JOIN US The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is the single greatest scheme India has instituted to alleviate poverty, said Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
Stiglitz was in Bengaluru for a public discussion on “Global Inequality: Causes and Consequences”, organised by the Azim Premji University on Wednesday.
“I think the National Rural Employment Act is a great example to undo inequality and help the poor. It is an example to the world from India,” said Stiglitz. On the NDA government, Stiglitz said incidents like the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) row are bad precedents for attracting foreign investors.
“Cracking down on university students puts India in the small group of countries like Turkey. These countries are usually very authoritarian in nature,” he said. “It’s got a very drastic effect on the foreign investor and the international community has taken a strong view on this issue,” he said.
Commenting on the performance of the Modi government in the past two years, he said cracking the whip on NGOs was a bad example. “These NGOs have contributed a lot towards India’s development and creating harsh conditions for them is not appreciated,” Stiglitz added.
He said the United States had failed in implementing the market economy. “Just because we have failed doesn’t mean the market economy doesn’t work. We could have done well. The Norway model is quite successful,” he said in response to a question. He said there was no need to weaken the labour market in the US.