“You hold cash, you lose money. Keep demonetising,” said Lord Lord Meghnad Desai, UK Economist and Labour Politician at the Indian Forum, organised by the London School of Economics on the 11th of March.
The topics discussed and debated during the day-long sessions were “Is Modi-fied’ India the modified India?” Modulated by Dr Mukulika Banerjee – Associate Professor at LSE, the panelists were Ajay Maken President of DPCC Inc, Shazia Ilmi Spokesperson of the BJP and Meera Sanyal AAP Leader.
The Business & Entrepreneurship panel discussed ‘Paradigm Shifts for Business in India’, Driving Innovation.’ Sudhir Mehta, Chairman & MD, Pinnacle Industries Ltd and Shiv Khemka, Vice Chairman of the Sun Group were the panelists. It was moderated by Prof Alnoor Bhimani of LSE.
“Financial Reforms in India: Challenges and Opportunities” was the keynote address given by the Chairman of HDFC Ltd, Deepak Parekh.
The seminar closed with “Bollywood and its Omnipotence” discussed by Farhan Akhtar and moderated by Naman Ramachandran. It covered Indian films stars going beyond the realms of Bollywood, the influence of Bollywood's soft power on Indian viewers and on how to strike a balance between censorship and freedom of artistic expression.
The economic panel had a strong league of economists – Moderated by Amrita Dhillon, Professor of LSE, panellists included Lord Meghnad Desai, UK Economist and Labour Politician, Dr Surjit Bhalla of Oxus Research and Investments and Prof Maitreesh Ghatak , Professor at LSE. “Demonetisation and Digitisation - India’s readiness for a Cashless Economy” was the topic.
“No one will say go ahead and do it, this experiment was never done before but I was an ardent supporter because this is the only exercise that will bring down tax evasion in India,” Lord Desai said.
Corruption is a problem, but should we be over-obsessed with it? What will be the outcome? Prof Ghatak said “it’s a hypothetical question. BJP has won a landslide win in UP. The magic of Modinomics is yet to be criticised, but what is Moditics? Politically it was a successful move – a credible signalling device. The poor were hurt but they still voted for Modi,” he said.
But is India ready for a Cashless Economy? “The only rationale is that it’s a shock therapy to move it to the digital economy. But what is getting missed? The informal sector is uninformed. We can shift to online, but we cannot ban the local kiranashops,” Prof Ghatak said.
Dr Bhalla said “people are coloured, they still have their pre-2014 blinders on. Political economy is the most important issue and people are biased.”
“Creation of black money can be regulated only by attacking the sinks of black money – real estate, political funding and tax evasion. ‘Tax terrorism’ and corruption in India is deep-rooted. The demonetisation drive has reduced it,” he said.
On the question of the economic impact or outcomes, Prof Ghatak said “I am less optimistic. It’s a classic mid-point till 2019. I worry about the government having a sharp arsenal against the people without proper safeguards... Reducing the power of the government is a paradox we have to grapple with. We need to empower state institutions to act as safeguards for citizen rights,” he said.
As per Lord Desai, “eliminating corruption is difficult to stop through arbitrary power.” In that case, is India ready to get into the league of superpowers?
“We need the economy to grow fast by uplifting the poor,” said Prof Ghatak. “That is the moral model. Getting a cleaner environment, alleviating gender discrimination, uplifting the tribal, eradicating untouchability and becoming more inclusive is how you should measure your power. Exclusive might should not be measured only on the country’s military expertise,” affirmed Prof Ghatak.
