GDP hits 1 trillion, but is India Shining?



I am back to the blogging world after a short hiatus. And there is one particular reason for that too. The day started off as usual, a battle towards finding a balance between my office work and my executive MBA at IIMB. But then I got a call from my friend Renga asking me to check LokSabha TV. I was surprised. I have seen that channel once or twice while browsing for some interesting programs. Ever since the MBA program started, I have started using the favorite program feature of Tata Sky. So nowadays I am not aware whether these channels exist or not. He said there is an interesting talk about farmer suicides and the speaker is very impressive. It will be worth watch to at least have a feel of how to present effective presentations.

The speaker was Mr. P. Sainath, Rural Affairs editor of “The Hindu “ and the topic was “Why there are over one lakh farmer suicides in India in the last decade?” As he mentioned a minute into the program I started getting the gravity of situation. Even though I have read the news and watched reports on this issue in the media, I never felt the seriousness of this issue. The moment he started putting figures and stating the inefficacies of the current administration, I thought of blogging this at least to create some awareness into the issue. Here are some of the key facts put forward by him.

· The worst hit states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala as they account for 65% of total farmer suicides in the country.

· There were cases of farmers, poorest of the poor jailed for debt; where as non farmers enjoy the agricultural loans at low interests buying luxury automobiles and land.

· Some of the Grameen banks have invested crores of Rupees in Mumbai Stock exchange. Even though there is a cap on lending to poorest of the poor farmers and overall agriculture sector none of these targets are met.

· Most of the agricultural subsidies are provided to corporations and the benefits reach them and not farmers.

· The main reason for suicides among farmers is to get compensation.

Recently there were news of Indian GDP hitting 1 trillion dollar mark and India joining the elite group. But is India really shining, when the country which is the second worldwide in far output and whose sector which employs 60% of the total workforce is in a sad state. A thought provoking question…

You can check the speakers view in this regard and his other opinions in India Together. He is also the recipient of 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism. Many thanks to Renga for helping me create awareness into such a crux problem, India is facing.



I know many will think what we can do to lessen the woeful plight of farmers, located miles away from our homes. But we can at least create awareness and I think we need to publicize such things so as to show at least some gratitude to those who are responsible for the food served in front of us.