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Rajni Bakshi writes: The importance of George Soros’s Open Society – for India and the world   https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/george-soros-indian-democracy-modi-remarks-open-society-8454825/  Rajni Bakshi February 19, 2023
George Soros’ personal history is itself proof that the most serious contest of our time is not between the 'right' and the 'left' or capitalism and communism. It was between open and closed societies
 Soros did not stop at seeing repressive communist regimes as enemies of an open society. By the mid-1990s, Soros began speaking out against what he called “market fundamentalism”. He reformulated his understanding of open society when he realised that excessive individualism and lack of social cohesion are as dangerous as excessive state control. While Popper had limited himself to critiquing communism, Soros used his knowledge as a leading market player to bust myths about the “free market”.

Market fundamentalism, he argued, is a mindset which reduces virtually all human interactions to transactional, contract-based relationships that must be valued in terms of a single common denominator — money.

Many other voices, both in the West and East, helped to puncture “market fundamentalism”. They argued that when free market ideology is treated as an ultimate truth this destroys social good and eventually undermines an open society by insisting that “There Are No Alternatives”, commonly known as the TINA effect.

This is why, in India today, the division between “left” and “right” is unhelpful to grasp what is most urgently at stake.

open society is hanging by a thread. In India, this is a strong thread because, until recently, living with differences came naturally to us. And, however distracted we may be by the controversy of the day, old mental habits cannot evaporate so easily. We know that reality is made up of competing, sometimes contradictory, yet co-existing truths. Open society lives on as long as this is the anchor for a large enough number of people and they dare to speak out.

For full speech of Soros: https://www.georgesoros.com/2023/02/16/remarks-delivered-at-the-2023-munich-security-conference/

What degree of dominance do India’s biggest businesses enjoy? Decoding the Billionaire Raj TN NINAN 18 February, 2023   https://theprint.in/opinion/what-degree-of-dominance-do-indias-biggest-businesses-enjoy-decoding-the-billionaire-raj/1380898/ The rise of multi-business conglomerates stands in contrast to the earlier rise of focussed, single-business enterprises in telecom, IT services, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles.

Modi Claims 2004 to 2014 Was India's ‘Lost Decade’. Is That True?  https://thewire.in/economy/modi-claims-india-saw-a-lost-decade-between-2004-and-14-is-that-true Santosh Mehrotra

1. The so-called lost decade saw the creation of 7.5 million (75 lakh) jobs in the non-farm sector annually; the 2013-19 period saw only 2.9 mn (29 lakh) non-farm jobs created until 2019 (before COVID-19) (based on government PLFS data). It fell to even less after COVID-19.

2. Youth unemployment has tripled or at least doubled before, and even after, COVID-19, compared to the UPA period.

3. Real wages rose during the so-called ‘lost decade’ (despite higher inflation), they fell in recent years (according to PLFS data).

4. The number of poor fell sharply during this earlier period, and has risen in recent years.