Adding insult to injury

Dailies are regularly informing the land’s people about its volatile economic health, often flashing the trend under multi-column headline, with expressions indicating less-than-targetted Gross Domestic Product (GDP), fiscal deficit and current account deficit not within norms, slowdown of the economy, declining volume of public consumption and so on. Even as the reports relating to these issues are pouring in, the top brass in the Government is upbeat about reversing the trend in the worsening economic health while the vociferous speakers in the Opposition are passing strongly worded remarks, adding insult to injury as it were. Lay readers of the dailies may not grasp the full meaning of most of the expressions originating from the pundits but cannot miss the sting in the outcome of the nation’s economic ill health, particularly unabated rise in unemployment, soaring prices of all consumer goods, road shows hurting normal life in society by various outfits protesting Government’s policies and measures, lawless scenes created by anti-social elements, unrest in the industry sector and so on. The cost of not arresting these consequences to the nation is not only mounting by the day but also hurting the nation’s economic health beyond the ability of the ruling class.

People-friendly policies, programmes consistent with most of those policies and impressive slogans egging the people to pull up their socks and contribute their mite to the revival of the sagging economy seem to have hit a roadblock in the implementation stages, thanks to the perfunctory style of working by the functionaries in the Government, barring exceptions.

Irrespective of the political party or coalition of parties vested with the onerous responsibility of governing the country, whole-hearted and cohesive participation of the citizens, particularly the economically productive sections, in keeping the wheels of progress in the eternal motion cannot be overemphasised. Letting the educated youth of the country to remain unemployed is being blamed on successive Governments. Sources in the industry are lamenting that majority of University graduates in engineering subjects are lacking in skills enough to be taken in even as the atmosphere of unrest among the workforce seems to be left unaddressed. The prescription of reviving labour-intensive traditional trades, suited to the rural areas as suggested by a successful entrepreneur has its merits.

Engaging human resources in economically sound programmes, bestowing top priority to this action, needs whole-hearted participation by the players in industry and business sector, considering the view sourced to an official in IMF (International Monetary Fund), an organisation of 189 countries, that automation may take away nearly ten percent of existing jobs in the country. Achieving the ideal of wages sufficient to support the family of each worker lies in the lap of the worker only.