US

This paper analyses the phenomenon of jobless growth in India and the United States through the lens of employment elasticity. We decompose the level and change of aggregate employment elasticity in terms of sectoral elasticities, relative growth and employment shares. Estimates of these decompositions are presented with employment and output data from relevant sources for both economies. In India, the agricultural sector was the key determinant of both the level and change of aggregate elasticity till the early 2000s. In the US, the service sector is the most important determinant of the level, but manufacturing remains an important driver of changes in aggregate employment elasticity.

America's wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have raised many questions on terrorism, modern war, the role of Islamic fundamentalism in opposition to the west's appropriation of modernity and the continuing relevance of imperialist military and economic aggression in contemporary north-south debates. Terrorism is a form of identitarian conflict which has a history rooted in the colonial past of many third world countries. Afghanistan is a good example illustrating the consolidation of so-called modern and traditional identities in modern history. Time and again western imperialist powers have portrayed Afghanistan as the battle frontier of western civilisation. This essay offers a deconstruction of this western mythology and points out that a holistic critique of the western appropriation of real and symbolic modernity is necessary to comprehend the problem of religious terrorism and thereby wrest the anti-American initiative from the terrorist.

Alarmed by the announcement of preferential trade concessions to Pakistan by the European Union, and apprehensive that a similar package may soon be unveiled by the US, India is likely to ask the US for a higher textile export quota during prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Washington this month. The government and industry are fearful that the move by the major markets for India’s textiles and garments will deal a further blow to already grim export prospects. During AprilAugust 2001 overall exports fell by 2.3 per cent from their yearago levels; textile exports, however, collapsed by a huge 17.3 per cent during the same period. With the global economy already lurching towards recession and additional strains caused by the terror attacks in the US and the subsequent strikes against Afghanistan, India may find it increasingly difficult to meet the government’s export growth target of 12 per cent for the current fiscal year, since textiles account for over 30 per cent of the country’s total export earnings.

In the debate on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and its violent manifestations, the space has been dominated by those who take a strictly religious position and those who are apologists of the realpolitik of the US-led western alliance. A Leftist perspective has been missing in the whole discourse.

Bashing America has gained a fervour after September 11 that threatens to match in unreasonableness the insane act of the terrorists.