In the government we trust.

A survey in 2016 showed that less than 30% of households in India own a refrigerator, wrote Prof Vidya Mahambare. By 1950 nearly all families in the US owned a refrigerator and over 90% of families in China own one today. Refrigerators save money by preserving food and, along with other labor saving devices, such as washing machines, save time, allowing women to go out to work. In 2014 only 27% of women were working, compared to 37% in 2005. If more women worked GDP growth would jump. So, why do so few people own refrigerators? The main reason is that 43% of rural and 13% of urban households receive electricity for less than 8 hours per day, or not at all. Yet, India exported 5,798 million units of electricity to neighboring countries in 2016-17. Since a refrigerator helps women men are reluctant to waste money on them, feels Mahambare, probably because twice the number of households in rural India own a two-wheeler. But, 780 million people watch television and more than 1 billion people now own mobile phones, which must include millions of women. Supposing all these unemployed women were to seek work would they find suitable jobs? Experts predict that 4 out of 10 jobs will be lost to automation and 60% of engineering graduates, most of whom will be men, cannot find jobs. Manufacturing has been contracting recently and restructuring in many sectors is leading to job losses. Prior to 2007, 1% of economic growth produced 0.3% new jobs but that has come down to 0.15%. Spending of $25 billion by Reliance Jio to start its telecom services has not added any new jobs because other companies have restructured their workforce to reduce costs. Mergers between telecom companies will lead to more job losses. The US National Intelligence Council forecasts that the next 5 years are going to be fraught. The US and Europe will become more protectionist, terrorism and cyber warfare will rise and Pakistan will engineer more terror attacks in India as it falls behind in economic growth. India will continue to grow but it needs to create 10 million new jobs every year or there will be social tensions. As salaries rise in China low cost manufacturing is moving elsewhere. This could be a great opportunity for India to increase its manufacturing growth but instead Indian companies are shifting to Vietnam, Myanmar, and even Ethiopia. The reasons are restrictive labor laws and lack of roads and electricity. Perhaps the main reason is the enormous cost of land. Curiously, 69% of Indians trust the government, compared with just 35% in the US. Why, when it is so much richer than us? Maybe, because Americans trust in God and our Gods have gone deaf. Bad luck.