Recently, I read a post on FB, that Economists only record economic activity in a region or nation, like a chronicler and that Economists do not run the Economy.
From 2004 to 2014 India had a renowned Economist as the Prime Minister who was running the Indian Economy, with his men as head of Reserve Bank and as Economic advisers to the Government Of India. He is said to have run the economy effectively for a “ fruitful “ ten year period.
Later the Congress lost the 2014 general elections and B J P came to power. The B J P Prime Minister has his own economists in the Reserve Bank and in his set of economic advisers.
So, economists are playing an important role in the administration irrespective of which party is in power. These economists are thrown up from prestigious institutions like the London School Of Economics, Harvard university and such highly rated institutions. What they have learnt and what they practice are two drastically divergent issues. They are bogged down by their inherent or imbibed political ideologies.
Never do they feel the pulse of the grass root happenings nor do they care to carry out any course corrections as they go along making fundamental mistakes. The reason for this is they never see Economics as a dynamic science. For them it is of a plain academic matter for writing books, theories and expecting peer recognition in seminars and other academic activity. And expect the Nobel Prize for their Theories. It is immaterial for them whether the theories are practical, whether they are yielding the desired results or not.
There have been successful economies in Asia too, where the economic policies were tailored for their specific needs and their citizens. Not by any London School Of Economics stalwart, or a Nobel laureate, but by a practical thinking Prime Minister. Like for example Singapore.
They realized capitalism is needed to build infrastructure, start industries, to generate wealth and to utilize the wealth created in such a way that the people are the main beneficiaries with their own participation in creating, conserving and distributing the wealth created.
Every person needs a job to sustain himself. A house to live in. A medical care facility to take care of bad times due to ill health, a viable public transport to move around comfortably and easily, a pension fund arrangement to take care of retired life. The citizen is given a house for which he has to pay, a job to perform with highest possible productivity standards and contribute to all welfare measures in whatever way possible. This is called participatory Economics. As opposed to the Left ideology of just redistribute the wealth available to all “ poor citizens “, without they ever contributing to the economy of the country. Creating a class by itself who grow accustomed to indolence indiscipline and demand that every good thing must come to them free of any cost or effort.
Welfare state does not mean the State will provide everything freely and allow its citizens the freedom to behave the way he/she likes. State for them is the Father who keeps on supplying your needs unto eternity.
In ancient India, in the 4 th Century BCE, there lived an Economist Prime Minister minister called Kautilya or Chanakya, serving a King called Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya wrote a treatise
called the “ Arthasashtra”, which very few people are aware of. Chanakya is only remembered as a Politician of extraordinary abilities to manipulate and conceive tactics to attain and retain power, either by hook or crook.
This is far from the truth. One should learn more about this great Economistwhose Arthasashtra is as relevant today as it was in his times.
PenguineBooks have published a latest translation by one L N Rangarajan. This will throw ample light on this great treatise of our ancestors.
You will then understand what Chanakya was, what he wrote and how he ran the Gupta Empire Economy.
