The rupee and the Indian economy
The new laws on the recovery of banking dues seems an effort in the right direction. However, the lack of focus in understanding the true nature of the paper note, which is only any instrument an exchange, appears inherent in such laws. If the goal is to kill the Indian geese that lay the golden eggs then these are the steps in the right direction.
For many centuries business and trade flourished with the barter system. Thereafter gold was used as a basic standard. As gold was inconvenient, the kings introduced certified coins with lower cost metals, as instruments of exchange. The monetary system using the government-certified paper in the form of paper money was mainly a western-world invention.
It seems that our enlightened leaders and lawmakers have lost focus on the basic fact that a rupee is merely an instrument of exchange. This is apparent with news of legislators clamouring for “recovery” of looted money from banks by industrialists and businessmen (maybe they have intentionally forgotten to mention agriculturists including rich zamindars. Unfortunately, these are the “looters” who create the true wealth in the form of directly usable goods and services which is the foundation for Gross National Product (GNP).
By harassing them and forcing them to close the institutions that create the true wealth of the nation, we are only falling into a major trap which is a vortex from which India cannot retrieve itself. If our leaders feel that by recovering this money and closing industries the nation will benefit they have not understood the true nature of a rupee note. If they continue with this policy our brilliant and enlightened leaders will have to print notes and eat them or make shirts, pants and the numerous goods manufactured in India out of this paper (which is also imported!!!). We will thus turn into an innovative nation leading in the manufacture of paper cars, paper televisions and other goods and maybe paper food!
There is another method that our leaders are presently finding convenient to use. They place a finger in the pie and invite the new “East India Company” represented by large multinationals, to take over rising Indian companies that are a threat to their world dominance. The classic example is the take over by the Dutch of the Indian owned liquor industry that had reached second place in the competitive world markets. The western powers are therefore happy to give shelter to the hounded industrialist, who was obviously a threat to their dominance and now this Indian company is in their hands to make our country poorer. Another example is the jeweller who made his mark in the international markets and was a threat to large western companies that controlled such markets. There is no doubt that if the entrepreneurs who established such international market leadership had fudged books, they should be punished. But why close the company or hand it over in a platter and thus fall into the intended trap of the international competition?
The problem in this country is that the fence, which is the government and others of its ilk, such as banks and financial institutions who are the true monetary middlemen, are eating the grass to fill their bloated bellies, letting the common man go hungry. Our GDP is miserable and the only thing visible are fudged accounts. Even a cold and small country like the Netherlands (Holland) with a population twice the size of Bengaluru (Bangalore) has a GDP about one third that of India!
The Western minds are more focused and probably more familiar with true economic gymnastics to prevent grass eating by the fence. Such western systems encourage wealth creators to create more real wealth and not paper notes. Thus their economies have become the receptacles for indentured physical labour in the past and present mental labour in the form of engineers & scientists doing mainly low-end software work that may soon be taken over by AI machines making our economy losing its main source of real income.
Is there any hope that our leaders to understand the true economic value and thus plug the holes where they should be truly plugged rather than destroying the flow by closing the tap or handing over the source of true wealth to foreign multinationals? Why subsidise Government-run institutions with public money even then it is known that hey only bleed the economy?









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