Indian National Congress pledges to re-set economic policy in its manifesto

A ‘Mahalakshmi scheme’ – the centrepiece of a broad five-year programme of social justice — will provide ₹1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer, India’s main party of Opposition said in its manifesto, ‘Nyay Patra’, launched on Friday.

It also vowed to abolish the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, a short-term military recruitment scheme.

The seven-phase election starts on 19 April, with vote counting taking place on 4 June.

Under the Mahalakshmi scheme, the poor, especially families at the bottom of the income pyramid, will be identified, and the amount transferred directly to the bank account of the oldest woman in the household, the manifesto said.

The INC has also proposed to reform the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme and link it to job creation — so that specific sectors can generate employment by making India one of the top five manufacturing centres. 

In addition, it would introduce a new employment-linked incentive scheme for corporates to encourage additional hiring.

Although India remains the fastest-growing major economy – amid a slowdown in global growth — the Mallikarjun Kharge-led Congress party has been raising the problem of jobless growth as it takes on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the polls.

The economic policy of the Congress is based on three major principles – work, wealth and welfare.

India’s grand old party hopes these will propel the Indian economy to greater heights through a jobs-led growth trajectory while pushing the country to become a manufacturing powerhouse that produces goods and services for itself and the world, the manifesto said.

“The Nav Sankalp Economic Policy will aim to build a fair, just and equal-opportunity economy and bring prosperity to all sections of the people. Congress will herald a new beginning, just as we did in 1991, involving all sections of the people in nation-building,” the INC manifesto said.

The reference to 1991 is to the year when India, under finance minister (later Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, unleashed the era of liberalized economic policies that led to a prolonged spell of high economic growth. 

“The time has come to re-set and re-prioritize our roadmap for economic development in the context of the twin challenges to our economy, namely, unemployment and inflation,” it added.

The INC said that if voted to power, it would help create thousands of jobs, especially for small businesses, while supporting the private sector in its endeavour to create jobs and produce goods and services.

According to a report by Bengaluru-based Azim Premji University, released in September 2023, as many as 42% of Indian graduates under the age of 25 remained unemployed after the covid-19 pandemic, while the pace of job creation decreased following the global economic slowdown.

The report, ‘State of Working India 2023: Social Identities and Labour Market Outcomes’ said that a large variation in the rate of unemployment exists even among people with higher education, as post-covid figures remain below the pre-pandemic levels.

The report cited the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2021-22) data.

However, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation says the unemployment rate in urban areas fell to 6.5% in the three months to December, down from 7.2% in the same period of 2022.

The Congress party also promised to lift the cap on reservation for marginalized castes if it were voted to power.

“Congress has been the most vocal and active champion of the progress of the backward and oppressed classes and castes over the last seven decades. However, caste discrimination is still a reality,” it said.

“Congress will conduct a nationwide Socio-Economic and Caste Census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Based on the data, we will strengthen the agenda for affirmative action,” it said.

If voted to power it would pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50% cap on reservations for scheduled caste, tribes and other backward castes and reserve 10% jobs and seats in educational institutions for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), which will be implemented for all castes and communities without discrimination.

The manifesto said the party, if voted to power, would focus on attracting more private capital to further develop critical infrastructure, moving away from the current practice of using public money to create assets before handing them over to the private sector.

Economic upliftment of the poor is the strong theme of the INC manifesto with a focus on Paanch Nyay or five pillars of justice including — yuva nyay (youth), naari nyay (women), kisaan nyay (farmers), shramik nyay (workers), and hissedarin nyay (female stakeholders).

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Published: 05 Apr 2024, 07:42 PM IST