"Unless one is
inordinately fond of subordination, one is always at war."
Word for the day
Estimable (adj)
Worthy of esteem; deserving
respect or admiration.
Malice towards none
If you want credit for
"early" completion of a road project that was running behind schedule
for years, then how could you evade the blame for continuing inordinate delays
in thousands of other projects.
First random thought this morning
A chance meeting with a placement agent for domestic helps,
drivers and security staff, highlighted that it is not long before Indian labor
will awaken and unionize. The workers, skilled, semi-skilled and even unskilled
will begin to assert their right for a dignified life and higher minimum wages.
The point is how many Indian businesses, especially in MSME
sector, are ready for this phenomenon. It would also be interesting to study
how would it affect the life of white collar labor, especially female workers,
as the arbitrage between domestic help plus child care plus eating out expenses
and net wages (after adjusting for transport and maintenance expenses) shrinks
dramatically.
Four years of Modi rule - 6
As I returned from a long and rather tiring vacation in early
hours of Saturday, I was greeted by full 3 pages of newspaper advertisements,
eulogizing the achievements of the incumbent governments at the center and the
states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The insertions were colorful and decorated with brilliant
headlines claiming the outstanding achievements of BJP governments at center
and the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The newspaper insertions were then supplemented by the full day
media coverage of the inauguration of 135km Easter Peripheral Expressway
(Kundali - Ghaziabad - Palwal or KGP Expressway) and 9Km Delhi leg of the 90km
Delhi-Merrut Expressway.
Speaking about the Road projects first, it certainly felt good to
see the state of the art road being completed in reasonable period of time
(though much faster empirically). The design seems good and environment
friendly.
But the doubt that is bothering is that isn't it the natural
progression in the construction industry in the country? The designs and
execution of buildings, bridges, roads, airports, ports, factories and other
infrastructure projects in the country is improving with each project in past
two decades.
Beginning with 95km Mumbai-Pune Expressway completed in 2002,
almost all subsequent expressways have seen better designs, use of technology
and facilities. As a matter of fact, building better and larger airports,
buildings, metro rail projects, roads in less time, in comparison to empirical
evidence, is now a norm and not exception, provided there is no court
intervention.
So what is the achievement of the prime minister, chief ministers
or road minister in this? If at all the people to commend are the architects,
engineers, contractors and NHAI/PWD officials.
As I wrote earlier also (see here)
the statistics on kilometers of road completed, number of electricity polls and
transformers installed, number of new affordable houses constructed, toilets
build, number of new LPG connections given, new tax assesses added, MUDRA loan
disbursed, irrigation projects completed, new schools and colleges opened, may
be better boasted about by a Municipal Commissioner, District Magistrate, or a
at best the local corporator or Panchayat head.
When prime minister of a large country aspiring to become a global
power wants his performance to be evaluated in these mundane statistical terms,
it does not inspire confidence.
The performance of a prime minister and the national government
led by him, should be evaluated in terms of policies he conceived and
implemented to put the economy on path to a faster and sustainable development;
it's people on the path of prosperity, peace, and dignity; and the country as a
whole on the path of cohesiveness, cooperation, recognition and
integration...to continue tomorrow
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