Challenges Galore

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Some challenges remain to be addressed by Modi government. One of these would be controlling inflation which, according to one estimate, has reached a 14-month high of 6.21%. The food inflation reached a 15-month high of 10.87% in October 2024. In 2023, savings by households dipped to a 50-year low.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done well so far in his third term overcoming some major challenges. But more challenges remain. One of these would be controlling inflation which, according to one estimate, has reached a 14-month high of 6.21%. The food inflation reached a 15-month high of 10.87% in October 2024. In 2023, savings by households dipped to a 50-year low.

Another area on which the Prime Minister would have to work hard is to make the GDP grow. The Reserve Bank of India reduced GDP growth estimates from 7.2% to 6.6% in December 2024. The repo rate was not cut for eleven consecutive terms. Then there is the challenge of attracting foreign investments. According to one estimate 13 thousand crore (1.6 billion USD) worth of foreign direct investment has decreased between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

It is equally important to make the rupee strong. In December 2024, the rupee stayed weak for the third straight session and settled at an all-time low of 85.27 against the US dollar.

The employment scenario does not inspire confidence. Youth unemployment rate has been at 10% for the last two years. As per the Economic Survey, half of all individuals are not ready to be employed after graduating from college.

In the last four years, Rs 5.65 lakh crore has been written off for the industrial sector. Agriculture, the largest employer in the country, received the least attention in terms of loan write-offs among all sectors from Scheduled Commercial Banks. Annually, 17 lakh Indians die from diseases related to insufficient food intake.

Annual growth rate of real wages over the last decade has been close to zero at the all-India level. Rural real wages for the last five years have declined at 0.4% and agricultural wages have become stagnant at 0.2%. Four out of five people earn less than Rs 515 as of 2021.

As per the NCRB, 30 farmers commit suicide every day. Since February 2024, 22 farmers have lost their lives and over 160 have been injured while protesting for a legal guarantee for MSP. Between 2018 and 2020, 443 people died cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Manual scavenging was banned in 2013.This is another area of concern.

Between 2014 and 2019, there were 200 serious attacks on journalists, along with arrests and interrogations. At least 194 journalists were targeted by government agencies, non-state political actors, criminals, and armed opposition groups in 2022 alone.

The representation of women in the 18th Lok Sabha is merely 13.6%. This is even less than the 17th Lok Sabha, which had 14.4% women. Only two out of 24 Parliamentary Standing Committees are chaired by women.

Since 2019, over 100 bills have been passed in less than two hours. In the 17th Lok Sabha, nine out of 10 bills introduced in Parliament have been marked by zero or incomplete consultations.

The opposition feels the government is behaving like a dictator and remains extremely sensitive to criticism. The number of opposition MPs who have been suspended in the last five years has increased 13-fold. As many as 95% cases by the Enforcement Directorate in the last ten years have been filed against those from the Opposition.

The violence in Manipur has continued for more than a year, causing the displacement of 67,000 people, of which 14,000 are school-going students. The state continues to sit on a volcano. All these are challenges; the government must face.

But it is equally true that the Prime Minister is equal to these challenges. Enjoying the support of his partners and the people of the country he remains a strong leader.

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