Global growth gloom; Annie Ernaux’s leap from I to She; Unfulfilled Left unity
Opinion Watch
Global growth gloom
Blame it on Russian President Vladimir Putin for being an economic curse, as ferocious as the Covid-19 pandemic, for his war in Ukraine is sinking the global economy.
The World Bank has scaled down the growth prospects for the global economy and also of India. The Hindu and The Indian Express have weighed the gloomy prospects with Indian perspectives, and both the dailies have noted that the adequate and appropriate policy response are desired.
The Chennai-based daily in its Editorial has slotted several projections for the economic growth in India, first around 8.2 per cent, sliding later to 7.2 per cent, and now hitting the ground at about 6.7 per cent. Economic growth below eight per cent for India will always be a rank disappointment, for the country woke up late in the day to know that the Hindu growth rate would keep the country with 130 crore population perennially battling poverty.
The Indian Express underlined that 16.4 per cent of the small and medium sector enterprises who had availed of the loans under the emergency credit line guarantee scheme have defaulted. The Noida-based daily also noted that the labour force participation in urban areas is lower than rural parts, while the World Trade Organisation’s projection that the global trade would at best grow at one per cent rate and not the earlier estimated 3.4 per cent could prove to be another dampener for India.
Undeniably, a sustained high growth for the next two decades will only transform India into a developed country. Otherwise, India will remain in the poverty bind to feed 80 crore people with free grains by sacrificing spending to enhance education and health infrastructure.
Annie Ernaux’s ‘I to She’ leap
Annie Ernaux, the French writer, bagged the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, and she became the 17th woman since 1901 to have got the honours.
The Times of India and The Indian Express have sought to give readers glimpses into the evolution of Ernaux as a writer, battling several binds, including gender, old age, ailments and class barriers.
The Noida-based daily stated that Ernaux deconstructed her past for ‘A man’s Place (1983)’, ‘A Woman’s Story (1987)’, ‘Shame (1996)’, while she abandoned ‘I’ to embrace ‘She’ in ‘The Years (2019)’.
The Nobel citation described the French writer as one who “manifestly believes in the liberating force of writing”. The Times of India brought forth the issue of gender bias in literary awards, reminding that while Jean-Paul Sartre won the Nobel prize de Beauvoir never got it.
Unfulfilled Left unity
The writ of the Left parties now run only in Kerala, and a few pockets in West Bengal and Bihar.
The Pioneer in its Editorial has sized up the ‘Barkis is Willing’ syndrome as depicted Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield, as the unity project of the CPI and the CPI (M) remains an issue of conversations only.
The daily states that 32 members of the CPI Council who had walked away against the party’s stance on Soviet Union and China had formed the CPI (M), which till date remains unforgiving of the older Left party for enjoying power in Kerala with the blessings of Congress.
The Left parties are the old daddies of faded ideology which remains foreign to youngsters in the country except Kerala.
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Ecstatic to hear another woman getting a Nobel prize ! Inspiring !