Impacts of New Economic Policy in India

Impacts of  New Economic Policy in India

This era of reforms has also ushered in a remarkable change in the Indian mindset.

Social and cultural impacts

Access to television grew from 10% of the urban population (1991) to 75% of the urban population (1999).Cable television and foreign movies became widely available for the first time and have acted as a catalyst in bulldozing the cultural boundaries.

All these technologies have changed perceptions and dreams of ordinary people.

-Unmarried boys and girls are sharing same apartment and staying away from their parents.

-Indian youths leaving education in mid-way and joining MNC's

-There has been an increase in the violence, particularly against women.

Scientific and technological innovations have made life quite comfortable, fast and enjoyable.

-More availability of cheap and filthy material (CD's or DVD's of Hollywood movies, porn movies, sex toys, foreign channels like MTV) in the name of liberalization.

-In India, land-line or basic phone was a prestige symbol few years back but now you find people riding bicycle with a mobile in hand, talking or listening music or even clicking cameras of their phones targeting pretty girls or ladies.

-Society has become more open compared to its earlier conservative look due to exposure to other cultures through DTH or cable network.

-This has contributed to dating, celebration of friendship days/valentine day, and resulted to rising number of call girls and make them more prone to sexually transmitted diseases .

-People are less worried for government jobs as MNC's and private or public sector are offering more lucrative jobs.

-Extension of internet facilities even to rural areas.

-In place of old cinema halls, multiplex theatres are coming up.

-Old restaurants are now replaced by Mc. Donald. Fast food and Chinese dishes have replaced juice corners and Parathas.

-More inflow of money has aggravated deep rooted problem of corruption?

-More scandals and scams compared tp pre-globalization era.

-Girls being blackmailed by their ex-boy friends using MMS

-Ban on TV channels for showing sex and violence violating all norms

-Girls being raped in moving vehicles

-There is deterioration in social values as evident from less respect for ladies, older people

Economic Impacts

Notwithstanding what has been listed above, globalization has definitely brought positive changes and been helpful in improving living conditions of people. Improvement in financial status and livelihood of people can be understood by the following figures and facts:

Personal Finance:

Entry of the private sector banks has completely transformed the functioning of public sector banks.Opening up of mutual funds; thirty five players; 15 joint ventures

Commencement of the depository that helped common men to become the retail investors

Deregulation of insurance industry; Nineteen players; 14 joint ventures in life insurance sector

Fall in interest rates; smaller monthly installments made life more simple to Indian customer

ATM's (Automated Teller Machines) made bank transactions more easier to common men than few years back

Online trading, online purchanse of various finance products and online banking have helped common men to participate in investment process.

Job Sector:

Salaries are now more attractive than in the nineties.Average annual IT salary has increased from Rs 1.6 lakh in 1998 to Rs 5.5 lakh in 2008

Students get selected by the companies through campus recruitment an year before the date of completion of their technical education.

Large salary hikes than offered few years ago.

More emphasis on performance and not on number of years in the job

More flexibilities in timings and work from home arrangements are becoming common

In the last ten years, annual revenue of software industries has grown by 350%.

Around 1.16 crore people are employed in BPO sector compared to only few lakh in the year 1998

Office automation has helped improving effeciency of employees

More and more recruitment are being made using job portals. Earlier ads were placed in the newspapers.

Banking sector:

Number of ATMs has increased from 500 in 1998 to 32300 in 2008; 1st ATM was installed by HSBC in 1987.Computerization of banks has helped speed up the bank transactions.Net banking is used by 32% of saving bank account holders in 2008 compared to 1% in 1998. Likewise mobile banking was offered by 6% banks in 1998 that is now being offered by 90% banks in 2008 .1^st debit card and 1^st credit card were issued by Citibank in 1998 and 1990, respectively.

Tax reforms:

Tax reforms have given common men more freedom to invest money and more purchasing power than ever before .Tax concessions on interest of houising loan, and easy availability of house loans have helped common men to own a dream house. However, increase in interest rates recently has made life difficult for salaried people. Housing loan accounts have increased from 4 lakh in 1998 to 45 lakh in 2008.

Some common indicators of change:

Now most of the households have more than one color TV sets .Number of people travelling by air or AC class in trains have increased tremendously .There are 42 million internet users in India in the year 2008 compared to 1.4 m users in 1998. The number of mobile phone users has grown to 246 million in 2008 from 1.0 million users in 1998 .There has been a great increase in sales of passenger cars. The sale has increased by 96% in the last ten years .Monthly pocket money of 10-17 years old has risen by 500% from Rs 300 in the year 1998

Political Impacts

The state has withdrawn from its previous role.The disappeared eventually.It became a facilitator.Politicans became class in India.Corruption increased.But economic inequality led way open to violence,maoist and Naxal insurgencies.

More political instability has been created

Coalition politics began after NEP.

Lecture notes prepapred by Biju P R,Assistant Professor in Political Science,GBC Thalassery