ADVANCED economies had been worst hit by the financial crisis when real GDP fell in 34 out of 37 advanced economies of the world. The growth rate recovery was slow and it took about three to five years for most of these countries to get back to their pre-crisis levels. Some argue that western capitalism has entered into a phase of secular stagnation characterised by low private investment and declining productivity. Capitalism is a system driven by investments mobilised by capitalists in view of future expectation of profits.

THE euphoria on India becoming the third largest economy by 2030 or a 5 trillion-dollar economy soon backed by estimates by rating agencies assuming 7 per cent growth rate in 2026-27 and further, has been showcased as one of the great achievements of the current regime that seem to have exalted India’s position in the global scenario. To begin with some initial facts, India’s GDP in current prices is 3.39 trillion US dollars and in constant 2015 US dollar prices it is 2.95 trillion US dollars.

THE collapse of the Soviet Union was a sigh of relief to the imperialist forces of the world who were desperately trying to suffocate the emerging alternative that in a lightning pace not only could achieve the growth and development of the advanced economies of the world but more importantly could offer an alternative system against the global hegemony of capital.In 1931, Stalin remarked that Russia was about fifty to hundred years behind the level of growth of productive forces achieved by advanced capitalist countries and that gap needs to be covered within ten years.

THE Periodic Labour Force Survey quarterly bulletin released by the National Statistical Office, Government of India on October 9 for the quarter April-June 2023 has attracted media attention for a 0.1 percentage point increase in worker population ratio (WPR) and 0.3 percentage point increase in labour force participation rate (LFPR) for the working age population in the urban segment compared to the previous quarter.

A SIGNIFICANT change in the composition of global trade and investment perhaps marks the process of current phase of globalisation. Two decades before, north-north trade was around 60 per cent of the global trade, north-south trade accounted around 30 per cent and south-south trade was roughly 10 per cent of global trade, which is now almost equally distributed between these three directions of trade.