Latest Index of Economic Freedom – 2008 ranks the ‘Sick man of S. Asia – INDIA at 115th out of 157 countries surveyed below Sri Lanka, Pakistan & Nepal
The World Bank’s ‘Doing business in 2008’ index had also ranked India as the ‘Sick man of S. Asia by ranking INDIA at 120th out of 178 countries lower than Maldives-60th, Pakistan 76th, Sri Lanka 101st, Bangladesh 107th, Nepal 111th and Bhutan 119th
‘Incredible India & Shining India’ slogans are fooling nobody least of all the Sikhs who want Khalistan
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - India’s rulers, an evil nexus between the Bania and the Brahmin castes, really believe in the BIG lie like Adolf Hitler, the German Nazi and Fuhrer of the Third Reich (b.1889-d.1945) who wrote in his 1924 autobiography, ‘Mein Kampf’ that, “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”Anyone watching the antics of the Indian rulers, strutting around in Delhi’s palaces built by the British Colonials on stolen Gurdwara lands, can see that these straw men believe that, ‘repetition transforms a lie into a truth.’ Their bragging and lies reminds one of a famous line from that great 17th century English philosopher and essayist, Francis Bacon, that, “Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.”
The latest Index of Economic Freedom-2008, jointly released by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and New York-based Wall Street Journal, (both American institutions of integrity) has placed INDIA 115th out of 157 countries surveyed. This is a ranking much lower than the rankings of countries in India’s South Asian neighborhood. Even Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for example (which are in political and economic turmoil - in a state of civil war really) have been ranked higher in Economic Freedom at 112th, 93rd and 90th respectively in the Index of Economic Freedom-2008. To the eternal shame of the rulers of the world’s largest demoNcracy, INDIA at its 115th ranking has been bracketed in the Freedom Index-2008 with failed states like Tajikistan-114th, Rwanda-116th, and Cameroon-117th. Studies in previous editions of the Index of Economic Freedom confirm the truth that there are tangible benefits of living (> http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/index.cfm <) in freer societies. Not only is a higher level of economic freedom clearly associated with a higher level of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), but GDP growth rates also increase as a country’s economic freedom score improves.
Ignoring the above truism about ‘association of economic freedom with higher level of per capita gross domestic product’ the Indian rulers in a very recent state-sponsored disinformation campaign in the Indian media have had the chutzpah to try to fool the world and hoodwink and ‘brain-wash’ (> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080201/jsp/business/story_8849599.jsp <) the hungry unwashed Indian people living in misery and squalor for the last sixty years. The Indian spin masters are bragging that, “India’s gross domestic product grew 9.6 per cent in 2006-07, on the back of rising salaries and a strong performance by manufacturing and services, second only to 1988-89 in growth since Independence.” Per capita income in India, according to this state-sponsored fairy tale, making headlines in the Indian media, has jumped a world record 12.4% (Rs. 3, 666) in one year (2006-2007) to Rs. 29, 382 (US$. 734) from Rs. 25, 716 (US$. 640) in 2005-2006. Rs. 29, 382 is equivalent to a monthly income of Rs. 2, 448.5 (a little over US$. 2 a day @ Rs. 40 to a dollar) for each and every one of the over one billion one hundred million Indians”, majority of whom (over 85% of the rural and urban population) as every one knows eke out their living in misery and squalor without clean drinking water and even latrines. According to the government figures, (published in the Calcutta-based Telegraph newspaper and other Indian newspapers) claim that manufacturing in India, “grew 12 per cent, transportation and communication, 16.6 per cent, and construction, 12 per cent. Trade, hotels and restaurants grew 8.5 per cent; transport, storage and communication, 16.6 per cent; financing, insurance, real estate and business services, 13.9 per cent and community, social and personal services, 6.9 per cent. Farming, which provides employment to about a half of the country’s population, (India’s rural population is not half but 71.7% of the over one billion one hundred million population – New York Times World Almanac-2008 page 781) rose only 3.8 per cent in 2006-07, against 6.1 per cent the year before.” The Indian rulers are hoping, like Hitler their role model, hoped that, the great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.
The question that jumps up is; What is Economic Freedom? According to the Heritage Foundation, “The highest form of economic freedom provides an absolute right of property ownership, fully realized freedoms of movement for labor, capital, and goods, and an absolute absence of coercion or constraint of economic liberty beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself. In other words, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, and that freedom is both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state.” This freedom and protection by the state is lacking in India as all one has to do is drive around Delhi and see the tyranny of the Indian state in action in its slums where it’s city chiefs are bulldozing the poor out of the Delhi picture in its latest makeover before the Commonwealth Olympics! The London newspaper Guardian has published a spine chilling report by Randeep Ramesh just ten days ago. It was headlined, “Out of Sight Out of Home” and it reported how the ‘poor are being bulldozed out of the Delhi picture’ by the city administration in the latest makeover of British-built New Delhi before the 2010 Commonwealth Olympics. This example of coercion and constraint of economic liberty of lower castes and minorities in India can be read by clicking at: > http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1997609,00.html#article_continue <
The 14th edition of the user-friendly Heritage Foundation/ Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom-2008 (it started publication in 1995) has documented the link between economic opportunity and prosperity after researching and analyzing economic policies in countries around the world. (> http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/index.cfm <) It is a benchmark by which to gauge a country’s chances of economic success. The Index is more than a simple ranking based on economic theory and study. It identifies the variables that comprise economic freedom and analyzes the interaction of freedom with wealth. Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom-2008 ranked 157 countries in the world by measuring ten specific factors, and averaged them equally into a total score. Each one of the 10 freedoms were graded using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. A score of 100 signifies an economic environment or set of policies that is most conducive to economic freedom. The ten component freedoms are:- Business Freedom | Trade Freedom | Fiscal Freedom | Government Size | Monetary Freedom | Investment Freedom | Financial Freedom | Property rights | Freedom from Corruption | Labor Freedom. In the Index of Economic Freedom, all 10 factors are equally weighted in order not to bias the overall score toward any one factor or policy direction. As pointed out in the paragraphs above economic freedom helps an economy grow as studies in previous editions of the Index have confirmed the tangible benefits of living in freer societies. Not only is a higher level of economic freedom clearly associated with a higher level of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), but GDP growth rates also increase as a country’s economic freedom score improves.
Heritage Foundation President Ed. Feulner told CNBC that, “when institutions protect the liberty of individuals, greater prosperity results for all. Economist Adam Smith formed this theory in his influential work, The Wealth of Nations, in 1776. In 2008, his theory is measured – and proven – in the Index of Economic Freedom, an annual guide published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington's No. 1 think tank. For over a decade, The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington's preeminent think tank, have tracked the march of economic freedom around the world with the influential Index of Economic Freedom. Since 1995, the Index has brought Smith's theories about liberty, prosperity and economic freedom to life by creating 10 benchmarks that gauge the economic success of 162 countries around the world. With its user-friendly format, readers can see how 18th century theories on prosperity and economic freedom are realities in the 21st century.” The ranking Chart below, culled from the latest Heritage Foundation/ Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom-2008 shows the state of prosperity and economic freedom in India the ‘Sick Man of South Asia’ nay the world. Even South Asian countries like Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (all three in political and economic turmoil - in a state of civil war really) are ranked higher than the world’s largest demoNcracy:- INDIA.
Chart below
shows rankings of some countries culled from
the Heritage Foundation/ Wall Street Journal
Index of Economic Freedom-2008, which ranked 157 countries,
highlights the low ranking of India, the ‘Sick man of South Asia’
(> http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/index.cfm <)
Serial No.
Country
Rank
1
Hong Kong - China
1st
2
Singapore
2nd
3
United States
5th
4
Mauritius
18th
5
Malaysia
51st
6
Thailand
54th
7
Turkey
74th
8
Kenya
82nd
9
SRI LANKA****
90th
10
Philippines
92nd
11
PAKISTAN****
93rd
12
Nigeria
105th
13
Ivory Coast
111th
14
NEPAL****
112th
15
Tajikistan
114th
16
INDIA****
115th
17
Rwanda
116th
18
Cameroon
117th
19
Surinam
118th
20
North Korea
157th
** South Asian countries
The above findings of the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom-2008 about India’s economic mess are not new nor are they debatable no matter what the spin the Indian rulers put on them. As an American writer once wrote that, “You can’t make the Duchess of Windsor into Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm. The facts of life are very stubborn things.” The World Bank ‘Doing Business in 2008’ index, (> http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/ <) which was released a few weeks ago, ranked 178 countries. The World Bank has also, like the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom-2008, came to a similar conclusion that INDIA (ranked by the World Bank at 120th) is indeed the ‘Sick man of South Asia’ as it was ranked below all its South Asian neighboring countries like Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The World Bank 2008 survey ranked 178 countries under ten different economic headers – the two most important being ‘Ease of doing business’ and ‘Starting a Business’, which are listed below in the chart which highlights India’s miserable ranking at 120th and 111th. INDIA is ranked below EVERY South Asian country – Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. If a country, like India, puts hurdles in ‘starting a business’ and is low in ‘ease of business’, lower than every country in its neighborhood, how is that country – INDIA – going to bring prosperity to its billion people in general, and the enterprising hardworking entrepreneurial Sikhs in particular, is a question that comes to mind?
Comparative chart shows rankings of selected countries
culled from World Bank’s
‘Doing Business in 2008 Index’
which ranked 178 countries
(> http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/ <)
also see Khalistan Calling dated 3 October, 2007 at:-
/home/khalistancalling/2007/october03.aspx
Serial No.
Country
Ranking Ease of Doing Business
Ranking Starting a Business
1
Singapore
1st
9th
2
United States
3rd
4th
3
Thailand
15th
36th
4
Malaysia
24th
74th
5
Mauritius
27th
8th
6
South Africa
35th
53rd
7
Mexico
44th
75th
8
Maldives****
60th
34th
9
Pakistan****
76th
59th
10
Sri Lanka****
101st
29th
11
Ethiopia
102nd
106th
12
Bangladesh****
107th
92nd
13
Nepal****
111th
60th
14
Zambia
116th
82nd
15
West Bank & Gaza
117th
166th
16
Uganda
118th
114th
17
Bhutan****
119th
52nd
18
India****
120th
111th
19
Honduras
121st
135th
20
Dem. Rep. of Congo
178th
146th
**** South Asian countries
Last year (2007) an authoritative study titled, “Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganized Sector,” published by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), a government-affiliated body, reported that 394.9 million workers, (or 86 per cent of India’s working population of about 459 million) toil under "utterly deplorable" conditions with "extremely few livelihood options" in the unorganized sector and live in squalor on less than Rs 20 (or 50 US cents) per day. See Khalistan Calling dated 5 September, 2007, headlined, “While nearly 395 million Indians live on Rs. 20 (or 50 US cents) per day Corrupt wealthy Indians have US$. 410 billion hidden away in foreign banks while the snail-paced Indian judicial system grinds along with a backlog of nearly twenty nine million pending cases,” by clicking at the following link: > /home/khalistancalling/2007/september05.aspx <
Last year the Global Hunger Index-2007 report of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), released in Washington DC in October 2007, while ranking the hunger in 118 developing countries (> http://www.ifpri.org/media/20071012ghi/ghi07.pdf <) has reconfirmed Indian hunger-misery, nay shame, by ranking INDIA at 94th out of 118 countries surveyed. INDIA is ranked below even disturbed South Asian countries like Burma (Myanmar) at 66th, Sri Lanka at 69th, Pakistan at 88th, Nepal at 90th, and ninety other developing famished countries around the globe. For more details please click at the following link:- > /home/khalistancalling/2007/october17.aspx <
Last year a survey carried out by a panel of three economic experts of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, (Dr Sukhpal Singh, Manjeet Kaur and H.S. Kingra) on behest of the Punjab State Farmers Commission, has come to a very grim conclusion about the plight of the debt-ridden, suicide-prone, farmer in the Sikh Homeland of Indian occupied Punjab. Eighty nine percent (yes 89%) of the farming households in the Sikh Homeland are under heavy debt. The total indebtedness of the farm sector (predominantly Sikh) was estimated at over Rs 210 billion or Rs. 21,064 crore. Nearly 12.8% (of these 89% indebted farming households) were found to be in the very high stress level of indebtedness approaching bankruptcy, (i.e. when the loan is more than two years of a family’s income or indebtedness is more than 200 per cent of income) and there is no way the farmer could repay the loan. No wonder many of these Sikh farmers have found solace in suicide to escape the usurious Bania/ ‘money lender’ and the corrupt police who are in cahoots with them. For more details click at the following link:- > /home/khalistancalling/2007/may02.aspx <
The different statistics, shown above, prove that misery and squalor will continue in the world’s largest demoNcracy - INDIA - till such time as the over 850 million hungry people in India, who are in a majority, realize, the famous presciently words of Mr. Winston Churchill, that, ‘INDIA is as much a country as the Equator’. Areas in the present Indian map (specially Indian occupied Punjab, Khalistan) can only prosper if INDIA is Balkanized (like Europe was after World War I in the early 20th century) into economically viable progressive, democratic, ‘Caste-free’, nations like Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, Tamilland, Dalitistan and others, instead of continuing in misery as the world’s largest monstrous, caste-ridden, dynastic, ungovernable, oppressive Indian oligarchic demoNcracy, as it is today. An unhappy ‘country’ where corrupt Indians (mostly from the Brahmins and Banias ruling castes) have over US$. 410 billion stashed away in foreign banks while the Indian judicial system has ground to a halt with a backlog of nearly 29 million pending cases. In this mess hundreds of millions of unwashed Indians go to sleep hungry every day with suicide in their thoughts.
Can anyone give one good reason why the 26 million strong muscular Sikh nation (3 million Free and prosperous in the diaspora and 23 million still captive in India) should continue under the Brahmin/ Bania yoke in Indian occupied Punjab and not strive for an independent, sovereign, democratic, water/food-surplus, and economically viable buffer state of Khalistan in the subcontinent which is destined to act as a bridge of peace and commerce between South Asia and the Gas and Oil rich six land-locked Stans of Central Asia via friendly Pakistan?