Congress charts inclusive economic path, says present paradigms create inequality

The economic resolution of the 84th plenary session of the Congress has said that sustained economic growth can be achieved only if the country can be "rescued from the hands of incompetent economic managers" and entrusted to those "who have for many years nurtured the economy and guided it" on the path of all-round economic development.

The resolution, drafted by a sub-group headed by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said sustained economic growth is the path towards becoming a middle-income developed country.

"It is the path to lifting the poor out of poverty. It is the path towards creating a large, vibrant and productive middle class. It is the path to creating wealth and generating government revenues that will enable the State to spend adequately to attain social and redistributive justice," it said.

"We have heard the clamour for change. It is now time for change," the resolution concluded.

Generating productive jobs, providing high quality education, healthcare and social safety net, evolving a balanced labour policy to promote growth and productivity while simultaneously providing security, remunerative wages and quick justice system for the labour, protecting contract labours from exploitation, managing agrarian distress, restoring robust credit growth, promoting new investments and reviving manufacturing and facilitating steady growth in exports that will increase India’s share of global trade are the way forward, the resolution noted.

It said Congress’ economic policy doctrine will rest on the tenets such as prosperity for all through equal economic opportunities without the fear of economic oppression, tax terrorism and overbearing regulation, carefully designed programmes that focus on the needs and aspirations of the poor and the middle class, large investments by the State in education, healthcare and social safety nets and an efficient public service delivery system, a conducive social and policy climate to foster business confidence, reward risk-taking and promote employment with security and the focus on human development indicators along with economic indicators.

The resolution acknowledged that income inequality is a global challenge confronting all modern economies. "Contemporary economic development paradigms that favour returns to capital over returns to labour have resulted in an alarming disparity in income and wealth among individuals. Recent research by economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel has documented that individual income inequality in India has widened significantly in the last three years. Moreover, economists have also highlighted India’s widening regional economic disparity among its States," it said.

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