An end, or the beginning?
The financial year ends today. Even if you lived under a rock, you could've figured that out as easily as the weather from the sky's color. Offices in scramble, fintech apps running on overdrive, banks and their hapless staff ignoring lunch times to scamper for that divine balance in the accounts statement - it's a pandemonium. And it's not new.
Each year, the economy finds itself in a tug-of-war between the demand and supply factions across four quarters. Almost like four seasons, the second and third quarters are where you'll spot more easygoing fiscal decisions. As we near the fourth quarter, aggression build up in the portfolio as well as in the accounts' ledger. Taxes on every penny you earn and spend dictate this frenzy. What's hilarious is that funding for most of our philanthropic work and social welfare activities pile up right around this quarter. Don't geckos need protection in July? Children in Dharavi need education in August as much as they do in December. Social welfare has become inextricably tied to the greater "wheels of the economic leviathan", and there is no way out.
This tragic circumstance is indeed a result of our lack of clarity regarding economy and its ambit. Welfare is not a socialist construct. It is the bedrock of economy, and now is as good a time as any to reimagine our economic policies along welfare. More on this to follow.