The Russian invasion of Ukraine is unlike the many ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world – whether in Arab countries or in Africa or between India and China. A military superpower, Russia, has decided to invade Ukraine which is backed to a certain extent by the US and NATO. While the latter have repeatedly stated that they will not send their troops to defend Ukraine, they are imposing tough sanctions against Russia and its rulers.
Assessing improvements in India’s military capability is difficult, particularly when it comes to the three armed forces securing their requirements in a timely manner. The nature of warfare is experiencing remarkable transformation in the last two decades. In the last few years, highly sophisticated technology and radical new doctrines have evolved. Besides, India’s security dynamics are complicated by numerous threats and difficulties at home and abroad as well. It will necessitate the development of multi-domain skills as well as the execution of all of our operations simultaneously and in shorter time frames. The expansion and modernization of the Indian military have occurred in stages, primarily in response to threatening developments popping up in the surrounding region such as Indo-Pacific theatre, the belligerent posture of the Pakistan-China axis with Pakistan now more eager to exercise its tactical nuke option, and China’s pursuit of ‘string of pearls’ and the evolving global strategic environment prone to dent the perceptions and decisions of India’s strategic community and political elites.
The Union Budget 2022-23 was expected to take steps to tackle the problem of inadequacy of demand so that the economy’s rate of growth could be accelerated. This problem has persisted and had led to the rate of growth slowing down in the last four years. In turn, this problem is linked to the growing inequality in the country, which has been highlighted by several recent reports. The latest report is from the non-profit think tank People’s Research on India’s Consumer Economy [PRICE]. It shows not only the aggravation of inequality but also of poverty since 60 per cent at the bottom who were already poor or close to the poverty line lost incomes.
Political parties are outdoing each other promising free electricity and water, laptops, cycles, mixies, etc.. Implementation of these promises will have economic implications that are not negative in the present circumstances. Disdainfully these are called `freebies’ and characterized as fiscally imprudent. The well-off and businesses get `freebies’ euphemistically called `incentives’. Since 2006, the Union Budget estimates them to be between Rs.4 and Rs.6 lakh crore each year. If the well-off who don’t really need `freebies’ can get so much, why can’t the marginalized (especially the women and the young) get a fraction of it?
Budget proposals bode well for the infrastructure sector. However, unless the Government’s plan is backed by institutional reforms, we will not be able to exploit the true potential of urbanization