Divisive policies can harm India: Kaushik Basu

India has been getting a lot of negative publicity around the world for its divisive policies, believes economist and former economic advisor Kaushik Basu. He hopes this does not taint the years of efforts India as country put in.

While delivering a lecture on' The Story of India’ s Economy: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, Bas us aid ," Lynching and narrow-mindness can hurt India." He further went on to add, "Divisive policies can do more harm to India."

He hopes this is just a phase that will pass otherwise the efforts put in by founding fathers of the country will be in vain. "We need to hang on together as a country."

Despite such dreadful activities, there are chances India will continue to grow but the fabric of the society will be hurt, he stressed. He is optimistic that India will continue to grow in medium to long term. Condemning casteism, he said India should fight it.

Yet another evil that India is facing, according to him, is corruption which is expected as a norm in the country. "This norm has to be dropped." He added that lot of people out there are not corrupt but they feel if one is doing it they should also do it. The only way to improve it by including this issue as part of education and fight against corruption, Basu reiterated. Talking further about education, Basu stated that India needs to improve their basic education. Giving credit to IITs and IIMs, he said there are many higher education institutions that are doing well for themselves and providing quality education, but basic education is getting poorer day by day.