Bihari Exodus; Sagely Murthy; Tax Buoyancy
Opinion Watch
Bihari Exodus
The Asian Age in an Editorial has said that a “stray incident” of a local assailing a Bihari worker in Tamil Nadu for snatching job turned into an avalanche of fake news of assaults on the migrant workers. The daily stated one migrant worker from Bihar was killed by another from Jharkhand, while another died by suicide. But by then the social media had turned the people slave to fake news.
Tamil Nadu Police was caught napping as the fake news spread as wildfire over alleged assaults on Bihar’s migrant workers. In some quarters, political angle has also been insinuated. Tamil Nadu has a vibrant economy, and the state is reaping the windfall of ‘China Plus’ factor in textiles, as European manufacturers shift their bases to Tirupur. But the trend of economy for several decades has been industries chasing low labour cost, and ideally they should have been going to Bihar, as had been the case with Bangladesh. The ruling Bihar politicians are guilty of incompetence without any rival in failing the people generation after generation.
Sagely Murthy
Newspapers have not headlined a startup turning unicorn (valuation above $1 billion) for a long time. The OTT platform is now streaming webseries on the startup funding. In this backdrop, the Economic Times has dissected the import of the advice of Infosys co-founder NR Narayan Murthy, who had been livid against the venture capitalists for taking the youngsters to wonderland and dumping. The startup funding seems to be a dark alley, and the ET stated that the mad rush is to chase the topline, which is at the bottom of appetite to burn cash to show numbers. The daily has said that the industry line “grow at any cost” is nothing but a Ponzy Scheme. The investors who put money in the startups are ultra-rich and super rich.
Murthy is a man of principles, and his tribe is endangered. Greed is god now in the private sector. Murthy and Ratan Tata have also helmed startups with aplomb. Yet, businesses feed on animal spirit. Animals know no principles of Murthy. Order can be restored with rule of law, and the government’s obsession to exemption-led regime is surely bogus. Rules instill discipline, and the first step that the government must do is to ensure strict enforcement of the labour laws.
Tax Buoyancy
The Hindu has said that the rising compliance is leading to the better realization in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections. The Chennai-based daily said that for 12th successive month the GST collections have stayed above Rs 1.40 lakh crore mark. The daily has stated that the uneven domestic collections in contrast to taxes on imports are cause of concern.
The GST collections have been in the range of Rs 1.40 lakh crore to Rs 1.50 lakh crore for several months, suggesting a static state of affairs. Worrisome is the fact that tax collection growth is not reflected in economic growth.
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