JP Morgan: India's lowest growth in 5 years, 5.8%, worrying; recovery may be slow

Commenting on India’s January-March 2019 GDP growth, which "surprised sharply to the downside, printing at a 5-year low of 5.8%", JP Morgan, the American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City, has said that it has not just "dragged down full-year growth also to a five-year low of 6.8%".
It underlines, "The GDP undershoot reinforces the discernable slowdown that is currently underway. Growth has largely been flying on one engine in recent years – private consumption – and that has gotten progressively exhausted."
Worse, in its commentary, authored by Sajjid Z Chinoy and Toshi Jain, who are with the top MNC's Emerging Markets Asia Economic and Policy Research wing, say, even this is "buffeted by sustained rural distress and a significant tightening of financial conditions amongst the Non Bank Financial Companies (NBFC), which have largely been financing consumption."

Continue the JP Morgan experts, as for public investment, it suffers from "lack of fiscal space with the total public sector borrowing requirement rising to almost 9% of GDP", and while exports bounced back strongly in 2018-19, they "are likely to slow meaningfully as global uncertainty rises (especially after the US has opened up a second flank in its trade war) and global growth momentum slows."

Giving figures on how Gross Value Added in agriculture and industry have been going down over the last one year, JP Morgan predicts, "Slowing consumption growth at home along with a cloudy outlook for exports, creates the worrying prospect of some hysteresis and suggests growth is likely to recover only slowly in the coming quarters."

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Frontline heroes, marginalized citizens: How Dalit ASHA workers face caste discrimination

A comprehensive investigative report published by BehanBox and authored by Sarasvati Thuppadolla reveals the pervasive, systemic caste-based discrimination faced by Dalit Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) across rural India. Even though India’s one million ASHA workers were collectively honored by the World Health Organization with the Global Health Leaders Award in 2022 for their pivotal role in reducing maternal and infant mortality, their marginalized caste identity frequently dictates the harsh terms of their acceptance by the communities they serve.

‘Supplementary at best': Ex-Union secretary rejects sociologist’s alternatives to Kalpasar

In a sharp rejoinder over the proposed Kalpasar reservoir project in the Gulf of Khambhat, with former Government of India Secretary Babubhai Navalawala has dismissed the alternatives floated by veteran sociologist Prof. Vidyut Joshi as mere “supplements” rather than substitutes for the mega project. In the rejoinder to Prof. Joshi’s recent column Samudra Manthan in Gujarati daily Sandesh (see news item here ), Navalawala has argued that the scientific options suggested by the sociologist cannot replace Kalpasar.

Rethink Kalpasar, end 'civil engineering mindset' in Gujarat's water strategy

Prof. Vidyut Joshi, a prominent sociologist and one of the leading protagonists of the mega Narmada dam project, has raised critical questions regarding the viability of Gujarat’s ambitious Kalpasar project. Writing in the Gujarati daily Sandesh under the headline "Let us consider alternatives scientifically for the Kalpasar project," Joshi argues that rather than remaining trapped in a "civil engineering mindset" focused solely on constructing massive dams, the state must pivot to modern, sustainable, and technologically viable alternatives to quench the thirst of the arid Saurashtra region.

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