The Hindu Business Line : Beyond GDP

This is with reference to "Manufacturing pushes GDP growth to record 8.9 pc in Q1" (Business Line, September 30): Can one live by GDP alone? The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has vowed to take the reform process further in view of the sound macro economic situation — GDP growth rate of 8.9 per cent in Q1 of the current fiscal and moderation in inflation rate. It is more than 15 years since liberalisation and `globalisation' became the mantra of economists.

But economists of repute have repudiated globalisation as a means to remove poverty. GDP growth has not helped close to a third of the population who continue to live below the poverty line. Terms like `macro-economics' and `reform processes' will not give the hungry what they need — food and shelter.

When our leaders take decisions that benefit the rich, let them not say that it is going to help the poorest of the poor.

V. S. Venkatavaradan

Salem

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