Best of BS Opinion: Govt must protect EPFO, savings lifeline for Indians

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

Why the collapse of PMC Bank should ring the alarm for a potential bigger crisis and how controversial cow protection policies have proved to be futile. Pallav Nayak sums up the views.

Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. And now Abhijit Banerjee, also from India, has won the Prize. Just about two decades separate the two events. Yet, it seems that the India of today is significantly different from what it was then, writes A K Bhattacharya.

The failure of PMC Bank has once again thrust attention on the ailing residential real estate market in India. PMC Bank’s downfall was essentially sparked by loans to a real estate firm that could not pay it back. That's worrying because, historically, most financial crises have been driven by a crash in the real estate market, writes Diva Jain.

The government would be well advised to release funds to the EPFO. The pension fund is reported to be in deficit. India doesn’t have a robust social security system and, thus, it is important to protect and expand the institutional mechanism in place, says our first edit.

The futility of the government’s controversial cow protection policies is evident from the 20th livestock census (2019) data. It shows the livestock-keepers’ choice of the animals and their breeds is guided more by their utility value rather than the government’s diktats, says our second edit.

Quote Of The Day

 

"I had a cordial and good meeting. Prime Minister Modi started by cracking a joke on how media is trying to trap me to say anti-Modi things. He's been watching TV and he's been watching you guys. And he knows what you are trying to do.” 

-- Abhijit Banerjee, co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics.