India Shining: To hell with the naysayers... We can and will overcome!!!

Photo Courtesy: theviewspaper.net

                          Disclaimer: I am not pro NaMo, I am pro India.

Despite not being a Modi supporter, I voted, with zillions others, for Modi to become the leader of this country in  May 2014. And I did, despite all odds, believe that it was just a matter of time before somebody who had been voted in on the development plank, will start getting India into its rightful position in the world economy.

My sense of disenchantment not-withstanding, I still believe that India has become a country where we needed just the right mentoring and our economy would go into the stratosphere.

In Sept 2014, I actually wrote a post that talked about the steps that were being taken for the sorting the policy paralysis and said that we needed to be patient to see the results. For those who know me, know that patience is not a virtue that I subscribe to, but I sincerely believed that in the Indian context it was warranted. Please see my previous post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140923135540-1760677-acchhe-din-aane-wale-hain

It has been a roller-coaster 23 months since then and I am a little older, a tad wiser(I hope!) and disillusioned. The disillusionment is not with the current government and its antics. It is with the people at large(and this includes  the "janta" and the Government) and how we tend to blame everything on somebody else. The buck never ever stops with us - it is with somebody else.  The disillusionment creeps in from the sense of deja vu - of constancy, of never changing, of refusing to take charge, of everything really...

The government has made all the right noises - after all we have a rockstar PM who wooed and won over the masses in India and across the globe. There is suddenly work happening - the FM is making noises about simplifying the tax structure for individuals and corporates (though we are to be taxed more), the Defence Minister talks about boosting the morale of the armed forces(Never mind the OROP mess and Pathankot), there is talk of putting the infra projects on the accelerator mode, etc. And suddenly everybody is looking at India closely. 

And then began the announcement of one scheme after another from the national platforms - Digital India, Make in India, Swacchh Bharat, Start Up India, 100 Smart Cities... These were announced with great fan-fare from global forums, with grandiose plans, huge advertising campaigns, amazing amount of publicity. Each one was showcased as scheme that will change the face of India. And each by themselves were actually a piece of art - no pun intended: If they reach fruition, they will actually make India a better / smarter country.

The media went overboard with each announcement, what stood out in each communication was how this was never undertaken before. The comparison with the previous government was made by all and sundry, severely undermining the announcement - comparing with a Government that did "Damn all" after all does not show how wonderful you are - and incidentally the current Government was voted in only because of the abject failure of the previous one...

One of the biggest issue that I see is that we have a good PM surrounded by an amazingly bad core team. The examples are a plenty: The mess in education -Hyderabad and Delhi are prime examples of doing too little and too much; Home Ministry issues... Pathankot and Jat Agitation; The BJP Chieftains(and spokespersons), who gets the PM into bigger messes than any other single group; The lousy local state teams that ensure that the PM needs to step in and address maximum rallies across states if they have any chance of winning the elections and unfortunately make statements that are lapped up by the national media;  The communication team that ensures that the PM is not responding to all that he should and responds to all that he shouldn't.

I guess the biggest problem for the current leadership are "The BHAKTS", who take it upon themselves to support any and every utterance of the PM as the gospel truth, use foul language and hooliganism, and basically, by association, malign the good intentions of the PM. 

I firmly believe that the leader of the biggest democracy needs to just do one thing - LEAD!!! He needs to look at his coterie with his eyes wide open, ensure that he continues on the path of economic growth, tone down the rhetoric and speak out when he has to.

The PM needs to ensure that the schemes that have been launched with much fanfare see fruition, are actually able to change things on ground and do not need mere statistics to prove their success. He needs to focus on the growing parity between the haves and have-nots and make available a level playing field for the have-nots to better their situation. The distance between the rich and the poor is bigger and worse than anywhere else in the world. He needs to ensure that it is the people who need help that are focused on and this has to be sustainable and not merely through doles and subsidies! For this, the PM needs to delegate - we can not have him do everything - he needs to bring in more people, better qualified and experienced, to run his pet projects and ensure that these are delivered on time. 

When the work on the ground starts to be visible, we will indeed wake up. It is the momentum that is needed and a catalyst and with all the plans that are in place, we can be reasonably sure that if we are steered in the right direction, we will be able to become a very important player in the global scenario - and not just economically and politically.  The PM needs to ensure that we are finally moving towards a destination where each one of us can do our bit and be proud citizens.

What will be remembered in his first term as the PM will not be the mess - and there is indeed a huge lot of it, but the positives and the fact that he was able to deliver on the development plank, if indeed he is able to!!! So here's hoping that Atal Ji's India Shining becomes a reality sooner than later!!!

Billion telecom subscribers feeding into Digital India

Last week, a release by India’s telecom regulator TRAI said that India’s telephone subscriber based had hit one billion phone lines. This includes a paltry 26 million landline phones too, which have been anything but growing during these years.

The historic milestone comes just days ahead of the country ready to get into the 25th year of economic reforms.

The three big telecom companies – Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications – whose stocks are listed on the stock exchange clocked nearly Rs. 100,000 crore or nearly $16 billion in revenue during the last financial year. The industry’s revenues, including those of the unlisted companies is in excess of Rs. 200,000 crore or nearly $32 billion.

Despite the scams in the 1990s and the last decade, there is little reason to doubt the success of the telecom sector. If cricket and Bollywood are the religion of the country, the familiar ring of a mobile phone can be described as the soul of every Indian. From about 18 million landline phones and less than half a million mobile phones in 1997, that is a stupendous journey.

No other infrastructure has enjoyed the success that the telecom sector has in the quarter of a century of stuttering reforms. If there are any self congratulatory messages that are floating around, it is time to stop that. A little bit of perspective will help temper the enthusiasm of those who are touting this as an achievement.

India continues to be a power deficit country with a peak power shortage of nearly 15 per cent and shortage of power will stunt growth for the industry. That is woeful for a country that is looking to alleviate poverty and accelerate growth to near double digits. With nearly two-third of the energy needs met by coal, the green brigade continues to point out that it is a cause for worry for the nation. The power sector was opened up for reforms in 1992 with eight fast track power projects, including the infamous Enron. Nearly 25 years later, reforms in distribution of power have been the slowest and the proverbial last mile connectivity continues to be a challenge.

UPA2 had promised to build 20 kilometres of roads everyday and when the government ended its term last year, the figure was no better than 8 kilometres. The NDA government has promised to take it to 30 kilometres a day beginning 2016. During the current financial year the government is hoping to build 8500 kilometres. But the worry is April-May has seen an average of 4 kilometres a day. Road Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that PPP model for the roads sector is not viable so the contracts for the next two years are being awarded through the engineering, procurement and construction or EPC route.

There has been some momentum in the last 12 months in the ports sector and over 30 projects have been awarded which will add over 250 million tons per annum capacity to India’s ports. India’s $300 billion plus goods exports could do with more efficient ports that could ship and ship in products faster, freeing up locked capital for companies.

As we enter the 25th year of reforms, it is time to reform the reformers. The half baked reform measures, evidently, have not helped. It is time for a full Monty so that it could serve as a showcase for the world. The focus now should be on identifying what India has missed out on because of tardy implementation and the half measures in the name of reforms.

For telecom, though, there is one reason for the Republic to celebrate. The man who was the telecom minister in the 1990s when the sector was being deregulated, Sukh Ram, has been cooling his heels in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, convicted on corruption charges in 2011. Now, when a former Defence Minister allegedly threatens a senior police officer on the phone, the recorded conversation has found its way to YouTube. Without the proliferation of mobile phones, could this ever have been possible?

Look at it in another way: Riding on the foundations of the telecom revolution, the recorded conversation is going viral. Are we testing the waters of the Digital India plan?