Fringe benefits
Three significant reforms may be taking shape silently in
India, though the government never intended to make these reforms and investors
never asked for it, at least not publically.
Firstly, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is reportedly
issuing a notice to three state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) on a probe
on whether they form a cartel to fix petrol prices. The commission is also
looking at the coal and fertilizer sectors, where government-owned companies
dominate the market.
This notice could potentially unleash a debate on the
corporate governance and accountability of public sector monopolies towards the
minority shareholders in particular and public in general.
The public sector corporations can thus be made more
accountable to parliament and public and saved from serving political agenda of
the ruling parties. Little farfetched but not unfathomable – a CCI stricture on
pricing policies of PSU may influence the whole subsidy paradigm in the
country.
Secondly, the defence minister, having the image of a clean
administrator, pushed to the wall has announced corrective action in the
controversial chopper deal. Earlier, he had taken some serious steps to
diminish the discretionary powers enjoyed by the defence minister. The
political establishment may not like his reformative actions, but
notwithstanding he has set a precedence which will be hard to ignore.
A transparent public procurement policy, including defence
supplies, with minimal discretions to the minister in-charge may be a game
changer in the whole business of government.
Thirdly, the CAG, hitherto a mostly unknown boring
accountant, is assuming a central role in the public governance, much against
the wishes of the political class.
When Central Election Commission did this, the electoral
corruption in the country receded substantially. Hopefully, with the support of
judiciary and civil society the CAG will emerge as a true custodian of
governance ethos in the country.
A recent nationwide survey by Open/C-Voter substantiated
what we had found in our nationwide survey
“Mandate 2014” about the need for change in leadership and suitability of
Narendra Modi for PMship.
The survey confirmed that Modi so far is more of an urban,
middle class, youth phenomenon. He needs to do much more to reach out to the
lower strata of the country beyond cities and towns. He needs to reach where TV
and his Vikas Rath (or for that matter electricity and roads) have not ventured
so far.
Insofar as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, so far he does not
appear to be a serious candidate. If the Congress really needs him to be a
serious candidates, they should be hitting the road straight away with a
credible socio-economic agenda that ‘includes’
middle class also.
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