1 India PM in Washington Post’s eyes (Simon Denyer in The
Washington Post) India’s Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh helped set his country on the path to modernity, prosperity and
power, but critics say the shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old is in danger of going
down in history as a failure. The architect of India’s economic reforms, Singh
was a major force behind his country’s rapprochement with the US and is a
respected figure on the world stage. But the image of the scrupulously
honorable, humble and intellectual technocrat has slowly given way to a
completely different one: a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a
deeply corrupt government.
The story of Singh’s dramatic fall from grace in his second
term in office and the slow but steady tarnishing of his reputation have played
out in parallel with his country’s decline on his watch. As India’s economy has
slowed and as its reputation for rampant corruption has reasserted itself, the
idea that the country was on an inexorable road to becoming a global power has
increasingly come into question. “More and more, he has become a tragic figure
in our history,” said political historian Ramachandra Guha, describing a man
fatally handicapped by his “timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty.”
Singh finally did open his mouth last week, to rebut
criticism from the government auditor that the national treasury had been
cheated of billions of dollars after coal-mining concessions were granted to
private companies for a pittance — including during a five-year period when Singh
doubled as coal minister. “It has been my general practice not to respond to
motivated criticism directed personally at me,” he said. “My general attitude
has been, ‘My silence is better than a thousand answers; it keeps intact the
honor of innumerable questions.’ ”
“I’m a small person put in this big chair,” Singh told
broadcaster Charlie Rose in 2006. “I have to do my duty, whatever task is
allotted of me.” From the start, it was clear that the ruling United
Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi held the real reins of power. The
Gandhi family has ruled India for most of its post-independence history and
enjoys an almost cult-like status within the Congress party. Sonia’s word was
destined to remain law.
“His gut instincts are very good, but sometimes he suffers
from doubts about the political feasibility, about getting things done,” said
Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a Columbia University professor who has been friends with
Singh since their Cambridge days. Singh will go down in history as India’s
first Sikh prime minister and the country’s third-longest-serving premier, but
also as someone who did not know when to retire, Guha said.
“He is obviously tired, listless, without energy,” he said.
“At his time of life, it is not as though he is going to get a new burst of
energy. Things are horribly out of control and can only get worse for him, for
his party and for his government.”
(Asian Age reports
that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni termed as unfortunate
the Washington Post report that has described Manmohan Singh as a silent Prime
Minister, saying the government will seek an apology from the editor and
publisher of the US daily.)
2 ILO sees youth
unemployment rising (Khaleej Times) Global unemployment among young people is
likely to rise over the next five years, according to a new report from the
International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO said jobless rates among people
under 25 worldwide are expected to inch up to 12.9% by 2017, up by 0.2% points
from forecasts for this year, but youth in developing countries will be worst
affected.
The highest youth
unemployment ILO predicted for the Middle East region, where the jobless rate
among young people would jump from 26.4% currently to 28.4% in 2017. In the
Southeast Asia and Pacific region, ILO forecast the rate to rise from 13.1 to
14.2% over the next five years
3 Australia growth slows (BBC) Australia's economic growth
rate slowed in the second quarter amid a drop global demand for its resources
and lacklustre domestic consumption. Growth was 3.7% in the April to June
period, from a year earlier. That is down from 4.3% annual growth in the same
period last year.
There are fears that Australia's growth may slow further as
demand for its resources slows. "We are moving into a fairly risky phase
of the Australian economy with the mining sector looking a bit ragged,"
said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors. Australia's mining
sector has been one of the biggest drivers of its growth in recent years.
Slowing growth in key markets such as China and India has
hurt demand for Australia's resources and impacted the sector's growth. To make
matters worse, prices of commodities such as iron ore have also fallen in
recent months, hurting mine companies' profits. That has forced some companies
to put their expansion plans on hold, hurting investment in the economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment