"Communists are people
who fancied that they had an unhappy childhood."
—Gertrude Stein (American,
1874-1946)
Word for the day
Netiquette (n)
The rules of etiquette that
apply when communicating over computer networks, especially the internet.
Malice towards none
The question after all is
"Will the Lotus finally bloom in TN?"
First random thought this morning
As per the latest Global Nutrition Report, more than half (51%) of
all women of reproductive age in India are anemic. Not a medical expert, but I do
believe that an anemic women is less likely to give birth to a healthy child.
One wishes, the government would accord the same priority to the
quality of life index as it does assign to the ease of doing business index.
After all, finding adequate number of healthy workers is also an ease of doing
business matrix.
The thought came to my mind because our health minister, like all
other ministers, had promptly commented on the recent jump in India's ease of
doing business ranking, though no mention of this poor position on Nutrition
index has been made.
For record, in past a BJP leader from Gujarat had attributed these
anemic conditions to women's dieting habits adopted for vanity purposes.
People over Markets
Many readers have commented on my
yesterday's post (see here). The most popular view is that I should not delve too
much into technical jargon or background material; rather I should present my
own views and suggestions based on my own assessment of the situation based on
my personal experiences.
I bow to my readers' wishes and
promise to keep posts simple and straight.
Now coming to the issue of finding
suitable policy choices, determining the most appropriate amongst these
choices, evolving a robust policy framework and establishing strong
institutions to manage the policy framework so evolved - I have following to
offer.
In my view, since independence the
core of Indian economic policy framework has been Feudal; regardless of the
fact that it is has been disguised as Socialist, Semi Socialist, and Largely
Free Market at various points in time. Our political class has always taken
pride in positioning themselves as the "Provider", rather than
working as an "Enabler" of enterprise and "Trustee" of
resources.
It is critical to note that after
three decades we have a political establishment with overwhelming dominance. The
overriding influence of the central leadership over the vast area of dominance
(BJP ruled states now encompass ~60% of Indian population) allows near seamless
economic integration of many large states like UP, MP, Maharashtra, etc.). At
the same time the strong aspiration of BJP leadership to rule over the rest of
the country (especially Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka) motivates
them to focus on economic development of these regions as well.
The urgency and commitment shown
in implementation of GST is more popular indication of the economic integration
efforts of the incumbent government.
The even more relevant efforts
include pan-Indian approach for railways and highways expansion, an apolitical
approach for power sector reforms, efforts to establish a nationwide
agriculture market, gradually phasing out tax incentives on area specific
investments, amendment in mining laws that allows the mine holding states to
draw a larger share in royalties and incentivizes putting manufacturing
facilities closure to raw material, etc.
Replacing the legacy Planning
Commission, which was empowered to make development plans in consultation with
states, with a more advisory body NITI Aayog. While both the bodies came into
existence through executive orders and depend on the government's will, the
planning commission had assumed an important role in the 5yr plan based
development model adopted by India since independence.
The new design however appears to
suggest that we no longer want to follow the central planning model that was
loosely based on the Soviet command based economic development model.
But at the same time, it nowhere
suggests that we are ready and willing to adopt the laissez-faire model of USA,
where markets are free and federal states are materially powerful.
Reconstitution of PMEAC also
highlights the intent to accord more importance to the market economists over
the development economists who have so far dominated the Indian policy making
arena.
Though the intent and effort of
the incumbent government to bring about changes in policy framework are
commendable, in my view the Incrementalism may not be an appropriate strategy
in current circumstances.
What we need is a revolutionary
change, in the real sense of the term.
In my view, the feudal or quasi
colonial model of development, that our successive governments have adopted, is
not desirable. Considering the diversity of our country, and character of our
democracy, we need to follow a participative model of development, where the
local communities are made equal partner in the process of development. The
focus of development should be people and not markets, which unfortunately has
been the case in past three decades of economic reforms.
Also see
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