A recent post on Facebook asked this question.
I wondered what can a practical person do which will lead to results within 3-5 years. Here is a list of all the low handing fruit issues which could be implemented easily. Many have already been implemented at state level by some governments and hence there is no excuse to not bring about these changes.
1. 24X 7 power in at least 70% of the nation
The issues with electricity shortage are currently four-fold namely
a. shortage of coal and gas leading to shortfall in generation especially considering that considerable investment has already gone into power generation and these assets are lying idle.
b. losses due to poor distribution a distribution networks are geared to deliver power for one light bulb but is actually used to run televisions, washing machines and all other housing.
c. due to electricity theft and
d. wastage/mis-use of power delivered due to agricultural connections.
All of them have solutions which have been tested and can be easily executed. This would empower a large part of India to find solutions to their economic problems and would be the better economic stimulus for the country than sops such as subsidized food, rural employment guarantee.
This would also immediately stop migration to bigger cities.
2. Fix the leakage in Public sector undertakings (PSUs): This requires no great effort. All it takes is to appoint competent and honest managers. If they are in short supply, give more than one duty to the honest ones and keep the dishonest ones without any work. It is cheaper to pay dishonest ones their salary than have then damage the finances of the country.
The main targets should be to turn around Air India, BSNL and Postal Department. These can save at least Rs 25,000-30,000 crores per annum of assistance being made to these companies currently.
3. Substantial increase railways capacity substantially and modernization of Railways
Today if there is one good/service which sells at a black market premium - it is railway tickets. Clearly there is demand for much more passenger services. This should be taken up immediately. Investment in railways will boost the economy as there will be greater movement of people and it will lead to economic growth.
Simultaneously the railways should be modernized to improve speeds and reduce accident risks. The railways has enormous land banks. Railways have very high footfalls next only to temples. This should be used constructively to make multi-use real estate which will boost cash flow for the railways and also make railways stations hubs of activity for people.
4. Remove discretion given to Revenue Department Officers
Recently our retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Kapadia observed that in many cases the law is vague and includes law equivalent of saying that one "should drive with care". He said there is no clear definition of what amount to driving with care. He said this allows great latitude to revenue officers to interpret the way they want. This allows for mi-use of laws for personal benefit.
Clear laws are required which unequivocally state the law and its clear interpretation in a definitive manner. This will let officers implement law rather than spend time interpreting it. This will also prevent unscrupulous assesses from bending the law to their advantage by corrupting Revenue Department officers.
5. Transport and energy use reform
We do not have the oil that we are consuming. The powers that have the oil are states hostile to a non-violent Hindu majority state that we are. If we want to continue to consume oil in the current fashion we should have a massive change in our geo-political strategy and become like the USA. This is very unlikely. I doubt if our society will give license to our leaders to invade other countries, assassinate their leaders etc merely to secure more and more oil for our consumption
Hence the only option left is to substantially reduce the Energy consumption to GDP ratio. We need to create disincentives for private vehicle ownership and increase use of public transport.
6. Reduction of fiscal deficit
a. We are having many problems like over-use of fertilizers and large subsidies for fertilizers. No one is gaining from these problems. These need holistic solutions such as using bio-waste of cities converted to bio-manure. This will solve the cities problems of waste disposal as well as the farmers problems of fertilizers.
b. Use of Private-Public partnerships for providing Government services
We need to cap the employment in the government. We need to use technology for our country's administration - it is not enough if do great work for the whole world while but dont solve our own problems. We need to create large scale roll out of private-public partnerships. We already have many examples: Example: Infosys in income tax returns processing, TCS in passport seva kendras. We need to find more areas where delivery of government services is sub-standard and bring under this kind of arrangements. We need to try experiments and also take already successful innovation across the country in areas such as government schools, bus transportation among others.
All of these are actually easy to do but if they are implemented our country will look very different. Is this asking for too much ?
I wondered what can a practical person do which will lead to results within 3-5 years. Here is a list of all the low handing fruit issues which could be implemented easily. Many have already been implemented at state level by some governments and hence there is no excuse to not bring about these changes.
1. 24X 7 power in at least 70% of the nation
The issues with electricity shortage are currently four-fold namely
a. shortage of coal and gas leading to shortfall in generation especially considering that considerable investment has already gone into power generation and these assets are lying idle.
b. losses due to poor distribution a distribution networks are geared to deliver power for one light bulb but is actually used to run televisions, washing machines and all other housing.
c. due to electricity theft and
d. wastage/mis-use of power delivered due to agricultural connections.
All of them have solutions which have been tested and can be easily executed. This would empower a large part of India to find solutions to their economic problems and would be the better economic stimulus for the country than sops such as subsidized food, rural employment guarantee.
This would also immediately stop migration to bigger cities.
2. Fix the leakage in Public sector undertakings (PSUs): This requires no great effort. All it takes is to appoint competent and honest managers. If they are in short supply, give more than one duty to the honest ones and keep the dishonest ones without any work. It is cheaper to pay dishonest ones their salary than have then damage the finances of the country.
The main targets should be to turn around Air India, BSNL and Postal Department. These can save at least Rs 25,000-30,000 crores per annum of assistance being made to these companies currently.
3. Substantial increase railways capacity substantially and modernization of Railways
Today if there is one good/service which sells at a black market premium - it is railway tickets. Clearly there is demand for much more passenger services. This should be taken up immediately. Investment in railways will boost the economy as there will be greater movement of people and it will lead to economic growth.
Simultaneously the railways should be modernized to improve speeds and reduce accident risks. The railways has enormous land banks. Railways have very high footfalls next only to temples. This should be used constructively to make multi-use real estate which will boost cash flow for the railways and also make railways stations hubs of activity for people.
4. Remove discretion given to Revenue Department Officers
Recently our retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Kapadia observed that in many cases the law is vague and includes law equivalent of saying that one "should drive with care". He said there is no clear definition of what amount to driving with care. He said this allows great latitude to revenue officers to interpret the way they want. This allows for mi-use of laws for personal benefit.
Clear laws are required which unequivocally state the law and its clear interpretation in a definitive manner. This will let officers implement law rather than spend time interpreting it. This will also prevent unscrupulous assesses from bending the law to their advantage by corrupting Revenue Department officers.
5. Transport and energy use reform
We do not have the oil that we are consuming. The powers that have the oil are states hostile to a non-violent Hindu majority state that we are. If we want to continue to consume oil in the current fashion we should have a massive change in our geo-political strategy and become like the USA. This is very unlikely. I doubt if our society will give license to our leaders to invade other countries, assassinate their leaders etc merely to secure more and more oil for our consumption
Hence the only option left is to substantially reduce the Energy consumption to GDP ratio. We need to create disincentives for private vehicle ownership and increase use of public transport.
6. Reduction of fiscal deficit
a. We are having many problems like over-use of fertilizers and large subsidies for fertilizers. No one is gaining from these problems. These need holistic solutions such as using bio-waste of cities converted to bio-manure. This will solve the cities problems of waste disposal as well as the farmers problems of fertilizers.
b. Use of Private-Public partnerships for providing Government services
We need to cap the employment in the government. We need to use technology for our country's administration - it is not enough if do great work for the whole world while but dont solve our own problems. We need to create large scale roll out of private-public partnerships. We already have many examples: Example: Infosys in income tax returns processing, TCS in passport seva kendras. We need to find more areas where delivery of government services is sub-standard and bring under this kind of arrangements. We need to try experiments and also take already successful innovation across the country in areas such as government schools, bus transportation among others.
All of these are actually easy to do but if they are implemented our country will look very different. Is this asking for too much ?
No, it is not. NaMo promises exactly these things and he has made these work in Gujarat.
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