In midst of all this, are basic issues like poverty, illiteracy being adequately addressed?
I certainly think there has been more awareness on human development issues, especially in the last four years. I think Amartya Sen’s Nobel Prize shamed India into taking human development issues seriously. At the state level, I think states are becoming conscious that they have to pursue a human development type strategy else they are not going to get re-elected. I think unemployment is still a black hole because there are restrictions on employment generation. Also because the government is taking away a chunk of the savings that is not being invested and so there is a shortage of capital. Foreign capital is not a substitute, you have to generate domestic capital. Foreign capital will come if you have more domestic capital — like in China. China is saving 43-45 per cent of its income and its deficit is much smaller than India’s. . . So people see that the Chinese government is not eating into its savings. So to reduce unemployment, India needs to have a good fiscal policy. So is muc
