Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2020-21 in the Lok Sabha on Friday (January 29). It presented a picture of the economic health of the country and gave an idea of what to expect from the union budget, which will be presented on February 1.
While talking about the survey, Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy V Subramanian cited the examples of Malgudi Days, the famous novel from R K Narayan, which was made into an iconic television series in the 80s, and Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots to explain macroeconomics and healthcare.
A story from Malgudi Days
Chapter 4 of the survey is called, ‘Inequality and Growth: Conflict or Convergence?’. It highlights that “both economic growth –as reflected in the income per capita at the state level –and inequality have similar relationships with socio-economic indicators.” It also states that economic growth has a far greater impact on poverty alleviation than inequality. So, given the country’s stage of development, the Survey states, “India must continue to focus on economic growth to lift the poor out of poverty by expanding the overall pie.”
Subramanian says, "All of us, when we were young, we remember the show Malgudi Days. Remember Swami from Malgudi Days? Swami is very good at mathematics. Swami get 100 out of 100 in his mathematics exam. His friend, Shankar, gets only 60 out of 100. His headmaster takes 20 marks away from Swami and gives it to Shankar, and tells Swami that 'I do not like this difference in outcomes. I want both of you to have 80 marks each. So, I did this’."
Elaborating further, Subramanian says that after the incident while Swami goes back home crying to his mother and tells her that he won’t study Maths anymore because, no matter what, he will get 20 marks less, an elated Shankar, rushes home, smiling and tells his mother that he doesn’t need to study anymore, because, anyway he’ll get 20 marks extra.
"Do you think this equality that was achieved was desirable?" says Subramanian.
He goes on to add: "Swami asks his mother, instead of handing over someone else’s marks to Shankar, why doesn’t the teacher give him more time? Wouldn’t it be better if I get to keep my 100 marks, and he, through hard work, scores 80 and gets to keep that?"
Talking about this approach, Subramanian says it’s similar to policy-making, where clarity of objective is very important, where trade-offs must be done in a manner that suits the specific economic context of the day.
Healthcare and 3 Idiots
Subramanian, then goes on to talk about chapters 5 and 9, both of which deal with health. While Chapter 5 is called, 'Healthcare takes centre stage, finally!’, Chapter 9 is titled, ‘JAY Ho: Ayushman Bharat’s Jan Arogya Yojana (JAY) and Health Outcomes’.
He cites another pop culture reference here, when he focuses on a scene from the Hindi movie 3 idiots, where one of the protagonists’ mothers explains how a large part of her salary goes into her husband's medical needs. "Then she laments that because of this there isn’t enough money left for household expenditure, let alone his sister’s wedding. This scene, albeit meant to be humorous, is actually representative of the situation many families in India may find themselves in," says Subramanian.
He says, given the pandemic, this example was pertinent, because finally healthcare has taken centre-stage.
(Edited by : Jomy)
First Published: Jan 29, 2021 7:03 PM IST
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