Change takes time
Many people crib about Narendra Modi not being effective. I am a supporter of Na Mo and will remain so. So this post is not meant for the nay sayers, but for the people who have some understanding of how things work.
In this country if I get a nod from the government for an infra project TODAY (Nov 2015) and I put a big team to work on it full time (which means I am well funded for the pre project activity), and I have a favorable state government and central government, it will take me TWO (Repeat, TWO) YEARS at least (Nov 2017) to START THE PROJECT. I dare somebody to a debate if they think that the number is wrong. This project will require about 30 permissions, financial closure, pap satisfaction,…believe me it would be more but surely not less than 2 years.
Now look at the projects that Na Mo is tackling with. Railways, Coal, Power, Roads, – honestly do we expect to get results overnight?
Jan dhan program has opened as many accounts in 6 months as the banking system opened in 66 years. Did Raghuram Rajan think of this? No.
Gas subsidy, asking people to give up is so simple, right? Why did it take Na Mo to do it? Why did the brilliant economist MMS not think about this? Wake up India, simple solutions come only from complicated minds.
Accepting Aadhar card and not throwing it away – a brilliant move, again the PM did it. He wholeheartedly supported it, encouraged it, and made it work.
A friend just told me that a company which did not know what to do with the CSR money sent it to the PM Relief fund. The money was refunded with a note “please do csr…we can raise funds ourselves”. Come on, you are hearing this for the first time, right? I was.
Suresh Prabhu borrowing Rs. 150,000 crores (1500000000000) from LIC to spend on modernisation is not exactly a piffling, right?
Coal and spectrum problems have been solved. This is not visible? uh?
The SEBs have been allowed to borrow money at a lesser rate – by piggy banking on the state government guarantees. This is a simple, very dramatic and a brilliant move. Not even mentioned in the stupid national press.
There are 4 union territories that have started giving the ‘ration’ subsidies as an amount of money transferred into the account. No more stealing of grains, rotting, corruption, etc. Once this pilot is a success, ration oriented frauds will disappear.
Urea which was being diverted for non agri use (subsidy made it cheaper) cannot now be diverted. Simple solution? coating the urea with neem 🙂 Good for agri, bad for others 🙂
4 impeccable non bankers appointed as bank chairmen. Will not be able to hoodwink them. One of them is a college mate who has done bank audits all his life. Straight as a stick and clean as a whistle!
Road construction companies complaining of a shortage of civil engineers takes the cake. Huge shortage of people for construction work.
Surely NaMo is at work, and things are happening. Go out and see the contracting companies recruiting. See the amount of companies going for insurance cover just before starting work (which means funding also done).
Roads, Railways, Shipping Corporation have been acted upon. The next simple but brilliant solution will come for Air India. Watch this space.
This government takes a problem and sits on it for say 6 months. Then they come out with a good solution which is simple and brilliant – and workable….like the State Elecricity board solution. You do not know what? Google please…
tarun
I agree with your take on this government and the fact that change takes time. But the government really needs to shut some of the motor mouths up. All thisgood work gets clouded because of a few stupid statements. People voted for progress and not to be given cultural lessons.
Vivekanand S
Well summarised Sir. However, NaMo can’t keep bailing out the BJP. He took one for the team in Bihar, which is a caste riddled society, and BJP botched up.
He has to be supported by BJP folks at the state-level, else ‘Project NaMo’ will end up like Vajpayee
Puneet
@Vivekanana S: ‘Project NaMo’ will end up like Vajpayee -> In which sense Vajpayee was a failure ?
Krish
NaMo is pro of urban middle and rich class. There is a feeling that not much is done for poor. BJP’s 3 & 4th tier leadership wants attention of national media to hog the limelight and religion card is played which is hurting it very badly.
I am dumbfounded that RJD won highest number of seats with good economy and literacy indicators of the state in last decade. In spite of numerous corruption cases, jail term, family politics and what not, public voted it to the power. We deserve to get what we elect.
Jig
It is highly intolerant that any aam admi can easily see the work going on in country.
I protest ….:)
Neville Lobo
I hope your blog remains apolitical.
Vivekanand S
@Puneet, Vajpayee was an electoral failure following his 5-year term : circa-2004.
NaMo needs to think that he has just three and a half years; shouldn’t expect a repeat mandate. He may get one if he deserves it…and I’ll welcome that 🙂
Dennis
This Statement “Accepting Aadhar card and not throwing it away – a brilliant move, again the PM did it. He wholeheartedly supported it, encouraged it, and made it work”…
Looks like you don’t follow NaMo or BJP whole heartedly. It was BJP/NaMo, who termed Adhaar as security threat, anti-national activity, a burden on the economy and what not but as soon as they came into power, Addhaar is a good scheme. if it is good now, why was it bad under UPA just to distract the citizen of this country. As far as jan dhan is concerned, its good millions of people have bank account but what will people do with that account if they don’t have money to save or spend. As per my FILaw, who is a sr. manager in govt bank,These jan dhan accounts are going to increase the NPA of banks.
Kannan Nagarajan
I fully agree with sir. In addition to the initiatives mentioned above , some big initiatives like swach bharat, digital india and smart cities have been announced keeping in mind the huge urbanization which is under way. think of the investments which is going to happen 50000 crore each from centre and state for each smart city and the resultant employment and infrastructure development. direct subsidies are reaching the account of people in rural india which is going to boost consumption and ours is a consumption driven economy. simply putting it he is fuelling the growth of the two factors of production – capital and labour which is going to pave the way for sustainable development.
Muthu
I agree with your observations. This government is really working and Modi is focused on delivering. I’m confident that we would see results on ground before end of his term in 2019.
Yrsharma
Steps being taken for solar power will bring power revolution in india. Last week 500mw bid for solar power was at 4.6 rs per unit, making it possible to be adopted on large stage. This will create large scale employment (due to manufacturing of panels/components on large scale), reduce pollution and reduce india’s fiscal deficit by reducing import of fossil fuel.
NaMo has increased target of solar 5 times for 5 yes (from 20000mw to 100000mw). Best of luck.
Manu
Really agree with your observations Subra Sir. Good & long term practical solutions are being implemented by govt in various areas.
Hope to see the results by 2017 end.
shinu
I would love to disagree in a different way. The ruling government is not just responsible for “economic justice” but much more like social justice, human justice to international community… if any government focus too much one one area and undermine or neglect other area people will react, and indian democracy is giving its small opportunity by its own way with whatever shortfalls it has.
I am a person who loved the election results 2014 lok sabha elections (showing congress how naked they were), delhi elections (saying both congress and bjp are the same coin on different side, keralas panjayat election result 2 days back (where a corrupt minister is protected though whole world know he took bribe) or this Bihar election (a result of the arrogance of bjp’s view and agenda)….
bjp always say of the congress misrule for 66 yrs….. though they forget they too were in power for over 6 yrs in it. also they forget the indian voters voted against them all these years.. they may do it again as they did to Vajpayee.
falling prey to its own policy which it took to come to power is their issue now as their 3rd and 4th tier leaders use the same technique to get noticed.
Lower economic development is more acceptable to majority than a lower social and cultural tolerance towards fellow human being. May God be with all.
Pi
Subra. i agree with you on these facts and do think Modi is doing a good job on resolving the bottlenecks. However, I am disappointed with him on a no. of counts as well. And no, these are not things like intolerance or beef only. Some of the things I want to talk about are as below:
1. No appointments being made to information commission. Wasn’t this the institution that brought various big ticket corruption to fore?
2. No talk of FCI reforms. I remember NaMo used to talk about it when he was a PM candidate.
3. Not enough push to expanding irrigation even if some small steps might be going on to improve agri situation
4. No expanding of strength of judiciary to cut down on litigation time. Heck, even current vacancies are also not being filled up even as judges are retiring at a rapid pace.
5. Expanding tax on everyone under various garbs. Be it the higher service tax, or multiple excise duty hikes on fuel, or swachch bharat cess, or drought cess by Maharashtra govt etc, or higher proposed stamp duty on property in Maharashtra etc. Similarly, cross subsidizing small town flier by air travellers from metros as per proposed aviation policy. Think of a salaried guy staying in a metro facing high cost and paying 30% tax. Over and above this, all his other taxes and costs are being raised too. While a businessman is OK as he has anyways not paid his income tax of 30% and hence a little extra tax doesnt really matter. Why not reduce income tax and enforce compliance strongly while raising indirect taxes so that tax base increases while honest tax payer’s burden doesnt shoot up.
6. Real Estate is not really a contentious bill. What is stalling the passage of this bill?
7. Why does Jaitley talk of lower interest rates to benefit the real estate industry and not of price correction to benefit millions of consumers
8. The moment market weakened in fear of regulatory glare on P-notes, Fin Min clarified they will not change anything on the P-note front. Now given that there is a high probability that a lot of P-note investments are actually black money, is market stability more important even at the cost of turning a blind eye to the crooks.
9. Why dont we hear enough on the APMC reform and cold storage etc that PM used to talk pre Lok Sabha elections.
10. For all his talks of 100 smart cities, why couldnt he instead take up 10-15 cities and develop them well so that they can become centres of industrial growth easing pressure from Mumbai / Delhi/Bangalore etc rather than spreading himself too thin over 100 cities and failing miserably.
11. Granted he needs talented people to acheieve success and there is a serious dearth of such people in Indian politics. Then why is he not tapping into capable people like Arun Shourie, Nandan Nilekani or such others. Why have Smriti Irani as HRD minister or Nadda as health minister etc
12. What is being done to improve quality of education in govt schools or healthcare facilities in govt. hospitals.
So on and so forth.. I know not everything can be achieved together, but where is the effort that will take the nation to the target.
While I say all this, I still maintain that current govt is still far superior than the earlier one. But is that enough. Only few of the actions mentioned above need legislative changes and most can be achieved through executive action. Really hope to hear your views on the same.
yrsharma
@PI: Nice to see such a long list, and you expect NaMo to resolve all of them.
Isn’t it too early to judge him. I feel good that he has solved many issues, and broad direction is correct.
Lets keep our expectation in check, so that we can appreciate good things done, rather than being dissatisfied over what more could not be done.
reg real estate bill, I am also expecting some move soon, as it is crucial for ‘housing for all 2022’. when real estate bill for creating regulator was taken in last session, it was Rahul G who created issues saying bill is not harsh enough on builders (tactic to keep it stalled forever like congress has done till now).
Pi
@yrsharma
No sir. I do not expect results on all these right away. But why does info commission or judiciary need more than 18mths to even start filling vacancies. Is it not a willful weakening of institutions. Or why does real estate bill need 18mths to be introduced as a lot of work has already gone into it. You only need to pick up old reports and ensure that vested interests dont dilute the clauses. And Congress would stall the bill only after it is introduced, right? Has it been even introduced in Lok Sabha so far?
Even on other things, I am not talking of results (unlike others). I am talking of starting actions that will deliver results over time. Also please be aware that there are depts to do these things. PM only needs to push them to do what is necessary.
rajeev
Rarely indian voters have gone u mean 6.5 crore biharis whi produces the sheer IAS IPS in monolithic prportions are wrong and you are right.certainly not bihari saw the design of modi when he offered them freebies like scooty and petrol for five years.same FDI which bjp was opposing tooth and nail got approved just before uk visit .same with gst they opposed every move of congress and blindly folloed once they come to power without changing comma.delhi and bihar could see that he makes lot of noise but no real thing happens on ground .There is tremendous slip between cup and lips.it is mere propaganda machine nothing else
Shivsankar
Subra!
You are awesome as always. Your list explains a lot of things not found in MSM. Thank you so much!
Do share more such information. I know you wont hesitate to call a bad move by the govt either.