India’s challenge is to turn workers into capitalists
We are going to discuss the problem that India has set for itself today converting its labour force into capitalists. Given the differences in India, the argument between “Hard work” and “Harvard” is widely resonated. However, if our masses want to eventually narrow the gap between capital owners and wage earners, they must begin amassing firm shares. Despite this, the nation still faces challenges to success, including uneven growth, untapped population potential, and untapped corporate and innovation potential. Continue reading the article to find out more.
India’s challenge is to turn workers into capitalists
Years before Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy’s call for the nation’s youth to put in 70 hours a week, which elicited a diverse array of ’emojis’ on social media, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tapped into the same demographic bulge by highlighting a distinction between “Harvard” and “hard work.” It was a political rhetorical point, where privilege was substituted for the latter. It was particularly appealing to those who regarded themselves as belonging to the hard-working side of that divide in a nation where many people aspired to lifestyles that the internet had started exposing them to. It didn’t matter how many hours they worked, how hard they worked, or how productive they were.
Modi’s proposal was noteworthy due to its political undertones. There was a right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party leader who had skillfully removed a platform that had been utilized for years by left-wing groups. Communists were formerly the leading supporters of India’s underprivileged, always willing to elaborate on a “class struggle” waged by laborers against capitalists. Fair play in their view required turning the tables because one was either a capital owner or a wage earner, and the latter had all the cards. If the Communist economic model collapsed due to distorted labor incentives, its binary identification system would be unable to withstand interaction with a crucial capitalist institution: the stock market.
Right-wing discourse is prevalent today. Consider America to understand its allure. The old American proverb, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” wasn’t lost on its laborers. The world’s first joint stock company was the British East India Company, but the US capital markets were the ones that initially drew salaried workers who were willing to exchange their work hours for cash to exchange their hard-earned savings for shares over time. This allowed them to become capitalists themselves and eventually live off of their assets when they retired. The surge in equity ownership in India indicates that we are likewise heading in that direction.
