Praveen Singh
GDP has been soaring in India for the last three decades. In reality though, anyone looking at India with eyes even half-open would see a completely different picture. The basic flaw with a market-led economy is that it does not produce for all people — it only produces for those who have buying power, or put simply, for those who have money. And it produces what those with money wish to buy, and not what the hundreds of millions may need. So yes, on the surface, India has sparkling malls, luxury cars, smartphones and international vacations. But alas, these goodies are accessible only to the top 5% of the Indian population. More than half of the population is struggling to get clean drinking water, balanced nutrition, decent housing and sanitation, secure and dignified jobs, healthcare and education, and (despite the vote) has no means of making its voice heard. (With Aseem Shrivastava)
Praveen Singh is an independent researcher on socio-economic and political issues.
Ever since his late college years, Praveen has been drawn to questions regarding the meaning of life, and one’s role towards creating a more humane and sustainable world. Over the last two decades, he has been involved full time with social experiments around the possibilities of personal and social change through non-formal education, and community-based initiatives. Praveen feels that society today has two fundamental fault lines. One is at the level of our worldview: i.e., our beliefs regarding what is happiness/success, who is a worthy human being, what kind of life/society is a good society, what ought to be our relationship with fellow humans, and with the rest of Nature. The second fault line is that of the Capitalist economic system. These two fault lines feed into each other, forming a vicious cycle. He believes that any attempt to better society that does not simultaneously address both would woefully fall short.
He has been a part of The Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics’, which says its mission is to "nurture value-based leadership by encouraging individuals, especially the youth, to reflect, discuss and develop a critical perspective on the ideals and ideas that define a ‘just’ society." Praveen has played a key role in conceptualizing, facilitating and anchoring some of Sambhaavnaa Institute's flagship programmes.
Amongst other things, Praveen is a researcher and educator on issues around Economic systems, Economic history, mainstream Economics and its shortcomings, Development Economics – and conducts sessions around these topics in many of our programs.
Prior to full time social work, Praveen studied at IIT, Delhi and IIM, Ahmedabad. He worked in the corporate sector for over eight years, primarily in management consulting across India and the United States.