Thursday 3 November 2011

Industrializing India



For rapid industrialisation many conditions are necessary. Many decisions by government are made for growth of industries like improving industrial relations (like minimum wages); and many policies are made on trade for making sale and buying of property easy; and new regulations regarding taxes are being re-made constantly. An amalgamation of several legislation which favour industrialisation went into the making of the 'manufacturing policy'. Formulation may seem very perfect but implementation has several road-blocks especially environmental clearance and land clearance which may cause delays. These can be transparently done by e-auction or e-procurement or e-tendering. For rapid industrialization,  streamlining the processes is very urgent now. Government had given tax-concessions but had delayed clearances. If there are unexpected losses, insurance can save industries. But loss of money due to delays will not be paid by any insurance. Labour laws may work against the newly born industries, causing more loss. Skilled workforce is not easily available; the time taken for training would cause some economic loss to new industries also.
Is industrialization creating new livelihoods? No. Employment generation is what the government wants from industrialisation. But industries grow because they keep minimum workforce as all possible work is fully automated. This will create very few jobs for few skilled people. Government will have to spend more on welfare measures as employment generation is not taking place while industrializing. For getting few jobs, big spendings on 'national policy' (which concentrates on only limited places) is not worth the expenditure. Growth paradigms can be shown as models, so that state governments can initialise steps to industrialise themselves.

If the total ‘loss and gain’ is calculated, more social tension, labour unrest, more inequality will result from the 'new' policy; while pleasing the industrialists the workers' plight will be ignored. Government will spend more on the making of schemes; and taxes that it will receive from industries would be very less. Environmental degradation cannot be erased, and exploitation cannot be addressed justifiably.
But the eternal march of civilisation cannot be stopped and industrialization will take place. We certainly cannot go back to older peasant culture, and industrialisation is here to stay. Overcoming the growing pains is the solution. To provide welfare for the workers--- for making proper homes, schools for making food and health schemes. Better plans are needed for better electricity and water supply, for better roads, for sanitation and waste disposal systems. These are the needs of the ever growing urban India. While industrializing  these have to be addressed to, for the making of future India
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