Subsidies in Industrialization is More than that in Agriculture
Posted on April 30, 2008 in Business and Finance by Shewli
Recent inflation is caused by rise in prices of oil and food, which has caused a concern in the minds of the politicians about the votes. India’s poor hardly earn two dollars a day, which is even, less than the rate of wages fixed by the government.
Many are talking of subsidizing food prices etc. But why does the question of food subsidy arise even after almost sixty years of independence? Have food subsidies benefited the poor at all or it led to more and more scams? Corruption is so high in agricultural sector that the small farmers can hardly reap the benefits.
The subsidies in food and agriculture have been a much talked of issue. Year after year subsidies in agriculture have become a debated issue without effecting much change in the actual scenario. But the subsidies in industrial sectors are hardly talked of. It comes with such air and secrecy that nobody till date asked them to lay it bare.
Industrial sectors are given subsidies, which can hardly be imagined for the debt-ridden states in India. The development policies in India are hardly inclusive in nature and an economy that is primarily agricultural in nature the investments made in the agricultural sectors are hardly worth talking of.
The amount of subsidies that Tata is offered in West Bengal goes beyond the roof. The subsidies that software companies received in Karnataka are also the same. Subsidies in land, power etc. is disproportionate with what an agricultural sector gets in India.
The OECD countries get more subsidies than what India earmarks for its people and the people are made to feel that the government is pro-agriculturists while in reality more investments are made in industrial sectors. The services sector recently is responsible for the economic growth that India is enjoying now but we do not know what are type of investments made by the government there.
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