Prescription# 7-Connectivity and the Rural India
Posted : April 22, 2005 at 8:45 pm [IST]
Prescription # 7
Government must concentrate on two priorities. Take roads and electricity to every village of the country. Everything will follow. Expedite the projects.
‘Time’ April 15, 2005- the Special Issue of ‘The Time 100: The 2005′ lists the 100 most influential people. Its ‘Leaders and Revolutionaries’ category that comprises the men and women with the clout and power to change our world includes this year Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister.
Famous economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has written the profile-’Manmohan Singh-the Blue-turbaned Revolutionary’.
Can an astute economist, a famous professor and a superb civil servant also be an outstanding Prime Minister? Can someone without populist political base be secure as the head of a democratic government? Can a country in which more than 80% of the people are Hindus be comfortable with a blue-turbaned Sikh prime Minister in addition to a Muslim Predent and a Christian leader of the ruling party? If the answer to all these questions is yes (as seems plausible enough), that says something not only about the nature of India but also about Manmohan Singh’s deep humanity and breadth of his vision, which inspire widespread confidence.
As Finance Minster in the early-to 90s, Singh, 72, was the pioneer leader of India’s economic reforms, which restrained the all-powerful Indian bureaucrat, and sought-and found- a significant place for India in the global economy. And yet, given the asymmetric sharing of the fruits of expansion, the subsequent government’s proud but insensitive slogan, ‘India Shining’ was peculiarly divisive theme. Who better, then, that the architect of the pro-market reforms to take the country’s reins and emphasize the need for a less unequal distribution, and urgency of supplementing a flourishing market economy by strengthening social services and societal infrastructure.
The man in the blue turban, despite the great success, has remained approachable and ready to listen and instinctively sympathetic to the underdogs of the society.
Prime Minister Must Prove
No one, not even one in opposition party or even their fundamentalist incarnations such as RSS and VHP, doubt about the personal capability and integrity of the Prime Minister.
However, how does it help the nation of 1 billion or more? How long we can go on praising for what he did in 1991? It is almost a year now that he is in chair. What have been his achievements?
We have three infrastructure-related problems- roads, power, and telecommunication. Perhaps, telecommunication sector will reach the world-class standard very soon, thanks to the private operators.
But why can’t Manmohan Singh make his leadership force a similar achievement in the road and electricity? Why can’t all the remaining 1,25,000 villages be electrified during his tenure- next 4 years? Why can’t the remaining 1,75,000 villages be connected by roads?
Is it impossible? No. Perhaps the answer is ‘possible’, but with a big IF.
Basically, the government is lacking the will power and perhaps does not see its necessity to take the country in the developed group. As an ordinary technocrat, I think there is a ready market for power. There are entrepreneurs that will happily put the money too. It is quite feasible to add every year 10,000 MW of generating capacity between private and public enterprises such as NTPC, NHPC, BHEL, Tata Power, Reliance, Energy, Nagarjuna Power, Essar, and many others. Main obstruction is from the State Electricity Boards and their officers and unionized labor force who are making easy money plus the premium without doing any significant work and who are bent on maintaining the status quo for their own selfish interest.. If the government can make them active and positive partners in the solutions of this nation, it will become easy to solve the power problem. But it requires hard and skillful handling. It requires better, younger, and efficient minister in charge of power. Can Manmohan Singh take some bold steps? Will his government keep on posting how many villages have electrified every month and its cumulative figures against the target?
On road project, it is sheer the deployment of more manpower and other resources. I have been moving around the country. I hardly see the work going on with speed that can meet the target. All the contracts could have been broken down to a size that makes it easy to complete within 3-4 years time-the effective lifetime of a government in chair.
For the most of the population, if the government under Manmohan Singh can get the on-going road projects completed in next 3 years, it will get all the laurels. If it can’t we hardly bother how good he was in policy making. The country needs some world-class project mangers to get this done. Even they are available in our country. Our system does not permit to bring them in or to use them. But then why can’t the system be changed?
And finally, as he himself was a civil servant, he knows their weakness too. Can he make his IAS cadres work effectively and efficiently like professional managers? Can he get their involvement in improving India’s competitiveness rankings or improvement in corruption index? If he can bring some effective improvement in administrative productivity by cutting down the time and procedural delays in project conception, execution, and completion, it will make him immortal in the hearts of Indian people for years to come. If he feels it can’t be done, why can’t he involve more and more outsiders in project management at least?
And you appreciate why I talked of electricity and road only as the priorities for the government. With good roads connecting the villages in place, even doctors of the nearby town may like to open a shop there and drive once a week. And in emergency, the patients can go or can be shifted fast to get a doctor’s service. And the electricity will make available the benefits of the computers, Internet, information, and knowledge to even those in villages at an investment of few thousands of rupees in stead of spending 2-3 lakhs as being done by ITC’s e-Choupal initiatives.
Read Prescription # 6
- Indra
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