AT first sight, the “Make in India” campaign appears innocuous, a pipe-dream perhaps but a rather harmless one. If the world’s big companies come to “make” things in India for selling all over the world, which is the thrust of the “Make in India” campaign of the Modi government, then what is wrong with it?

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) provides useful data on the world labour force. The concept of “labour force” includes both the employed and the unemployed. The employed part of the labour force consists of: wage and salaried workers (who are called “employees”); the self-employed workers with “employees” (who are called “employers”); and the self-employed workers without “employees” (among whom are “own account workers”, unpaid family workers, and members of producers’ cooperatives).

RESERVE Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan has surprised all by a “bold” 50 basis points (or half a percentage point) reduction in policy (interest) rates. The interest rate payable on borrowing by banks from the RBI (or the repo rate) has been brought down to 6.75 percent and the interest rate banks get when they hold deposits with the RBI (or the reverse repo rate) has been reduced to 5.75 percent. The idea is not merely to reduce interest rates charged to borrowers, but to push banks into lending more rather than holding large cash reserves.

THE Maoist attitude to the Indian State is clear; engaged in an armed struggle to overthrow the Indian State, the Maoists see this State as their enemy. What about that segment of the Left, however, which is not engaged in armed struggle, but participates in parliamentary elections, occasionally forms governments at the state level, and functions in accordance with the Constitution? Does it find the current Indian State acceptable?

THERE is a strong view in certain Left circles, especially in certain European Left circles, that any de-linking from global capitalism conduces to a promotion of domestic reaction.