economic policy & Labour

Climate Politics and Class

THE climate crisis that the humanity faces has been addressed by bourgeoisie theorists as a non-class issue to be resolved either by restraining consumption or by internalising climate costs in prices that disfavours polluters. The presumption for such theories is that individual consumption patterns involve increasing use of energy and particularly fossil fuel and to restrict carbon emissions climate action calls for restricting consumption.Tax on polluters and subsidizing green goods alters the price signals in the market and facilitates ecologically sustainable consumption habits.

Creative Labour and Platform Economy

THE value of creative labour has always been very context specific and dependent on subjective appreciation of the buyer of the products of such labour. The importance of aesthetic value of products has increased particularly with increased possibility of customisation of products. This has also increased the demand for artists, designers and different types of content creators who could add value to the product or service beyond its core uses.

Decline in Labour’s Share Continues

LABOUR income continues to decline as a share of global GDP and contributes to the rising inequality in income prevalent across the world. Inequality is generally discussed in terms of disparities in personal income and how that varies across skill and education scale. These income inequality measures often try to ignore the fact that income gaps widen between groups of people defined by their position vis-a-vis means of production and property relation.

Decline in FDI Inflows

ONE of the main arguments advanced by the proponents of liberalisation policies in developing countries including India is that capital would flow to the global South in search of higher rate of return. This would create new investments and hence growth and employment would increase. Also, the inflow of foreign funds would bring tangible outcomes of higher technological learning which are embodied in machines and organisational culture.

Revisiting Controversies on Employment Figures

IT is now evident from the latest NSSO report on unincorporated enterprise that the informal sector in India suffered a big jolt in employment and value added in the past six years. The RBI has recently come out with KLEMS database latest estimates of a rise of employment from 47.5 crore in 2017-18 to 64.33 crores in 2023-24 claiming a rise of employment in the tune of 16.83 crore in the past five years. This is also backed by the fact that 6.2 crores of net subscribers joined the EPFO payroll indicating a rise in formal employment in the past five years.

‘Fiscal Prudence’ for People but Largesse to Corporates

THE budget 2024-25 presented by the finance minister of the newly elected NDA government expresses the political and economic tensions of the coalition government and a half-hearted attempt to appear to be addressing the major issues that drove the election results. True, that India is currently the fastest growing economy of the world, when Europe is yet to come out of the protracted stagnation, low growth in the US and Canada and China records a relative slowing down after long stretches of high growth.

Reduced Wage Share and the Reserve Army of Labour

THE radical shift in labour relations from regimes of standard employment to fragmented and flexibilised labour force under neoliberalism is signified by a radical shift of responsibilities of the reproduction of labour force from the capitalist employer to the State through the denial of indirect wage payments to workers. One of the major achievements of labour movement in the past was the recognition of elements as constituents of wage and benefits that ensured the reproduction of labour force in its totality.

Unprecedented Inequality in the ‘Billionaire Raj’

IT is the time when Instagram feeds will be flooded with photos and reels of the mega fortnight marriage event of the Ambanis and the eye balls of average Indians would be rolling to follow the spectacle of wealth, offering glaring evidence of the billionaire raj that India could produce at the end of three decades of neoliberal reforms. According to the latest study of the World Inequality Lab, India’s inequality levels have reached unprecedented levels, highest ever since 1922.

Profit-Investment Gap in the Corporate Sector

PRIVATE corporate sector in India seems to have recorded historically high rates of profits during the post-Covid three years. The average net profit in a quarter suffered a steep decline during the successive quarters ending on March and June 2020 but since the quarter ending September 2020, the net profits of corporate sector recovered by about seven times compared to the pandemic period and touched a record level in the recent period.In spite of high rates of income growth and increased share of profit within income, investment growth didn’t show adequate response.

Services and Capital Accumulation

COMMODIFICATION of services is one of the major avenues of expanding the realm of capital in the neoliberal age. Commodity for Marx has no reference to corporeal reality. Something which is produced for sale whether it is goods or services does not make a conceptual difference in Marx’s notion of commodity. For Marx, commodity is a social relationship independent of its physical nature. The expansion of services in the count of GDP is partly because of commodification of services which were earlier supplied from a community or collectively owned pool.

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