Narendra Modi became the leader of India ten years ago by promising to improve the economy, and it’s clear that he has made progress. As he runs for prime minister again, the country’s economy is doing really well. The stock markets are growing, and there are lots of new buildings and highways being built.
There are problems in the government that his opponents want to use to their advantage. This includes many people not having jobs, being poor for a long time, and only a few people in India being able to benefit from the country’s success.
“Rich people are doing very well with the economy, but poor people are having a hard time,” explained Milan Vaishnav, who works at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have stayed popular since he first became prime minister in 2014. He promised to prioritize Hindu interests and vowed to improve the economy by shifting from farming to industry, something past governments couldn’t do.
He said he would stop the corruption that has been around for a long time and use the large number of workers in the country to build a strong manufacturing industry. During his campaign this spring, Modi promised to make India’s economy the third-largest in the world, after the US and China. Votes will be counted on Tuesday.
Modi has done well. The economy is getting bigger by 7% and over 500 million people in India have opened bank accounts during his time in office. This is a big step toward making the economy more formal, because many jobs are still not officially recorded and no taxes are paid on them. His government has spent a lot of money on fixing the old infrastructure to attract investment. They also made the welfare program simpler and are using it to try to win support from poor and unhappy voters.
Despite these improvements, Modi’s economic strategies have not been successful in creating jobs that move people from low-paying, unstable work to stable, well-paid jobs. With more people unable to find good jobs, inequality has become a big issue in the election.
While there are more and more millionaires in India, almost 90% of the people who can work make less money than the country’s average yearly income of about $2,770, according to a study from the World Inequality Lab. The richest 1% have more than 40% of the country’s money, while the poorest 50% have only just over 6%, according to the study.
To stop people from being unhappy about the economy, Modi and the BJP want to win the support of poor and unhappy voters by giving them over $400 billion in support and money.
Their main plan for helping people is to give out free food to 800 million people. It was there before and it is a right in India’s National Food Security Act. During the pandemic, the program grew a lot to give free grain instead of just cheap. It will continue for another five years starting in January.
About 300 different programs have helped hundreds of millions of people get things they need for their homes, like cooking gas tanks and toilets, for free. Millions of houses have been made for people who don’t have a lot of money. Now, they can easily get water, Wi-Fi, and electricity. The government is giving more money to farmers and other important groups of voters.
When Rajesh Prajapati lost his job at a chemical factory in Prayagraj, a city in India’s biggest state, Uttar Pradesh, his family of five lived on food from the government.
“He said that for almost a year, the free food was the only thing that made them feel better. That’s why they voted for Modi again. ”
Indian political parties have always promised to help the people in order to get votes during elections. However, experts say that the BJP has performed better.
Now, the government gives benefits like money, retirement funds and loans directly to people’s bank accounts. This helps stop fraud and cheating by getting rid of middlemen.
These big giveaways help for now, but some people think they are just a quick solution and a sign that the economy is getting worse. To make things more equal, we need to invest in health and education. These areas have not improved much in recent years, according to Ashoka Mody, a Princeton University economist.
Subsidies can be good, but they cannot help people and their children have a better future.
Tuntun Sada, a farmer from Samastipur, a city in Bihar, said the 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of free food that helps feed his family of six each month has only slightly made their lives better. He still makes less than $100 a month by working for rich landowners in their fields.
“People like us don’t get a lot,” Sada said. “Modi needs to do what he says he will do. ” “If we don’t make enough money, how will we take care of our children. ”
The free food doesn’t last the whole month. There is no running water in his area, and there are no schools nearby for his four children to go to. He said he needs a better job.
Modi’s opponents, led by the Congress party, are hoping that the lack of jobs will hurt the BJP’s chances of winning the election. Prior to the election, a study by the Center for Study of Developing Societies discovered that over 60% of voters were concerned about not having a job and thought that it was harder to find one. Only 12 out of every 100 people felt that there were more job and money-making options available.
The government’s official data says that the unemployment rate is going down, but some experts are not sure if it is accurate. The International Labor Organization recently reported that many young people in India don’t have jobs. It also found that over 40% of Indians are still working in the same way as before.
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Modi emphasises India’s thriving economy in his reelection campaign
