Questioning Economic Growth

<strong>Centre for the Study of Regional Development School of Social Sciences</strong> a lecture by <strong>Felix Padel</strong> Visiting Professor, North East India Studies Programme (NEISP), JNU on <strong>Questioning Economic Growth </strong> <strong>on 16th October 2015 </strong> <strong>Abstract :</strong> The concept of Economic Growth has been questioned from within economics and outside, especially by Ecologists/Environmentalists, who point out that all Life depends on the earth's ecosystems, which are getting damaged by depletion and pollution, maybe beyond repair. We are passing the tipping points of coal, oil and gas, and have less than 50 years of other minerals at current extraction rates. Is it true to say that India's relatively high growth rate and GDP is based on high rates of foreign investment/FDI, geared towards an unsustainably rapid extraction of resources? "The economic crisis that began in 2007-8 was both foreseeable and inevitable, and it marks a permanent, fundamental break from past decades – a period during which most economists adopted the unrealistic view that perpetual growth is necessary and also possible…." (Richard Heinberg, The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality 2011 p.1-2) One feature of every boom or bubble is that investors and policy-makers fail to read the signs and accelerate growth of the finance bubble until a terrible crash is inevitable (Crisis Economics, Roubini and Mihm, 2010). Is this the case in India right now? A key factor is debt: India's foreign debt has grown exponentially since it became the country with the biggest debt to the World Bank in 1962. Are India's key economic policies basically decided by the IMF? One aspect of unrepayable debt burdens is that they are used as a key mechanism of policy control. Economic growth can be seen as based on debt and geared to the arms industry, feeding conflicts/wars. The black economy is a motivating factor in ma`ny deals, but finds no place in economic models. Should economists be transforming their models and shifting policy towards Planned De-growth? <strong>About the Speaker</strong> : Felix Padel is Visiting Professor at the NE India Study Programme. His books include: Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection (with Ajay Dandekar and Jeemol Unni, 2013), Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (with Samarendra Das, 2010), and Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (1995/2010).