He blends intellectual curiosity of a scientist with the creative imagination of a poet in him. While his profession requires him to sift through mountains of data for quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena, his passion makes him swim on the sea of his outpouring impulses for aesthetic indulgence of composing luscious lines of verses. It has all been an uphill journey for Dr Raman Kumar Agrawalla from Bhuban, the largest village in Odisha, to be a faculty delivering lectures and keynote addresses at Business Schools of international repute and at last landing a job of leadership for improving the performance of a world-class corporate setting like the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
He is a PhD in Economics from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He has over two decades of academic and industry experiences. Since 2005, he has been serving in the CS assuming various roles. He is a Professional Member, American Economic Association, Association of Computing Machinery and a Senior Member of the IEEE Society. He is also a life-Member of the All India Management Association, Indian Science Congress Association and Indian Econometrics Society. He is an elected Council Member of the AIMA Council of Management for 2016-2018.
He was editor of Vani Vikas, the literary journal of Utkal University. He is named as a “leading Scientist of the World 2013” by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England. In an interview to The Pioneer, he spoke to Sugyan Choudhury on varied aspects of the economic scenario in our country.
You are an economist of repute as well as a noted Odia poet. How do you reconcile bothIJ
Reconciliation between my poetic self and my economist self is not easy, of course. But I prefer to have both of them being on a path of natural equilibrium, being in sync with each other, being in a rhythmic play as a jugalbandi; so to say. Economics is about making informed choices in a given situation, keeping in view pain and gain in mind. And being a poet helps you get guided also by the qualitative aspects of it to realise an elevated kind of pain and pleasure that can take you beyond body, touching your heart and soul. Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian idea was to aspire for “greatest happiness for the greatest number of people”, and poetry is always for the benefit of all. The understanding and realisation for me in my life so far has been that life is a confluence of truth, benevolence and beauty. Both poetry and economics help you not only imagine and re-imagine it but also live it.
How do you assess the aftermath of demonetisationIJ
India has overcome the initial expected suffering caused by demonetisation that started in November 2016. The good thing is that the re-monetisation happened quickly, and by the end of the first quarter of 2017 our economy is fully re-monetised. However, it took its toll affecting economic growth adversely in that quarter, but that was expected. In FY 2017-18, economic growth is likely to be more that 7.5 per cent and it will increase in subsequent years reaping the large benefits of this historic measure. If all the appropriate policy measures are in place and macroeconomic condition is well-managed, I will not be surprised seeing Indian economy moving to a double-digit growth trajectory by 2020. The monetary authority and the financial authority in our country need to work in tandem, honoring each other, and they need to be guided by mostly real economic considerations to see that India’s economy grows to its actual potential.
Will introduction of the GST achieve all its goalsIJ
It is going to be a long-drawn process. I think the introduction and implementation of the GST from July 1, 2017 in itself signifies the resolve of governments to carry forward good economic reforms embracing and assimilating all viewpoints. The first significant step of the goal of achieving one rate subsuming multiple indirect tax rates, including service taxes and one economic market throughout India has been taken. However, the ultimate goal of having a single GST rate, in my personal view, is a chimera. Given the nature of diversities in our society and the economy and diversities in the needs and wants of our people, we can slowly adopt and manage with three rates -- a mean rate, a merit rate and a demerit rate. We essentially need many daily-used products, especially the economic goods forming the poor’s basket of consumption to have least possible tax rate. And from the revenue requirement viewpoint, you also need a reasonable rate yielding sufficient revenue to governments to carry out their public expenditure and welfare activities.
I consider both demonetisation and GST implementation as epoch-making political-economic actions which will have a positive effect on the health of the Indian economy in the longer term. In course of time, we will see India’s economy benefiting from the increasing efficiency in tax administration, increase in tax base and increasing digitisation and formalisation of the Indian economy.
After globalisation, socialistic India seems to be drifting towards a capital economy. What’s your responseIJ
See, I feel that India is still a socialistic economy in heart but capitalistic in its character and structure. Almost all nations have embraced market economy today.
How long will it, you think, be able to feed the ever-ballooning populationIJ
Population is not a problem so long as we realise that it has also hands and minds to work, besides a stomach to feed or a belly to fill. It is a tragedy that in many countries, still there is hunger and homelessness in many pockets. And it has to end. It can happen in an accelerated pace if countries set their priorities right and also work towards achieving in real sense a hunger-free world. It can be achieved with increasing investment in education, primary healthcare and creation of other social and physical infrastructure; and, above all, creating gainful employment opportunities for the masses and inducing appropriate entrepreneurial opportunities and activities for all those who are interested. Not all solutions you get through the market mechanism. Many times, you need a visible hand of government operating of course in an invisible way to create and compliment various means and mechanisms for a hunger-free, healthy and happy population.
How do you visualise opening the exotic world of Odia poetry to international readershipIJ
Even international readership is at your doorstep now given the increasing penetration of smart phones and easier reach and richness of social media. I don’t think if many of our celebrated Odia poets are being taught in foreign universities. It is time to create a special fund, maybe by the poets and the lovers of poetry, to commission translation in many other languages, including English; of many special and famous poems written in Odia in the last 100 years and more. Slowly, I see it happening as more and more poets are coming from different backgrounds. It requires a sort of meeting of minds and a well-crafted mechanism to help savour the exotic world of Odia poetry to international readership.
What would you like to say to your peers and fans as a poetIJ
See, my journey as a poet started long back, started in my native village Bhuban, the largest village of India, the land of the famous Baji Rout and river Brahmani. I was really prolific during my student days, be that in Bhuban, Dhenkanal or Bhubaneswar or in Delhi. But soon, the reality of life hit; and as you asked at the start, I had to create and live a way of reconciliation between the reality of economic world and the imagination of the world of poetry. But, of late, things are getting natural, and I am more inclined now towards a life of self-realisation and self-actualisation through a happy blending of economics and poetry.
I would love to tell, “Poetry is not a commercial pursuit but a spiritual practice that elevates the soul and enables self-actualisation.”