of politics in India means that poverty alleviation is not just an economic imperative but a political necessity for elected politicians. To achieve this, the state needs to mediate between various institutions, ensure fair play through the efficient regulation of markets, and implement transfer and taxation policies to redistribute resources from rich to poor.

The Council notes that India’s economic policies after independence enabled the state to allocate resources across sectors and federal states, “and made it a major instrument of redistribution.”

It found that while the onset of economic reforms in 1991 has reduced the state’s role and left the allocation of resources to the “market”, India has over the past decade strengthened its pro-poor policies.This was achieved through the recognition of rights such as the right to education, information, food security (through the National Food Security Act), employment (through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), and land (through the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act).

Jaishankar’s assertion about India’s democracy is supported by the country’s remarkable economic progress since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. It has grown into the 5th largest global economy, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has aspirations to make his country the world's third-largest economy by 2030 and a developed nation by 2047.

During the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January, the WEF president and CEO Borge Brende was upbeat about India’s economic future. He said the country had the potential to reach a 7-8% growth rate, and predicted it would soon account for 20% of the overall global growth. “That is quite incredible.”

On whether India could realistically attain its target of becoming a developed nation by 2047, Brende noted that the country would soon become a $10 trillion (R185trl) economy with its trade pivoting towards digital trade and services. "That's growing three times faster than traditional goods. And these are areas where India is very strong.”

It seems that Jaishankar’s assessment of India’s democracy is justified and the omens are good for the fulfilment of Modi’s ambition for India to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030, despite the global risks associated with accelerating global geopolitical tensions and the negative impact of climate change.

Fawzia Moodley is a freelance journalist.

*The views here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media and IOL, Business Report.

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