By Nishant Xavier –
Have you ever wished to be free from temporal cares, so that you could dedicate yourself 24/7 to the Glory of God, the spread of His Kingdom, and the care of souls? Well, then, all such persons should earnestly be thinking how, in accordance with Catholic social teaching and moral principles, we can jumpstart the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our country to achieve a high degree of economic growth in this next decade – which would benefit all Indians, and improve our standard of living. Those who are talented or skilled in this field are called to use it for beneficial service to others.
Also Read: India @ 71: Gospel Mission & Economic Vision for 2030!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.” [para 1938]
The First Step in the Realm of Monetary Policy – An Expansionary Policy of Low Interest Rates:
New forward thinking is gripping central bankers around the world, like “permazero”, the idea that keeping central bank interest rates low permanently would be good for the economy.
James Bullard, head of the St. Louis Federal Bank in the US, explains: The financial crisis of 2007-09 and its aftermath turned monetary economics and policymaking on its head and called into question many of the conventional views held before the crisis. One of the most popular and enduring views in all of monetary economics since the 1970s, and indeed since the 1940s, has been that a nominal interest rate peg is poor monetary policy and that attempts to pursue such a policy would lead to ruin… Yet, post-crisis U.S. monetary policy could be interpreted as exactly that—an interest rate peg—and an extreme one at that, since the policy rate has remained near zero for nearly seven years … should we find ourselves in a persistent state of low nominal interest rates and low inflation, some of our fundamental assumptions about how U.S. monetary policy works may have to be altered.”
It’s already well known expansionary monetary policy leads to economic boom: And predictably, that is what has happened. CNBC reports, “The U.S. is officially [2019] in its longest expansion, breaking the record of 120 months of economic growth from March 1991 to March 2001, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.” Just because of a good Low Interest Rate Policy that we can replicate. Therefore, if we keep the Repo Rate low in our country, we will see both low inflation, and high economic growth. The results for the US can very well be replicated in our country as well.
The Catholic Church has long taught, based on the Bible, that interest rates, especially on non-productive loans must be kept low or near zero, for as long as possible. Our economy can easily touch and even surpass 10% if we begin to take this simple step. Even inflation will come down.
The US experience shows inflation remained low as interest rate was kept low. Growth became high.
The Second Prescription to cure our ailing economy – Mass Produce Electric Vehicles Next Decade:
Imagine an American living in India, earning in dollars, but buying commodities in rupees. If he buys an ample number of goods, the demand for rupees, and consequently the price of rupees in terms of USD, will go up. Thus, mass production of Indian commodities, for which there is high demand, will increase the rupee rate versus the dollar. This is just a simple illustration of a bigger issue.
Mass production of Electric vehicles will also improve our economy by itself and decrease our dependence on foreign oil. In time, we can be entirely self-sufficient and save on petrol costs.
12% Growth Rate for 10 Years will increase our economy to 8 Trillion in Dollars by 2030. Bringing the Dollar rate down to just around 57 INR (80% of what it is now) would suffice to cross 10T. Imagine if we could bring it down to 50 or less, as without doubt we could do, by the above.
At 10% Growth Rate, we would have to bring Dollar Rate all the way down to 48 INR per USD.
The Third Prescription for our Economy once Energy Independence is achieved –institute Q-UBI. Some feasability calculations:
The Union Budget for 2020 will be presented soon. Instituting a social dividend of at least Rs 1000 per month for the 40% poorest families in our country would be a huge step forward toward almost eliminating poverty. GST collection for January alone would almost pay for it [40% of 25 Crore Households in India*1000=10,000 Crore p.m=1.2 lakh Crore per annum. GST collection was 1.15 lakh Crore. It is certainly do-able]
This is something which – in accordance with Our Lord’s Command to do to the poor as we would do unto Him (St. Mat 25:40), and the Church’s Heroic emphasis on caring for the lowly and downtrodden, as epitomized by our beloved St. Mother Mary Theresa of Calcutta – we cannot afford to be indifferent to. It would not cost that much, but it would be a huge relief. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had proposed something similar.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said such initiatives would boost demand, because they place more money in the people’s hands. So the implementation of such a scheme would undoubtedly pay for itself in the long run and also spur growth. We cannot be indifferent to the massive poverty levels in our country.
All India must prosper. All of us must unite as brothers and sisters of one family and grow together. That is Catholic teaching on social solidarity.
“CCC 1942: The virtue of solidarity goes beyond material goods. In spreading the spiritual goods of the faith, the Church has promoted, and often opened new paths for, the development of temporal goods as well. And so throughout the centuries has the Lord’s saying been verified: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well”:47
Conclusion: Reaching the Goal of 10 Trillion Dollars for our GDP. Some concluding reflections:
The Bible and the Church teach us to pray always for the leaders of our nation (1 Tim 2:2) that they may make good decisions in every sphere, and for God to Anoint and Select leaders after His own heart (Acts 13:22) for high office. Such leaders would be true fathers or mothers and shepherds to our people, and care for their true good, and work to improve their standard of living. We will see our wages going up, and our costs coming down. India can become the most peaceful and most prosperous nation throughout the globe on the face of the Earth, if we take these steps and strive to implement them.
Let it be our goal and our prayer at every waking moment going forward: 10 Trillion Dollar Economy, 10 Crore Indians for Christ by 2030, out of our near 140 Crore people. After that, we will aim higher. 30 Trillion Dollars by 2040; and to win 50 Crore Indians for Christ by the end of the next decade [2040].
For God’s Glory, and for India’s Progress, we can and should aim so high and work hard to reach it!
A reminder of how high the stakes are, if we really care for others, and love our people: “If India wants to become a $5-trillion economy, it requires a single-minded focus. Too much negative energy is being generated on issues like Kashmir, the CAA-NRC. We are at a 5 per cent growth rate and we have to climb up to 8 per cent if we want to achieve the goal. And these are not just numbers: a 1 per cent increase in economic growth brings 15 lakh jobs, with each job creating three indirect jobs, which each in turn supports five people. So, 1 per cent growth brings happiness to three crore people.”
Nishant Xavier lives in Chennai, India. He works in investment banking. He has a great desire that India will be blessed and enriched with the wealth and treasures of the Gospel and the Sacraments. He wishes to work for the uplift of the poor and so that India may become the most advanced, prosperous and successful nation in the world. You can reach out to him anytime with questions or thoughts on [email protected]