(This article forms a part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)
The World Bank has revised its estimation of growth in the Indian economy from its initial expectation of 8.7% this year to a gloomier outlook of just 6.5%, citing the worsening external environment. The numbers were released as part of the World Bank’s twice yearly South Asia Economic Focus, titled, ‘Coping with Shocks: Migration and the Road to Resilience’. India’s exports will be likely impacted by slowing global demand, although India is recovering stronger than the rest of the world, the Bank noted. Sriram Lakshman reports.
Debt sustainability, education, and climate action are three areas of potential action for India, when it takes on the presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) in December this year, according to World Bank President David Malpass.
What does the Bank’s lowering of India’s growth projection mean? How could the government make suitable policy choices? “The government has been gung-ho about ‘entering an era of robust growth’, but its decision to extend the pandemic-driven free foodgrains programme suggests it realises that not all actors of the economy have managed to get out of the woods yet. This realism should be reflected in other policy choices it makes too, tempering optimism with caution,” The Hindu editorial said.
Why is India Inc. not taking a Hanuman leap? Read economist Pulapre Balakrishnan’s analysis: The one lever that the government could have pulled as it watched private investment decline was to step up public investment, he argues.
India, China, and human rights at UN forums
After the recent vote on Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council that we looked at in last week’s newsletter, two resolutions have drawn much attention.
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday voted against holding a debate on alleged abuses in China’s Xinjiang region in a major setback for Western nations. Significantly, India, a day after abstaining on this resolution, asked China to respect and guarantee human rights to Uighurs of Xinjiang. China, on the other hand, said issues in Xinjiang was “not related to human rights”. Meanwhile, China appears preoccupied with its upcoming twice-a-decade party congress, which is set to usher sweeping changes in personnel as President Xi Jinping begins an unprecedented third term. China’s Communist Party leadership on Sunday gathered for a final key meeting to set the agenda, Ananth Krishnan reports.
The other important resolution last week was on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’. India abstained from voting on the resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council, while observing that Sri Lanka’s progress in implementing commitments on the 13th Amendment, meaningful devolution, and early provincial elections remains “inadequate”.
Top 5
- Domestic ideologies in external settings: India’s articulation of some areas of the current domestic agenda in the United Nations General Assembly raises several deeply troubling questions, writes former diplomat Vivek Katju.
- Is India in a bind over its relations with Russia?: Kallol Bhattacherjee speaks to experts Anuradha Chenoy and Ashok Kantha.
- The road ahead for Sheikh Hasina: While the country’s economic progress is promising, political processes merit more attention, Kallol Bhattacherjee writes.
- In China, fire without smoke: The recent rumour fest around a “coup in China” showed lack of context and the unwillingness of most Indian media houses to take foreign news coverage seriously, writes Ananth Krishnan.
- Fatalities among U.N. Peacekeeping Forces rising: Undersecretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix tells Suhasini Haidar. India is amongst the largest contributors to the UNPKF, and at 179, has the highest casualties of any nation in UN ops.
Published - October 10, 2022 11:43 am IST