ESSAY ON NEOLIBERALISM AND THE NEOLIBERAL ORDER

Neoliberalism and the Neoliberal Order – Regressive Economics on a Global Scale

This essay discusses some of the main characteristics of today’s neoliberal political and economic order.

Neoliberalism is now used as a generic term to characterize an economic ideology that favors unrestricted “free” markets, “free trade”, macro-economic stability, and a set of related economic policies. Neoliberal ideology favors unrestricted freedom of private corporations to pursue profit, the privatization of public enterprises and services, and the elimination or reduction of public or government control, regulation, and guidance of economic activity. Neoliberal policy prescriptions give priority to the prevention and control of inflation over economic growth and employment. In some versions of neoliberalism, there are also prescriptions for tax reductions for corporations and upper income groups under the assumption extra income retained after tax reduction will be reinvested in productive capacity. The ideology also calls for free trade and the elimination of tariffs or government support of domestic manufacturing. The ideology assumes that unregulated markets will correct themselves and produce optimal outcomes for society as a whole.

Over the decades neoliberal ideology has evolved and received a variety of labels ranging from monetarism in the 1980s to the Washington Consensus in later years. Despite some changes and refinement, the policy prescriptions have remained much the same in terms of their regressive effects on distribution of income and wealth and also their contribution to financialization of the economy and the decline of the manufacturing industry in many countries. Rightwing politicians have culled political slogans from popularized works of neoliberal economists or political ideologues like Milton Friedman and his successors. In advanced developed economies, the introduction of neoliberal institutions and policies began in the 1980s under the governments of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in the UK In subsequent years neoliberal policy came to dominate much of the economic landscape of the capitalist world and in one form or another was adopted by major political parties and governments in many countries. In the United States both Republican and Democratic governments adopted key elements of neoliberal thinking including free trade dogmas. The notable exception to neoliberal capitalism in recent decades has been in the rapidly developing economies of Asia that rejected some of the core doctrines and practices of neoliberalism as practiced in the United States and much of Europe and Latin America.

The neoliberal economic order produces institutionalized inequality – unequal power, unequal advantage, and unequal exchange. Those without power are forced to exchange their labor and expertise for less than the real value of their product or contribution. While any economic transaction has the potential for unequal or unfair exchange, the current system of rewards is completely in favor of those with political and economic bargaining power and against those who depend on wages and salaries for their work, either physical or mental. The neoliberal order is one where institutionalized inequality and perverse incentives prevent technological advances from reaching their full potential to improve the human condition. Instead tiny minorities reap most of the benefits while the majority of the world’s inhabitants receive marginal benefits or are left out. Neoliberal ideology based on fallacious assumptions presented as science is used to justify regressive economic policy and race-to-the bottom competition based on lower wages and special state favors to monopolistic or speculative “enterprises.” In the Orwellian language of neoliberalism speculation is confused with productive investment. Speculation becomes coterminous with investment.

The vast expansion of the global market economy to include countries with enormous populations of desperately poor workers and farmers has created an enormous downward pressure on employment and wages in countries that had achieved higher incomes and economic security for the wage and salary workers after decades of economic development and social struggles. Globalization following the inclusion of China, India, and Russia in the world market economy has created race-to-the bottom competition and increased levels of exploitation. It has contributed to the imbalance between wage income paid to workers directly engaged in production and the performance of services on the one hand and income in the form of profits or executive and upper managerial salaries that accrues to the economically powerful on the other hand.

Also intensifying inequality has been the change in policy regime starting in the early 1980s when neoliberal monetarist macroeconomic policy replaced more expansionary policies of the early post war compact between labor and capital. Also accentuating inequality were measures to break labor unions and increase the power of employers to step up the level of exploitation of workers and employees.

Increased profit and upper managerial and executive income beyond increases in labor productivity have repeatedly produced a chronic imbalance between effective demand or purchasing power and the supply of goods and services even in times of economic expansion. This has resulted in a growing accumulation of income at the top with no productive outlet for investment. The existence of large pools of capital without profitable outlets for productive investment fuels speculation. These pools of capital are funneled into financial institutions that clamor for deregulation in order to have a free hand to engage in high-risk asset speculation driving up the price of tangible and intangible assets and distorting the structure of the economy. The collapse of asset prices fueled by speculation has led to repeated financial panics and economic crises.

Following neoliberal policy prescriptions, step-by-step deregulation of financial institutions in the 1980s and 1990s accelerated the growth of the private financial sector at the expense of manufacturing and public services. The growth of the financialized speculative sector fueled by excess profits, higher managerial income, and increased exploitation of an underpaid labor force also increased the capacity of large corporations and wealthy individuals to use their financial power to gain political power. The same corporations and individuals were able to influence politics through domination of the mass media, intensified lobbying efforts, funding of electoral campaigns, funding of policy institutes, and ideological influence over business and economic education in universities.

All of these activities contributed to the growing dominance of plutocratic capitalism over policy discussion and to the promotion of policies that serve the interests of tiny wealthy minorities rather than the general public.

After decades of testing neoliberal ideology as the dominant paradigm it is now possible to see its deep flaws and inhuman consequences. Austerity economics prescribed by neoliberal politicians and economists, especially during a crisis or recession produces massive unemployment and downward pressure on the wages and salaries. These policies intensify and prolong recessions. Free trade dogma has led to a decline in manufacturing and the transfer of factories and jobs to low wage countries placing additional downward pressure on wages and loss of employment in many middle income and developed countries without proportional benefits to workers and ordinary people in poor countries. Outsourcing of information technology and jobs to lower wage countries now threatens the economic security even in the technologically advanced sectors of developed economies. In the meantime factory workers in countries that have gained jobs from this zero-sum activity are severely exploited and live under inhuman conditions while the multinational elites profit from the transfer. Everywhere it is the multinational capitalists and elites in the emerging economic giants like China and India that receive the benefits of uncontrolled globalization. In short, neoliberal policies have resulted in a massive transfer of income and wealth upwards and contributed to global imbalances and instability.

Unless there as a fundamental change in ideology, these trends will certainly continue and there will be major crises that inflict enormous but preventable human casualties. Highly volatile and imperfect markets characterized by unequal power, an unequal advantage, crony capitalism, reckless casino finance, environmental wreckage, and plutocratic domination of government and the media will continue their unsustainable course creating mass misery, and periodic crises.

Choice of economic policy usually involves tradeoffs between goals that may be in partial conflict such as low inflation versus high employment or cheap manufactured goods versus jobs and decent wages, but most tradeoffs benefit some groups more than others. The best tradeoffs are those that benefit the majority of the people, those engaged directly in the creation of useful goods or performance of needed services for the general population. The best tradeoffs are those that serve the public good rather than the good of tiny minorities. The real choice in economic policy boils down to who gets what and fair versus unfair exchange.

Neoliberalism is not the only analytical framework available. There are real and feasible alternatives to neoliberalism that can lead to better living conditions and better economic outcomes for the majority of the world’s inhabitants. There have always been alternative frameworks for economic and political analysis and successful examples of alternative economic practices that have led to better outcomes. Examples of successful economic policies outside the framework of neoliberalism can be found in many countries and forms ranging from government policies to promote the development of domestic manufacturing in East Asia and Brazil to social democratic support for health care, education, vocational training and pensions for the elderly in Scandinavia, Germany, and France. Argentina offers lessons for overcoming financial crises aggravated by neoliberal austerity and some examples of worker owned enterprises. The Mondragon industrial cooperative in Spain shows that plutocratic ownership of industry is not the only alternative. Many countries and regions have successful experiments in public support for green development and efforts to preserve the environment.

No set of policies is perfect, but some serve the needs of the many and human well being much better than others. From the beginning, there have been social scientists, economists and observers of economic and political life who have challenged what proved to be flawed assumptions and claims of the neoliberals. The reason for the power and influence of neoliberalism lies largely in the tremendous economic, political, and media power of the minorities that have benefited from its prescriptions. In future essays we will go into more detail in our analysis of the dynamics of neoliberalism, alternative frameworks, and the experience of various regions and countries around the world.

The Supreme Court & human rights

The reputation of the Indian judiciary in international human rights circles is usually quite sound.
 

It is seen as having pioneered public interest litigation and as having contributed significantly to the growth of human rights jurisprudence in crucial areas including criminal procedure, environment and economic, social and cultural rights.

  Thus, the judgment in Olga Tellis vs. State of Bombay is often cited on United Nations human rights fora and in academic publications as evidence of the court's activist role in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. Indeed, it is not too much to claim that the Supreme Court is seen as one of the most influential expounders of human rights, especially in this area

Therefore, its recent decision in the Narmada case raises serious questions about the extent to which this well-deserved reputation may be tarnished. If implemented, the decision is likely to lead to a massive displacement of more than 2,00,000 people in the Narmada valley, thus earning the infamous distinction of being perhaps the largest court-sanctioned, forced eviction in history. In addition, the displacement will violate various human rights of the people of the Narmada valley including their right to housing, shelter, livelihood and cultural cohesion as a community. 

Further, the decision may also run foul of the international legal norm against collective/mass population transfers against the people's will, and given that a very large percentage of the affected are also tribals and Dalits, this `development cleansing' may well be seen as ethnic cleansing in disguise. The reality is that no member of the upper castes or the middle/upper classes needs to fear the loss of his home and entire community due to a development project in India.

 Had the judgment been a carefully circumscribed one that focussed on the issues raised by the petitioners the court might have avoided giving the impression that it was taking sides openly in a bitter ideological conflict over the nature and meaning of development, and the place of costly infrastructure projects such as dams in it. Instead, it launched into the most partisan defence of dams, defying the overwhelming evidence that is globally available against the feasibility of large dams. The sense one gets from reading the judgment in the Narmada case is that for the court, the issue seems to have become one of developmental nationalism, the importance of modernisation and the ability of India to catch up with the West.

This stance has also been reflected in the comments by the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, in the aftermath of the judgment, that those who criticise projects such as Narmada are foreign agents. Besides the fact that such attitudes have the potential to generate dangerous consequences for those who advocate peaceful criticism, the court itself seems to have really stepped over the line from the legal to political terrain.

More importantly, the court seems to have abandoned its established role as the protector of the human rights of the most vulnerable in Indian society. Here was perhaps one of the most significant peaceful human rights movements in post-Independence India and the court's decision has sent the signal that peaceful protests are not taken seriously anymore in the country. Indeed, its previous activism in the area of economic and social rights or rights of detainees arose partly from the recognition that the court must do its part to alleviate the most oppressive conditions of existence for the population before they turn to extreme measures. By abandoning this crucial position, the court has shown itself to be against human rights.

This anti-human rights position would not have been surprising 20 years ago when courts around the world were generally more reluctant to entertain human rights challenges to development projects. But it simply bucks contemporary global trends and standards. 

For example, the judgment in the Narmada case can be usefully contrasted with a recent verdict of the South African Constitutional Court - Government of R.S.A vs. Grootboom - given on October 4, 2000. The question involved the enforcement of the right to housing and shelter under the South African Constitution, for a group of children and adults living in appalling circumstances in informal settlements, whose homes were forcibly removed and who then had to settle in desperation on a sports field and in a community hall nearby.
  

In a unanimous decision, the court held that the Constitution obliged the state to act positively to ameliorate the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people living in deplorable conditions throughout the country. It must provide access to housing, health-care, sufficient food and water and social security to those unable to support themselves and their dependants. The court stressed that all rights in the Bill of Rights were inter-related and mutually supporting. It said the question was whether the measures taken by the state to realise the rights afforded by the Constitution were reasonable. To be reasonable, the court pointed out, the measures could not leave out of account the degree and extent of the denial of the right they endeavoured to realise, and those whose needs were the most urgent and whose ability to enjoy all rights was most in peril must not be ignored. Importantly, ``if the measures, though statistically successful, fail to make provision for responding to the needs of those most desperate, they may not pass the test of reasonableness''.
  

Judging by this yardstick, the Indian Supreme Court's decision in the Narmada case appears to fall far short of international human rights norms.

Numerous other examples can be provided from around the world and they clearly show that several countries take their responsibility to protect human rights very seriously - particularly economic, social and cultural rights which are of critical importance to the survival of vast impoverished and oppressed populations in non-Western countries.The Indian Supreme Court, by going against this trend, has shown that it is losing touch with human rights. If the goal of the court in this judgment was to defend the possibility of India attaining modernisation and equality with the West, that is hardly likely to come about by showing the world that we are becoming less civilised.

DOHRIGHAT (MAU) - U.P

DOHRIGHAT

Dohrighat is a historical city. Ram and Lord Shiva meet here then it was name of Dohrighat. Here situated two temple like Janki Mandir and Gauri shanker Ghat. Dohrighat is very nice place.

The name: Dohri ghat (Do Hari) comes from the fact that two Vishnu (Hari) avatars met here - 6th avatar Parshuram, and 7th avatar Shri Ram. On the way back from Mithila, after Sita-Ram marriage, Parshuram met Shri Ram here, and tested that He was truly the one who broke Shiva's arrow. This historical place, thus, is known as Dohri ghat.

MAU DISTRICT ( U.P )

HISTORY

Many myth are popular regarding history of MAU district, .In common opinion MAU is considered as Turkish word , which means "GARH" , "PADAV" , "CHAVANI" . No historical records are available regarding habitance of Mau. A little description is given in the historical book of Jiyaudeen Barni that Akbar the Great passed through Mau, in its way towards Allahabad. During his reign Sher Shah Suri, the famous emperor who had defeated Mughals, visited Kolhuvavan (Madhuban) to meet the great sufi saint Syed Ahmad Wadva. Mahvani, one of the daughters of Sher Shah was settled permanently near the dargah of Syed Sahab . Various developmental works were undertaken by Sher Shah during his reign for economic development of the Mau region. During the construction of Military Base & Shahi Masque, a large number of labourer & artisans came with Mughal Army. The labourer force includes a large number of Artisans , Weavers etc. Who originally belongs to Iran, Afganistan & Turki. They settled here permanently. 

During the period of Freedom Struggle the residents of Mau had given their full support to the movment. Mahatma Gandhi came here in Doharighat on 3rd october 1939. In salt law breaking movement many persons of Mau had actively taken part,some of them are as follows : Umrav Singh , Shiv Saran Rai, Satrai Singh , Haidwar Singh, Kalpnath Shukl, Ram chandra Pandey,Krishna Madhav Lal, Ibrahim Khan,Vishwanath Prasad,Ram Palat Rai,Sita Ram Arya, Ram Davar Singh, Mangala Rai, Nana Saheb Marwari, Dalsingar Pandey, Chotu Ram,Gaya Prasad,Raj Daras Rai, Ram Dev Rai, Raj Narayan Rai, Jaganath Prasad, Chikaru Rai,Mahesh Rai,Bhagirath Rai etc. In 1938 Jai Bahadur Singh had looted the train in piprideeh with his mates Krishna Dev Rai , Jamin Ali , Udai Narayan Dubey , Keshav Shukla , Beekeshvar Dutt , Jaganath Mishra,Tej Pratap Singh. During 1942 Quit India Movement the mob was collected against the outrage of Madhuban Police Station Officer ; Collector Navlate was present there,he ordered to fire on the mob. Many persons were killed & injured on spot. In memory of shaheed of above said event a monument was built on the same place in Madhuban.  

On 19th November. 1988 it was made district, largerly due to the effort of Late Kalpnath Rai , who was M. P. from Ghosi Parliamentary seat. The local language of Mau is peculiar in its flavour , it includes the slang of Bhojpuri Persian, Turkish & Irani. The main Industrial setup here is of cloth making by powerloom due to presence of a large number of weavers in the district . Sari, Lungi & other clothes being prepared here nowadays and are exported to various states of India and also to various countries.

GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 

Mau(Mau nath Bhanjan) is situated on the fertile plains of the Ganges–Ghaghara doab. It lies between 83° 17’ to 84° 52' East & 24° 47' to 26°17' North. At its north, Ghaghara river is on the border, Ghazipur district is on the south, Ballia district is on the east & Azamgarh district is on the west side. This district represents geographical characteristics of mid Gangetic plain. "Khachari" and "Khadar" are types of soil found in the areas of north of Azamgarh - Ballia Road. In some high places "Bangar" soil is also found. In the southern part of the district, river flow is absent, due to which that area has Bangar type of soil, which is not fertile. The river system of the district is dominated by the Tons River and its tributary Choti Sarju. The Ghaghara River forms the northern border of the district.

The main means of irrigation in the district are tubewells. Ponds are used mainly for fishing and bird sanctuary purposes. In Mau "Pakari Piua" pond have 1.7 km breadth width="50" and 32 km length. It also has two big ponds (Tal)one Ratoy tal near Madhuban and Garha tal near Ratanpura. But no any techncal insitute no any science college this is big issue for mau people . pls see about mau, Ground water can be obtained from 15 to 20 meters depth. Ground water is used for drinking purposes. Farmers use tubewell for irrigation purposes.

Ghosi is the main town of mau district. sarvodaya inter college is a famous college in the city many professionals are the alumni of the college. Opposite to sarvodaya is Adam Public Convent School, one of the oldest English medium school of the area established by the family of earstwhile zamindars of ghosi. This school was founded around 30 years back and has produced a number of successful professionals of different fields. Most remarkably the founders of this school have free of cost educated a large number children who could not afford to pay. Rajesh Kumar a reknowed professional in sugar & alcohol industry also belongs to the district.in medical field it has second position after varanasi.here so many specialist in particularised body part.in such way FATIMA hospital is a live example for people.

Forest Area in MAU District

Aarea of the Mau district is 1716 sq. Km., out of which 1sq. km Dense, 15 sq km moderately desne, 17 sq. km open forest. Total 1.92% area is covered by forest in Mau Districts of Uttar Pradesh. There are following type of tree available in this forest, some are Aam,Sisam, Mahua,Babul, Nim, Ukliptus & Plas etc. district mau is very less cover area of forest.

Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM) was established at Kushmaur, Mau through a funded project sponsored by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture (Government of India) in the IX Plan in 2001 under the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The basic goal of the Bureau is to promote and coordinate systematic and scientific research in the area of agriculturally important microorganisms (AIMs) in order to improve the agricultural productivity

Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi established two institutes dedicated to research on microorganisms (NBAIM) and for quality seed (DSR) at Kushmaur, Mau .

TRUE CALLER

     CROWDSOURCING

Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.

This process is often used to subdivide tedious work or to fund-raise startup companies and charities, and can also occur offline. It combines the efforts of numerous self-identified volunteers or part-time workers, where each contributor of their own initiative adds a small portion to the greater result.

The term "crowdsourcing" is a portmanteau of "crowd" and "outsourcing"; it is distinguished from outsourcing in that the work comes from an undefined public rather than being commissioned from a specific, named group.

TRUECALLER

Truecaller announced its first partnership with a social media network for Indian users only. The Sweden-based global crowdsourced directory said the partnership would allow its users to make connections with a person’s Twitter account. This connection will enable users to tweet to or directly follow a person through the Truecaller app, a move it claims will “lead to a more robust social experience for millions”.

This social integration is something that has drawn mixed responses from users and critics of the platform where users voluntarily submit their entire contact list — and access to much more — to the service provider.

While some like 22-year-old engineering student Nitesh Chakraborthy feel it has increased the “creepiness factor” of the service that he has been using for almost a year, and that it would be better as a standalone directory service, others feel that given the way cloud-based services function today, there’s hardly cause for alarm. These debates on privacy notwithstanding, Truecaller’s growth in India has been quite phenomenal.

22 million users

In an email interview with The Hindu, Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder of Truecaller, says that in the three years since its introduction in India, the service has been able to register 22 million users.

This accounts for more than 55 per cent of its users worldwide. No less than half the global weekly additions to the service (around 1 million) are from India.

“This is because in areas where there are large numbers of prepaid users, there is a need for a service that actually solves a problem. We find the emerging markets very exciting and we’ve realised the importance of our service in these markets...they literally represent the next billion users,” says Mr. Mamedi and added that while the service is available in 30 languages, there are plans to add Indian languages. 

What is Truecaller?

For the uninitiated, Truecaller is a smartphone-based service that was founded in 2009 and introduced in India a year later. What it offers is very similar to what your good ol’ phone directories offer, but it stands that model on its head. While your old school phonebook perhaps sourced the inventory of listed numbers from various teleservice providers, Truecaller uses your phonebook. The reverse look-up service is crowdsourced, so if you sign up for the service it copies your entire contact list and stores it in its global database.\

The Tech Works

Truecaller maintains that there is a lot of obfuscation on how exactly the service works. Mr. Mamedi explains that in the backend, the service calculates a users’ people graph within less than a second to make the search experience as accurate as possible. In fact, this is not very different from what Facebook or Whatsapp does.

“We do this with an advanced in-house technology which is based on various open source platforms. Truecaller uses your contact list to form your social graph. It creates a relevant Name Search and People You May Know function.”

Mr. Mamedi clarifies that the service only accesses the phone numbers in the contact list. Going by that logic, getting a reverse look-up service in exchange for your contact list appears to be a fair trade-off. But sceptics disagree that the trade-off is that simple. 

Hacked in July

Warning bells were first sounded in July this year, when word got around that a hacker group, the Syrian Electronic Army, had broken into the Truecaller database. While the company acknowledge the hack, it was quick to put word out that only tokens — a unique lock for each user — were compromised and not actual lists. They also clarified that the database does not have any sensitive information such as passwords or credit card information. Mr. Mamedi insists that it was the website that was hacked and not the app, so though it was “unfortunate, information remained safe”.

Truecaller’s propaganda notwithstanding, users who have paid attention to the fine print — and some have installed the service anyway — will tell you there is enough in the ‘terms of service’ that users have to ‘accept’ before signing up to make one uncomfortable.

This reporter found that under the title ‘App permissions’ that is a prerequisite to the installation, the app asks for multiple access permissions: among these are access to storage, to disable your screen lock, modify or delete contents of your External SD card, read your text messages and social information, find accounts on the device, allow controlling of vibrations and preventing phone from sleeping and access to network communication.

These issues surrounding privacy and data ownership was flagged by Infosys co-founder S. Gopalakrishnan at a recent conference on ‘Legal issues pertaining to cloud computing’.

He pointed out that in exchange for a service, people have become comfortable with the idea of uploading entire contact lists, and more.

“People simply click ‘agree’ on these licence terms without as much as reading the fine print or worrying about the larger legal implications and risks. In the case of Truecaller, the fact that its database was compromised made people sit up and notice,” he said, advocating strict regulation in case of services where identifiable attributes of individuals are made part of a database. 

‘Problematic’

Sarath M.S., a member of the Free Software Movement of Karnataka, says that this is problematic from the data privacy point of view. He raises the large question of data ownership and control, and points out that given it isn’t free software it is difficult for users — even tech-savvy ones like him — to find out what the app does with the data while on the mobile.

“The problem starts with the fact that the data is uploaded to their servers. Another issue is that such huge database (around 450GB) of centralised accurate private information is, in advertising terms, big money. So it gives immense power to the owners such data, which is the fundamental problem here.”

Mr. Sarath says that it is cause for concern that user in trying to make their tech lives convenient are casual about the security of their data and devices. "This is what services like Truecaller exploits.”