The tendency to equate economic growth with industrialization has in the recent past started a violent and bloody movement in the Indian state of West Bengal. The movement that started against forced acquisition of agricultural land for industrialization in Singur gradually spread to other parts of the state of West Bengal including Nandigram. This movement acquired explosive proportions with the intellectuals, civil society and anti-left political parties throwing in their weight behind the displaced peasants who lost their land. Ultimately it became an albatross around the neck of the Left leadership and sunk the political fortunes of the thirty-four year old Left Front government in 2011 state assembly elections. The Singur and Nandigram tragedy are only one among the many agitations that have exploded in various parts of India in recent past. These protest movements have kicked off the development versus displacement debate in India. The killing of protesting peasants in Singur and Nandigram by the trigger happy police not only exposes the political myopia and inhuman indifference of the so-called pro-poor Left Front Government of West Bengal. But it also goes on to show that the political process in India is increasingly getting hijacked by the logic of the market which sees displacement only as an appendix to development. What we need today is to reinvent the principles laid down by Gandhi to usher in a just and equitable economic order. The Gandhian model of economic development is based on the simple yet profound principles of altruism and egalitarianism. This article would focus on the reasons behind the inception of a violent movement in Singur and Nandigram, the fundamental flaws in the development model of the erstwhile Left Front Government of West Bengal, and end by providing a Gandhian solution to the development versus displacement dilemma in the state of West Bengal in India.
The tendency to equate economic growth with industrialization has in the recent past started a violent and bloody movement in the Indian state of West Bengal. The movement that started against forced acquisition of agricultural land for industrialization in Singur gradually spread to other parts of the state of West Bengal including Nandigram. This movement acquired explosive proportions with the intellectuals, civil society and anti-left political parties throwing in their weight behind the displaced peasants who lost their land. Ultimately it became an albatross around the neck of the Left leadership and sunk the political fortunes of the thirty-four year old Left Front government in 2011 state assembly elections. The Singur and Nandigram tragedy are only one among the many agitations that have exploded in various parts of India in recent past. These protest movements have kicked off the development versus displacement debate in India. The killing of protesting peasants in Singur and Nandigram by the trigger happy police not only exposes the political myopia and inhuman indifference of the so-called pro-poor Left Front Government of West Bengal. But it also goes on to show that the political process in India is increasingly getting hijacked by the logic of the market which sees displacement only as an appendix to development. What we need today is to reinvent the principles laid down by Gandhi to usher in a just and equitable economic order. The Gandhian model of economic development is based on the simple yet profound principles of altruism and egalitarianism. This article would focus on the reasons behind the inception of a violent movement in Singur and Nandigram, the fundamental flaws in the development model of the erstwhile Left Front Government of West Bengal, and end by providing a Gandhian solution to the development versus displacement dilemma in the state of West Bengal in India.
Austria's political and economic interest in the countries of Central Europe was diverse. Neighborhood policy was interpreted as "a small relaxation that without direct union with the USSR could have contributed to relaxation between East and West". In initiating economic cooperation, it was assumed that the economic stability of Eastern countries would be conducive to the implementation of the basic task of the SPÖ, which is maintaining full employment, would be an optical expression of Austria's neutrality and would contribute to alleviating the effects of Austria's unilateral economic links with Western countries, in particular with Germany. The assumption adopted in Vienna concerned the consent to undertake economic cooperation where it was profitable, but also while respecting the principles typical of the free market. At the beginning it was assumed that industrialization concerns only East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Over time, this approach has changed. Analyzing the foreign policy of Austria, research tools characteristic of the historian and political scientist's workshop were used. The method of analysis and synthesis was adopted. Additionally, the conducted research was supplemented with the institutional method (legal acts regarding the competence to create foreign policy and state treaties). A statistical method was also used to show the scale of trade.
Polityka klastrowa, która została wypracowana przez instytucje Unii Europejskiej, a która jest wdrażana od wielu lat bezkrytycznie przez instytucje państwowe, jest niedopasowana do realiów polskiej gospodarki oraz relacji społeczno-gospodarczych, a przez to nieefektywna. Ostatnie badanie wykonane przez Delloite Business Consulting S.A. Benchmarking klastrów w Polsce – 2010 Raport z badania1 wskazuje, że organizacje klastrowe w Polsce nie są rozwinięte i borykają się z problemami finansowymi oraz problemem nieufności przedsiębiorców wobec swojego otoczenia biznesowego i instytucji państwowych. Raport ten potwierdził stwierdzenia zawarte w raporcie PAG, który zostanie omówiony w dalszej części tej publikacji.Polityka klastrowa jest realizowana przez Urzędy Marszałkowskie, co nie przynosi zakładanych rezultatów, bowiem politycy są bardziej zainteresowani tworzeniem nowych inicjatyw klastrowych niż wspomaganiem i rozwijaniem tych, które sami pomagali powoływać do życia.Celem niniejszej pracy jest przedstawienie koncepcji rozszerzenia kompetencji oraz zakresu działalności Specjalnych Stref Ekonomicznych o działalność brokera klastra. W opinii autorów ustawowe przydzielenie SSE roli brokera klastra, bazując na modelu działań odgórnych (top –down), może przynieść pozytywne rozwiązania i zapewnić budowanie klastrów przez profesjonalne organizacje, posiadające zarówno know-how, odpowiednie zasoby ludzkie oraz istniejące struktury organizacyjne.[.] ; Since last two decades, the cluster concept developed by Porter has been widely used as the tool for policy makers to intervene in regional agglomeration and industrialization process. The European Union introduced Cluster Based Policy to its members, aiming on spreading idea of cluster among them, and providing best practices by basing on researches done on existing clusters in Western Europe. The basic assumption of the EU bottom-up CBP is to support recognized cluster initiatives and provide financial means for start up. In this model, the market should prove whenever the cluster initiatives were strong enough to grow up or decease. Poland does not have national CBP and the national policy is based on European recommendations. These recommendations do not fit to Polish social and economic reality. Poland is considered as the one of post-communism countries with all the social and economical limitations appearing from that fact. The citizens and entrepreneurs still do not trust each other as well as they do not trust in government and its institutions. The mentality of people has not caught up the wave of economical changes yet. During last decade in Poland there were established many cluster initiatives. After initial euphoria, especially among politicians, within a period of 2-3 years almost all cluster initiatives and cluster organization in Poland have gotten into financial and organizational troubles. They exist; however, either do not act or act in order to find financial sources to cover basic operational costs, such as the costs of an office, stuff or current payments, thus they are not focused on cluster projects at all. The cluster policy in Poland seems to be ineffective and inappropriate tailored to our social and economical conditions. The authors would like to propose to change bottom-up policy and let government take a part in establishing and supporting cluster organizations in Poland. The Polish government has a tool to intervene on the regional market to create agglomeration processes leading to establishing clusters. The Polish Government legislated the act on Special Economic Zones and thus prepared a useful tool to support regional development. SEZ territorially cover all regions of Poland. So far SEZ have been responsible over attracting investors to the zones by providing them with: fiscal support, help in start-ups, facilitating with governmental institutions and education. The last world crisis showed, it is not so hard to attract a new investor, but it is very hard to keep the investment in region. Due to its long experience and already existing organizational structures SEZ are perfect to undertake the role in cluster policy as the cluster brokers and facilitate all cluster projects. SEZ as the broker of cluster could bring a benefit to the actors of the clusters and increase regional development and competitiveness.
