n the US, 400 families have wealth equal to that of 50% of American population. In Russia, 110 families have wealth that equals that of 1/3rd of Russians.

At a time when I see free marketeers lobbying for a complete switch over to the tyranny of markets, it is so heartening to find Narendra Modi paraphrase what Mahatma Gandhi had said in his Talisman. Modi said: "Govt is that which thinks about poor, works for poor, and lives for poor." I agree. Despite what the lobbyists (and that includes media houses) are trying to convey, I think the biggest challenge is to remove hunger and poverty for all times to come. This cannot come b...y adopting the failed economic prescription from the West. In the US, 400 families have wealth equal to that of 50% of American population. In Russia, 110 families have wealth that equals that of 1/3rd of Russians. The growing inequality is becoming a much bigger problem that the world is faced with. And I see many experts/journalists echoing the same failed economic prescription for India. You would have noticed that most of them are wanting subsidies for the poor to go to contain fiscal deficit. As I said earlier, Surjit Bhalla had once said that Rs 48000-cr LPG subsidy could have removed poverty from India for one year. I use the same argument to tell him that Rs 31-lakh crore subsidy to India Inc since 2004-5 could have wiped out poverty from India for the next 62 years, which means for all times to come. Shouldn't that be a priority for the country???????Devinder Sharma