There is no reason why we cannot redefine governance except perhaps the mindset of much of our bureaucracy and political class steeped in socialism.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:,
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air...
Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard brings back school life memories for many of us, replete with the occasionally baffling rigours of poetry appreciation. The lines quoted above are not only a poignant ode to anonymity, evocative of the unsung and obscure life, but profound in their implication of a tragic waste.
Gray was lamenting the fate of the generic peasantry in a bucolic agrarian 18th century British setting, but the times may not have changed that much when applied to India, bursting at the seams with a population of over 1.21 billion.
Quantity we indubitably have and the recent performances in the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and, most spectacularly, the Cricket World Cup win after 28 years, demonstrate that our winners often come from small towns and villages. This may be evidence that some Government-funded facilities are indeed being provided. Or it could be occasioned by native talent and merit, like the Kenyan runners, that cannot be eclipsed by rank neglect. The question is, as a rule, just how much do we do to nurture quality?
To enhance this quality is essential to our better tomorrows. We must have a full belly, robust health and a dynamic education system to do so. The Government is not, as yet, doing enough to modernise agriculture towards that full-belly of nutrition. We are still reaping the harvest from the Green Revolution of the 1980s, with nothing substantial done to improve the agricultural, food processing and cold chain infrastructure since then, as WalMart, breathing heavily at the gate for some time now, will be glad to tell you. And this despite persistent food price inflation and the pressure of a huge and growing population.
But, lo and behold, the Union Government seems to be doing something worthwhile about the major lacunae in our health and education allocations at last. In the flurry of information packed densely in the Union Budget for 2011-12, there is a potential gem of great value, typically embedded in the detail. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has sought to boost the fortunes of both education and health by making a deft structural change in policy he is well known for.
“Henceforth,” intoned Mr Mukherjee, “capital stock in educational institutions and hospitals will be treated as infrastructure sub-sectors,” while replying to the discussion on the Budget in the Lok Sabha. He went on to state that both would now qualify for capital subsidies through “viability gap funding”.
Now, what this jargon exactly means will be revealed in time, but it seems to suggest that the Government will pitch in with funds to meet budgetary shortfalls for upgrading and expanding existing schools as well as on new schools, colleges and technical training establishments and, probably, for immunisation and public health awareness programmes apart from new, improved, hospitals and clinics too.
Where the Government will find the considerable resources needed to uplift these woebegone and chronically inadequate infrastructures is not known, but perhaps the miracle of deficit financing will come to the rescue yet again. There is also the vaunted but largely under-utilised public-private partnership and build-operate-transfer mechanism, inclusive of foreign funding, such as the Japanese funding for the Delhi Metro.
In an economy growing at near double digits, the deficits will certainly be bridged as long as the Government is not too profligate and the intended beneficiaries are actually delivered their benefits. Obversely, to not create the necessary infrastructure in health and education not only retards growth but gives the lie to our democratic aspirations.
This policy shift, if a sub-paragraph in the Union Budget can be called that, could have very favourable consequences. Already Ms Sheila Dikshit’s Budget for Delhi does seem to echo this changed emphasis with its higher allocations for both health and education and the welcome announcement of free healthcare for school-going children.
But a major worry is the Government’s talent for ruining a good initiative by administering a policy thrust in typically sarkari fashion. The private sector, with its clear-cut profit and growth motives, may be far more successful at maintaining standards, collaborating successfully with foreign educational and health entities, unleashing competition, achieving economies of scale, and so on. They need to be incentivised though and this may be a beginning in that direction.
Should this programme be privatised in the main, one will not hear of school buildings collapsing in the first rainy season after they are built. Nor about rampant corruption that creates black holes into which as much as 90 per cent of development funds disappear.
In such a scenario, where the Government stays away, we would not have to deal with the callous imperviousness engendered by the job from which one cannot be sacked. We would not be building classrooms without teachers or clinics with a higher rodent population than humans. We would not be looking at the waste of unusable and ill-maintained medical equipment. We would not be paying the bill for inflated and manipulated tenders and an almost complete lack of accountability. In short, for such routine delights that come as a consequence of most governmental implementation and execution.
The Economist in a recent article headlined “Bamboo Capitalism” suggests that most of the double-digit Chinese GDP growth, an estimated 70 per cent of it, is “produced by enterprises that are not majority-owned by the state.. In fact, China has surged forward mainly where the state has stood back”.
The venerable journal may, however, be subtly pushing its Western agenda, because in my opinion the Government of India’s role as facilitator is important. Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and others in our region have all benefitted from strong Government support of private enterprise that executes objectives the Government holds dear.
There is no reason why we cannot mould governance into the role of referee and coach instead of inept player, except perhaps the entrenched mindsets of much of our present bureaucracy and political leadership nurtured in the socialist and public sector favouring decades.
Therefore, it may take some doing before we properly start implementing policies meant for a resurgent 21st century economy. Still, the Government needs to be congratulated for doing something good about a vital need at last.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:,
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air...
Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard brings back school life memories for many of us, replete with the occasionally baffling rigours of poetry appreciation. The lines quoted above are not only a poignant ode to anonymity, evocative of the unsung and obscure life, but profound in their implication of a tragic waste.
Gray was lamenting the fate of the generic peasantry in a bucolic agrarian 18th century British setting, but the times may not have changed that much when applied to India, bursting at the seams with a population of over 1.21 billion.
Quantity we indubitably have and the recent performances in the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and, most spectacularly, the Cricket World Cup win after 28 years, demonstrate that our winners often come from small towns and villages. This may be evidence that some Government-funded facilities are indeed being provided. Or it could be occasioned by native talent and merit, like the Kenyan runners, that cannot be eclipsed by rank neglect. The question is, as a rule, just how much do we do to nurture quality?
To enhance this quality is essential to our better tomorrows. We must have a full belly, robust health and a dynamic education system to do so. The Government is not, as yet, doing enough to modernise agriculture towards that full-belly of nutrition. We are still reaping the harvest from the Green Revolution of the 1980s, with nothing substantial done to improve the agricultural, food processing and cold chain infrastructure since then, as WalMart, breathing heavily at the gate for some time now, will be glad to tell you. And this despite persistent food price inflation and the pressure of a huge and growing population.
But, lo and behold, the Union Government seems to be doing something worthwhile about the major lacunae in our health and education allocations at last. In the flurry of information packed densely in the Union Budget for 2011-12, there is a potential gem of great value, typically embedded in the detail. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has sought to boost the fortunes of both education and health by making a deft structural change in policy he is well known for.
“Henceforth,” intoned Mr Mukherjee, “capital stock in educational institutions and hospitals will be treated as infrastructure sub-sectors,” while replying to the discussion on the Budget in the Lok Sabha. He went on to state that both would now qualify for capital subsidies through “viability gap funding”.
Now, what this jargon exactly means will be revealed in time, but it seems to suggest that the Government will pitch in with funds to meet budgetary shortfalls for upgrading and expanding existing schools as well as on new schools, colleges and technical training establishments and, probably, for immunisation and public health awareness programmes apart from new, improved, hospitals and clinics too.
Where the Government will find the considerable resources needed to uplift these woebegone and chronically inadequate infrastructures is not known, but perhaps the miracle of deficit financing will come to the rescue yet again. There is also the vaunted but largely under-utilised public-private partnership and build-operate-transfer mechanism, inclusive of foreign funding, such as the Japanese funding for the Delhi Metro.
In an economy growing at near double digits, the deficits will certainly be bridged as long as the Government is not too profligate and the intended beneficiaries are actually delivered their benefits. Obversely, to not create the necessary infrastructure in health and education not only retards growth but gives the lie to our democratic aspirations.
This policy shift, if a sub-paragraph in the Union Budget can be called that, could have very favourable consequences. Already Ms Sheila Dikshit’s Budget for Delhi does seem to echo this changed emphasis with its higher allocations for both health and education and the welcome announcement of free healthcare for school-going children.
But a major worry is the Government’s talent for ruining a good initiative by administering a policy thrust in typically sarkari fashion. The private sector, with its clear-cut profit and growth motives, may be far more successful at maintaining standards, collaborating successfully with foreign educational and health entities, unleashing competition, achieving economies of scale, and so on. They need to be incentivised though and this may be a beginning in that direction.
Should this programme be privatised in the main, one will not hear of school buildings collapsing in the first rainy season after they are built. Nor about rampant corruption that creates black holes into which as much as 90 per cent of development funds disappear.
In such a scenario, where the Government stays away, we would not have to deal with the callous imperviousness engendered by the job from which one cannot be sacked. We would not be building classrooms without teachers or clinics with a higher rodent population than humans. We would not be looking at the waste of unusable and ill-maintained medical equipment. We would not be paying the bill for inflated and manipulated tenders and an almost complete lack of accountability. In short, for such routine delights that come as a consequence of most governmental implementation and execution.
The Economist in a recent article headlined “Bamboo Capitalism” suggests that most of the double-digit Chinese GDP growth, an estimated 70 per cent of it, is “produced by enterprises that are not majority-owned by the state.. In fact, China has surged forward mainly where the state has stood back”.
The venerable journal may, however, be subtly pushing its Western agenda, because in my opinion the Government of India’s role as facilitator is important. Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and others in our region have all benefitted from strong Government support of private enterprise that executes objectives the Government holds dear.
There is no reason why we cannot mould governance into the role of referee and coach instead of inept player, except perhaps the entrenched mindsets of much of our present bureaucracy and political leadership nurtured in the socialist and public sector favouring decades.
Therefore, it may take some doing before we properly start implementing policies meant for a resurgent 21st century economy. Still, the Government needs to be congratulated for doing something good about a vital need at last.
