From “India Shining” campaign of 2004 to “India Poised” campaign of 2007 what has changed is the real face of India’s growth. Now it’s no more just in ink. GDP is growing at about 9%, Q3FY07 results of 340 companies so far show a growth of 35.52% in sales and 70.28% in net profit, FDI is expected to overtake FII in this fiscal and to top it all Sensex has grown by 250% since May 2004. We all are blessed to live in this period. Now it’s the time we contribute to the growth of India to bring back its status of Sone ki Chidiyaan.
The problem areas which can hamper the future growth are lack of infrastructure and education. Government is opening up investments in reality sector which is coupled with domestic investment. SEZ’s have been sanctioned and part of Forex reserves ($177Bn) is planned to fund infrastructure projects. So there is good amount of work being done to meet the funding requirement of $300Bn by 2010 for infrastructure projects. However what is totally lacking is the growth in public education and therefore the employability of the Indian youth. Growth of India can not be considered total inclusive as of now however it is little early to pass a judgment.
I see a lot being written in media doubting the growth and its sustainability. In my opinion what India needs a change is in the commitment level for the growth from leaders (politicians) and Indian citizens. Now that India is really growing, we need believers in this growth. It’ll be worst if we sit on the sideline looking skeptically at rising India. We all need to believe in this growth which is going to be there for long run and participate in it. It’s the turn of economy, it’s the point of inflection and it’s the period when India is all set to get its due. Let’s be game!
As we have seen it makes not much of a difference if congress or BJP is at the center. BJP’s policy of privatization/disinvestment was good but hasty; congress (read left’s) policy of slow privatization/disinvestment is cautious but enduring. So in all we need a commitment from our leaders for the long term growth. A case in point is the turn around of Indian railways. I don’t give whole credit to Mr. Lalu P Yadav but he deserves a massive portion of it just for his conviction to change. We have great Indian bureaucrats who can turn around any ailing system but they don’t have a pushing force. Mr Lalu acted as a catalyst when he shook up whole system asking for change. It’s precisely what we want.
To increase the commitment level of our ministers I urge PM to come up with specific performance targets for each ministry and make it public. Detailed planning should be left to head govt. employees in the ministry but the responsibility should totally be aligned to minister of the department.
To improve the commitment level of Indian citizens to growth we need a clear communication from leaders in media about the change. It’s high time that policies meet the ground realities. Whole system has to be made target driven with responsibilities assigned to the implementers. Moral and confidence of people need a push when our India goes on to take over biggies of the world.
Salute!
3 comments:
not sure of ..whether earlier privatization was really "hasty: and whether now it is "cautious but enduring"... is there any privatization post 2004... not sure !!
Do u remember the mess govt created when Vedanta wanted to exercise its call option in hindustan zinc last year.. Vedanta had all rights to exercise it but govt suddenly realised that it should get more money as market price of shares have risen a lot. Old contract between them says otherwise.
Now come to today's Biz Std: Front Page:
- Foreign investors to be allowed stake in commodity exchange
- 49% FDI ceiling on transport services to be riased
- 51% cap in single retail to be considered
- 10% cap on voting in foreign bank sub-sidiaries to be reviewed
So as you can see, govt has leart from its past. I'm not saying that past deeds were wrong. But you shouldn't go all out privatising companies and selling them dirt cheap.
Take example of indian railways... Though i'm not arguing for its privatisation but now that it has turned around, govt can think of diveting certain stake. It'll fetch very good amount of money.
Govt should not hide its inefficiency. Rather it should try to build some business sense and not give out companies that it started 60 years back at such a cheap price only for multinationals to savour it.
Maruti is also one such case where good negotiation could have been done. Disinvestments should not be a method of meeting FRBM madate of fiscal deficit.
No.. I disagree..
1. There is no way in which u can determine if the share prices of some company is going to go up in future. So what may seem cheap to u today, was the best bid at that moment. And it was an open transparent system.
2. It had been repeatedly said that such funds were not meant to fund fiscal deficit.
3. Multinationals or otherwise, they would be running a profitable business in India.. It is here that we would reap benefits.. No multinational is going to take away railway lines to their country, even if the railways were to be divested. Sooner or later all government run business run into lossess.
Anyways, the reform process is definately running slow.. This is not the fault of congress.
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