Freebies are ‘soft bribes’ passing on huge burden of debt to children
D Subbarao, Chairperson, MIDS, and Former Governor, RBI; Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, MSSRF and Former Director General, ICMR; Aravind Subramanian, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and Devesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and Director of Asia Programs, Johns Hopkins University, at the book launch in Chennai on Wednesday | Photo Credit: Ravindran_R
Freebies are unsustainable and when dole outs are given out of borrowed funds, we pass on debt to the next generation, said former RBI Governor D Subbarao on Wednesday.
“Freebies are ‘soft bribes’ and every political leader who says he/she will give freebies is actually saying, ‘I am sorry I cannot give you the dignity of a decent life, regular livelihood and regular income. So I am giving you this’,” he said. While some safety nets for welfare are essential, the spending that’s being done at both the State and Central levels on freebies is crossing limits, especially because this is not out of revenue surplus but on borrowed funds, he added.
He was speaking at the launch and discussion on the book A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey, authored by former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and political scientist Devesh Kapur, hosted by MMA in Chennai on Wednesday.
“There’s competitive populism over the last two years that was seen in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and most recently in Bihar, with political parties competing with each other about freebies,” he said, adding that the Central government has done reasonably well over the last 5-6 years on fiscal credibility.
Former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian stressed that India needs to revive manufacturing.
“China+1 opportunity was providing this until the Trump tariffs came. China’s share of low skill global exports is 45-50 per cent while India’s share is 3-4 per cent. There is no reason why this cannot be raised to 10-12 per cent. This will provide a boost to inclusive growth,” he said.
Soumya Swaminathan, Chairman of the Chennai-based MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, said while life expectancy has improved significantly, healthy life expectancy has not improved. “The average life expectancy today is around 70-72 years. But healthy life expectancy is about 10 years less. This means there’s a huge burden on the individual, the family as well as on the health system ultimately because of the burden of illness,” she said.
Published on December 3, 2025
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