Thought for the day
”The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the
philosophy of government in the next."
-
Abraham Lincoln (American, 1809-1865)
Word for the day
Waif (n)
A person, especially a child, who has no home or friends.
(Source:
Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
Many companies have responded favorably to PM's appeal for
contribution to toilet in school project.
Should PM also appeal to all trusts managing places of
worship to join the moment?
"Vote" over "voter" - I
One elementary problem afflicting the Indian economy is
misdirected political priorities. Successive governments have pursued policies
that would fetch them enough "votes" rather than benefit more
"voters".
Many would argue this as a quintessential shortcoming of the
Westminster "first past the post" electoral system. I would beg to
differ. I believe it is incompetence and short sightedness of political
leadership in most cases.
Our politicians have sought to control markets for various
products and services in the name of national security and social justice. Six
decades later there is little substantive evidence to suggest that strategy has
been effective in meeting any of the objectives.
I find that mishandling of markets through mostly unwarranted
and often misdirected interventions by successive governments has caused serious
damage to the economic structure of the country at many places.
In my view, the problem like inflation, adverse balance of
payment and infrastructure (especially energy) deficit have their roots in the
political follies committed by successive governments.
For example consider the following -
(a) Edible oil
industry has mostly been destroyed and sugar industry has not seen any material
investment in past 15years and is on the verge of bankruptcy.
(b) Despite having
one of the largest reserves globally our imports of coal and iron ore are
rising fast.
(c) Over half the
population is forced to live without electricity or with inadequate electricity
and almost one third of the installed capacity is lying idle.
(d) The PPP model of
infrastructure building has mostly been conceived to benefit private partners
rather than the public at large. The projects have been undertaken with minimal
equity and mostly public debt. Failure of projects have therefore strained the
public sector banks and public finances.
(e) The public
education system of the country has been distorted beyond repair largely to the
benefit of private commercial institution, many of which are dominantly
controlled by politicians or connected people.
(f) Most metros
including Delhi, Bangalore, Lucknow, Bhopal, Ahmadabad, etc. have no rolling
taxi service like Mumbai and Kolkata, forcing people to drive their own cars
for short distances.
Telecommunication, information technology, and civil aviation
industries have clearly demonstrated that government monopoly over many
businesses, in the falsehood of national security, has caused more harm to the
economy and people than it has benefitted them.
The incumbent NDA has suggested little precious to alter these conditions.
Most of the steps announced so far are incremental and do not propose any
substantive departure from the extant line of thinking....to continue tomorrow
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