Tuesday, January 17, 2006

IMF and its rehab program

I read this article recently in The Hindu, thanks to their arrangement with Guardian of UK to share news and information. This is article talks about the efforts undertaken by Argentina to escape the clutches of the IMF and World Bank regulations. There are some important lessons for countries like India, China etc, who are joining the new club of soon-to-be rich nations. There are a lot of important distinctions that separate them from the countries of the South American continent, but still the core issues, of poverty, distribution of wealth and associated social ills are about the same.

For last 10 years or so, India has seen a meteoric rise in its stock amongst the nations of the world, and rightfully so. The inherent talent and economies of scale are finally finding fruition. But, just think 10-20 yrs from now, and you can even see the impacts of the social tension today, when the disparity increases within the country and amongst the other nations of similar caliber. The day is not far off, when the jobs and money that flocked to India, starts their migration out, at the same or faster speed.

For some apparent reason, or i guess because the access to wealth the Govt of India is pretty open to the globalization ideas and concepts and is ready to trample on a few farmers, tribal and workers every once in a while. It also tends to ignore some of these issues, outright in its march towards 'progress'. It is tough to argue against, people are doing well, the country is doing well and the politicians from all parties, ruling or opposition are having a whale of a time. I must admit many steps taken by the Govt seem to be in the apparent right direction. Having lived in the US, and knowing how the Govt, with all the controls available in the US Democracy, can still still fool the public, its not far fetched to think of the same scenario here in the India. I do hope for the sake of me, my children and for the billions that call this country home, we don't have to go thru' some of the horror stories as mentioned in the article, which we may have experienced in the past.

Argentina's unorthodox rehab - The Guardian

Tags: imf, world+bank, india, usa, argentina

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