India’s lost decade – Part I

India’s  lost decade – Part I

As I pen my thoughts the 1 trillion dollar + Indian economy is slowing down and slowing down it is at an alarming rate. The Indian economy plagued by Government’s   mismanagement and paralysis  has seen growth rates plummet to  a dismal 6% down from the heady 10% reached a few years ago.

The reasons are many but let us not start blaming external factors or the foreign hand, as India’s economy inspite of globalization is still unlike other developing nations dependant on internal factors for growth.

If we as a nation are unable to arrest this fall we run the risk of getting into a period of slow growth which I dub as the “lost decade”.

I am not an economic guru nor a doomsday analyst but just an ordinary aam admi frustrated by the economic paralysis being suffered by our great nation

The lost decade is the term used to refer to Japanese economy of the 90’s where the once mighty Japanese economy started to lose steam  and  its sheen to its gigantic rival to her West – China.

There is one glaring dissimilarity which makes India’s case all the more frightening - Japan started to decelerate after it got rich,we on  the other hand are still struggling on some parameters to compete

with sub Saharan African countries.

India cannot afford a lost decade! But are the so called economic czars of policy making and our business oligarchs listening?

Why are the corrupt politicians and administrators of our great nation hell bent on taxing, double taxing, triple taxing quadriple taxing the hapless aam admi. It is not that I mind paying my taxes for nation building but I do mind when my taxes pay for the foreign trips of our ministers and bureaucrats or filling up their Swiss accounts.

One reason for bailing out the inefficient national carrier Air India is certainly to ensure that our ministers keep travelling free to foreign locales to stash away their ill gotten black money. And whose money is it that has bailed out Air India – yes you guessed it right – the tax payers!

The question that I keep asking is what can be done to arrest this sharp fall in economic growth rate?

I listen on television to the endless debates that meander along among the politicians, bureaucrats, oligarch and renowned economists on the current state of the Indian economy  but they  often dismally fail to provide specifics on economic growth and poverty alleviation.

What India Needs

Yes they say “India needs to invest in infrastructure”, well everyone knows that. Money is already being spent on infrastructure but we need to spend more and quicker.

Build build build I say maintain,maintain,maintain what we build, do I emphasize on.

We need to build roads,village roads to ensure farmers get their produce on time to the markert,roads to connect cities, road to connect economic centers to ports, connect towns to other towns .More importantly we also need to ensure roads are well lit ,repaired on time and expanded to keep pace with the demand. How do we do it – Have contractual agreements which are freely available on the web  with information on payment made to contractors, progress rate of construction, number of working lights on roads,penalities imposed on defaults,timely repairs carried on within time.Why can we not make this available in the Surface transport ministry website, why the hassle  to ask someone for it using the RTI Act (thank God for the RTI Act- Right to Information Act though). Also why have multiple ministries – Shipping, Road transport, power, ports etc etc, Just have one ministry – Ministry of Infrastructure.

Make the contractors who build the roads accountable for their maintenance and improvements.

Ensure contracts are completed on time, penalties are imposed if necessary and the amount of penalty is deposited to an infrastructure fund.

We need to build schools but also ensure that schools are well lit, are staffed with well qualified teachers, have chairs and desks and minimum infrastructure required to impart quality education. I am a realist not a dreamer, I do not want AC classrooms with a computer for each of India’s youth – rich or poor, huge play grounds with indoor swimming pools, basket ball courts etc, canteen which provide  breakfast, lunch and snacks. I leave those facilities (which I never had either) to be enjoyed by the sons and daughters of those who can afford it!

It is not that that steps are not being taken, but the pace at which it is being done would even put a tortoise to shame.

I ask Does the Right to Education guarantee a ‘right to adequate education’ leave alone quality or superior education? Can we fire/remove a teacher who does not know how to add 5+5 or spell apple correctly? Hugh….. in India we cannot even remove the school janitor hired by the Indian bureaucracy for inefficiency. What hopes does the Right to Education of even partial success if it does not have a mechanism of addressing these issues. None, I sadly say.

Education is a subject which is very close to my heart and I would like to write more on it in my subsequent blog post’s. Why you might ask? Elementary I say - I am what I am today because of my academic qualification. What made me get the first job was not my experience of which I had none, nor my verbal skills which I had yet to develop,nor a beautiful face which I don’t. It’s my educational qualification which got me my pay cheque and ensured I had to open a bank account! From there on till today its hard work, skills and situational awareness which has got me where I am today – confident to start writing a blog on topics I feel passionately about.

Watch out for Part II