Modi touts India’s progress, but many feel excluded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting a spotlight on the remarkable strides India has made economically during his tenure as he vies for reelection. The growth rate of India has been astonishing in the past five years and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now claiming that he would ensure that the UP becomes the Number One state in India in the following five years if he is re-elected for the second term. Modi’s rhetoric puts economic deformity at the central stage, enumerating strengths including the fact that India has maintained healthy GDP growth rates, comparable records in stock market. These achievements have been attributed to improved foreign investment, enhance in technology, and improvement in communication technology.

Some of the signs and trends that show that things are improving are seen in the manufacturing industries, the service sector and technology industry. In this regard, India has targeted and lured appropriate FDI required for its development through policies like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. Further, megastructures that include constructions of New Road, Airport, Smart Cities and so on are harboring hope about the economic growth in India.

Nonetheless, as employees and consumers celebrate their achievements in their respective industries, the issue of inequality continues to emerge in the spotlight. Economic growth has, however, been stated to elicit social costs given that it does not spread evenly and hence elevates the disparity of income. The agricultural households, the vulnerable groups, and rural population are experiencing socio-economic challenges such as increasing cost of living accompanied by diminishing incomes and restricted availability of basic necessities. Persistent issues such as unemployment rate – especially among the youthful population in the country – present a challenge.

Unreasonable inflation especially in core goods and services directly impacts the middle and lower income earners because the high prices of food and fuel drain their meager earnings. In addition, there is also a very large population that is employed in the low-productivity informal sector that has not been able to grow or even recovery. As a result, people have been left with a view of themselves as outsiders to the promised progress, which then breeds discontent and skepticism with regards to the state’s management of the economy.

This economic differential make(s) a tall order for Modi who wants to be re-elected as the head of government in India. While some epithet the economic and infrastructural development aspects, others call for the implementation of more socialist practices that can meet the needs of the marginalized. The public has a varied perception over modernization where others appreciate government’s effort in advancing the economic state of the nation while others have called for more openness in the modernization process.

To address these issues, Modi provides details of the policy initiatives to come in order to correct these disparities. These plans are as follows – increasing the budget outlay for the development of rural areas, supporting youth and the unorganized sector for engaging into production activities for generation of jobs and putting measures for checking the rising inflationary tendencies.

Most of Modi’s campaign in the current election is still based on the economic success but the measures of success in democracy are based on the ratio in which the success of the nation is replicated in each segment of the population, without leaving anyone behind. One primary goal that needs to be achieved is to reduce the unrest of citizens who have some kind of an injustice done on them, which is beneficial for maintaining social order and proper economic development.

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