Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Abhijit Banerjee said there was no co-relation between authoritarianism and economic success.
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00:00If there is no good opposition, then the pressure on the government to do this and that delivery does not remain a pressure.
00:09The government thinks that whatever they do, they will still win.
00:31If there is no good opposition, then the pressure on the government to do this and that delivery does not remain a pressure.
00:41The government thinks that whatever they do, they will still win.
00:46That is a wrong situation. There should be pressure.
00:49Democracy works well when there is pressure.
00:53We are disunited. There are many factions.
00:56We don't know which faction we will join with whom.
01:04So, there is pressure from a stable opposition.
01:09That pressure has not been created yet.
01:11For the last 70 years, every government, whichever is coming,
01:15saying that we will eliminate poverty.
01:18But it is not eliminated.
01:19Do you think it is eliminated or not?
01:21When do you think it can be done?
01:23To be fair, the last 30 years have had a huge reduction in poverty.
01:29Poverty was 40% in 1990 and now it is closer to less than 20%.
01:36So, there has been a huge reduction in poverty.
01:38In India?
01:39In India.
01:40Poverty has been reduced hugely.
01:42That is in proportion.
01:44In absolute terms, since the population has grown,
01:47that is an enormous reduction in the number of poor people.
01:50So, there is no question that that has been one of the great successes
01:55of the world in the last 30 years.
01:58Sir, you understand the Indian economy very well.
02:01You have read a lot.
02:03Can you tell us, how long will this slowdown,
02:06this market which is currently bad,
02:09how long will there be indications of improvement?
02:11I am talking about indications.
02:13In the last two months, there have been some good indications.
02:19There have been some indicators that have turned around.
02:22I don't know how long this will go on and what is happening behind it.
02:27Because the data is new.