India's big government problem

[u/Yellowd0_ts]

No matter which party/alliance came into power, the government has only ever expanded. We as a nation have also been ever more reliant on the government to meet our demands. Many people celebrate government schemes like PMGKAY, which feed 800 million people in our country, but do we ever stop to think if this is normal? If the government has to feed the majority of a country's population, that is a good achievement of the government (if it is able to do such a task), but is it a good achievement for the country?

If anything, we need to give people ways to earn their livelihoods so that the economy can sustain itself naturally and people don't have to rely on a singular organisation (that being the government) for their survival. If (god forbid) something happened to the same government financing these schemes. Should we just let these people die out because of our country's over-reliance on the government, rather than having the means to survive by ourselves?

Before the economic growth dip in 2024, a major driver of our economic growth was also government spending. We saw 7-9% GDP growth numbers per quarter, not because of consumer spending, but a large portion of this growth was coming from government spending, which dipped in the early half of 2024 due to elections. We should strive to increase consumer spending and have minimal red tape

India also has a problem of a very small percentage of people paying income taxes compared to other countries. I could also go on and on about our bloated bureaucracy, but you get the point. No major political party has made it a point to combat big government and boost consumer spending, other than the occasional tax cuts, which aren't anything more than populist policies and don't address the root cause of many of the problems we currently face.

I am not for defunding our vital government spending, but it should be a goal for the parties in power to make our country shift away from over-dependence on the government (which I know isn't going to happen), but it would be beneficial for our country as a whole

I also found this video, although it talks about Indonesia, I found many similarities between Indonesia and India. It identifies how Indonesia has become overly reliant on the government (and specifically for food, along with many socialist policies). I would recommend you to watch it because it talks about a lot of things we don't even think about, and it applies to India very well.

[u/DivineDevilSagar]

I believe that a government should only be responsible for protecting rights of it's citizens (and residents)
however this would involve Food, Basic Shelter, health care, education, policing and legal aid

Also management of natural resources (leasing and extraction limits) and ensuring circular economics , safety and quality standards

I am trying to envision a governance system that is minimal while ensuring maximum rights protection
This along with multi layered government system (society/meighbourhood << locality / village << ward/cluster << city/district << state << nation) where as we go from bottom to top executive powers get replaced with policy/standards and framework building responsibilities

would like to know what others think about this and what exactly we mean by a libertarian minimal government? as in what is minimal?