BS Number Wise: India's savings don't help govt build a social safety net

India needs the other kind of saving now

One of the first things you learn from an introductory macroeconomics text is that saving needs to be equal to investment for economic equilibrium. This Keynesian equality has become a widely accepted economic rule. Although the relationship is not as simple as the S=I equation, it has withstood the test of time.

In India, savings are declining. The latest annual report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that gross savings fell in 2020-21 to 27.8 per cent of the gross national disposable income (GNDI). In 2017-18, they were 31.7 per cent of the GNDI.

The problem is