The good, the bad, and the ugly

Economic development is NOT urban sprawl and unchecked growth.

SEZ policy is not the mother of all land grab schemes..

SEZs are NOT tax havens or euphemisms for land grabs. SEZs are plucky attempts to create world class exporting zones.
The Left whines as ever. The NGO’s and activists are a pain in the butt. The lawmakers, sensitive to constituents, are forever averse to economic developers. BJP is incoherent. To hell with the Joan of Arc incarnate! Even PC fears the central government could stand to lose Rs.70, 000 crores of tax revenue because of the special concessions given to firms that will operate in the SEZs… Kamal Nath is for once, sounding “unintoxicated”!
Ideally, India should have such a good infrastructure that the whole country is an SEZ. But till that utopia arrives, we need to create enclaves with world class infrastructure.

After the initial tax holiday, far from losing revenue for the exchequer, SEZs will produce a net tax gain of around Rs.40, 000 crores. Shenzhen, China’s premier SEZ, alone exports more and attracts more FDI, than the whole of India.
In our country, tax breaks are given to all infrastructure- roads, power, dams, telecom, large real estate projects; tax breaks for developing SEZs are not exactly “revolutionary”.
Up to 75% of the SEZ area can be devoted to “green belts”, residences, schools, banks, hospitals and golf courses and goddamit these are essential to woo foreign investors.
Consider one green belt under a peasant and another under a corporate house. Which would produce higher yield? Think..

Globalisation is not a monster..

If Western economists are talking anti globalisation language, fancy it as back door protectionism to safeguard their ailing industries. If somebody told you globalisation makes the rich; richer and poor; poorer, add them to your “Such-an-oaf” list. These buggers are going to sell the country.
Lower investments in agriculture, interest rate differentials between loans for agriculture and consumer goods, land acquisition by the govt. for pvt. parties, the security vs. development trade-off in “difficult areas, foreign policies: NONE of these choices is related to globalization.
Pockets of poverty in rich countries or of the prosperous in the poor nations have more to do with choices in domestic policy than with globalization.

A strong thrust to globalization can be combined with a robust social welfare orientation.

I wish my Grampa reads this post!

For greenhorns SEZs=Special Economic Zones..

P.S: Birdbrained mortals with any intentions of commenting about mini and small SEZs; can go eat a weiner!