McKinsey: “In the COVID-19 era, three attributes appear to be vital to corporate success. The first is speed. The pace of technology innovation and adoption by Asian companies and consumers is fast and, indeed, unmatched by other regions. The second is collaboration. There is a strong case for corporations working in partnership within their ecosystems. The third is resilience. The pandemic demonstrated the fragility of supply chains in the case of a global shock; making those supply chains more resilient in what could be a more explicitly multipolar world in innovative technologies and geographies is a priority if companies and investors are to access the full variety of opportunities. Asia already has strengths in all three on which it can build.”
Art Carden on Economics in 3 I’s: “Incentives Matter.Institutions Matter. Intentions Don’t Matter.”
PN Vijay: “Government spends a lot of money just on itself!! 6.4 per cent is paid as pensions to retired government employees, over 8 per cent on salaries; entire establishment expenses are in excess of 12 per cent. Government spends 11 per cent on defence. To be fair to this government, in spite of the threats on our borders, this percentage has not gone up. Subsidies on food/ fertiliser/ fuel take up another 7 per cent; here again the government has managed to bring this percentage down in the last few years by stopping leakages. In the states, the pattern is similar though there is no expenditure on defence but salary expenses range from 12 to 30 per cent, depending on every state. When we tot up the interest, defence, pensions, salaries, paying tax officials, subsidies etc., we see they make up more than half of the total inflows into government (borrowings and other capital receipts make up other inflows of the government apart from taxes). This is also 90 per cent of the tax collection. The balance is taken by rural development, roads, ports, airports, railway lines, healthcare, education, agriculture and all other areas.”
