Editorial : Good try, Mr Kumar, but it won’t fly

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NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has sought to steer the Swadeshi Jagran Manch to a new approach to evaluating(मूल्यांकन करना/आंकना) the swadeshi (indigenous) coefficient(गुणांक) of an economic activity on the basis of two criteria(मानदंड/मापदंड): does it promote faster economic growth, and does it promote creation of good-quality local jobs? This is a decent effort to bring some objectivity to how the economic think tankcum-pressure group of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological(वैचारिक/विचारधारा) sponsor( प्रायोजक) of the BJP, reacts to economic and commercial developments, such as foreign investment in the Indian economy.

However, the Manch is likely to be unmoved by this advice, for two reasons. One, these criteria do not address the element of sovereignty(प्रभुत्व/साम्राज्य). If the East India Company were to deliver fast growth and many jobs, should that leave Indians content? Secondly, what is a good-quality job is left ill-defined — some might find mixing drinks for, waiting on, putting on song and dance shows for, otherwise entertaining playing host to, transporting and showing around foreign tourists to be good-quality jobs, while others might not. The simple reality is that there is no sense whatsoever in trying to assess individual economic activities as swadeshi-positive or -negative. It is the overall growth strategy into which individual activities and developments meld that determines(निर्धारित करता है) whether it enhances national well being and sovereignty or not. Who does greater service to the Indian economy, an indigenous miner who digs up iron ore and exports it or a foreign steel major who buys some of that iron ore to produce steel locally? Is a foreign exploration(जंच पड़ताल/खोज) company that actually finds oil and gas to be deemed inferior(कम माना जाता है to a firm that blunders endlessly around exploration blocks but is solidly Indian-owned? Flipkart was owned for the most part by foreign capital, so when Walmart bought it over, the bulk of the money went to foreign investors. The point about Flipkart was that it showed Indian entrepreneurial(उद्यमशीलता /उद्यमी) ability to use foreign capital and the Indian market to create value. See it as proof of concept. The real action is yet to unfold.

 Important Vocabulary

1.Coefficient(गुणांक)
Synonyms: agreeing, coacting, coactive, coadjuvant,

2.Sovereignty(प्रभुत्व/साम्राज्य).
Synonyms: dominance, jurisdiction, supremacy, ascendancy, ascendant
Antonyms: submission

3.Exploration(जंच पड़ताल/खोज)
Synonyms: analysis, examination, expedition, inspection, research
Antonyms: ignorance

4.Entrepreneurial(उद्यमशीलता /उद्यमी)
Synonyms: ambitious, enterprising, entrepreneurial,, go-getting, gumptious
Antonyms: denied
vetoed

5.Evaluating(मूल्यांकन करना/आंकना)
Synonyms: appraise, assess, calculate, check, check out
Antonyms: neglect