BUDGET 2019 OPINION
N
OW that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
proved his mastery over politics and his
excellent grip on electoral strategies, his
financial deputy, Nirmala Sitharaman, has a
clear-cut job on hand. On July 5, when she
presents the Budget, she needs to follow a
single-sentence canon—look from above, act at the
grassroots. Thus, as she fleshes out an economic
vision and a five-year roadmap, she has to address
the issues of the distressed sections—a top-down
approach with bottoms-up objectives.
Sure, the finance minister has to seek solutions to
macroeconomic concerns, such as slow growth, lack
of jobs and government finances. But these need to
be married with problems related to viable farm
incomes, stress on the informal sector, largely small
and medium businesses, and the struggles of the
underprivileged. For once, politics and creation of
vote banks have to be divorced from economics. The
aggressive pursuit of targets has to give way to a focus
on outcomes. Sitharaman has to bring in transpar-
ency in official statistics and realise that in India, one
size cannot fit all.
When Modi came to power in 2014, one of his
overriding priorities was to somehow prove that the
‘Gujarat model of development’ could be success-
fully replicated across the country. So, he launched
grandiose schemes like Make in India to attract
investments, Swachh Bharat to woo the rural masses
and Jan Dhan to ensure financial inclusivity.
However, they had in-built flaws. One was that the
government chased targets—96.5 million toilets
built in rural India since October 2, 2014—and forgot
about the results.
The fact is that in a large country like India,
schemes cannot be imposed from the top as different
states, even regions within them, have varying needs.
This is true of the nature of investments required as
well as the construction of toilets. Second, instead of
plugging the gaps in the schemes, the government
shifted to newer ones, even as it continued to show-
case the achievements. It didn’t matter whether the
toilets were used or whether the money that flowed
in benefitted all states.
Clearly, Sitharaman has to realise that adding new
schemes to the hundreds of existing ones will lead to
more chaos and confusion. It may be a better idea toclub several plans that have common aims.
Continuity, not new random announcements, and
strengthening of older measures are crucial. It is
time to look deeper into the problems at the local
level to enhance their efficiency.
One of the best ways to achieve this is to inculcate
transparency in official statistics. The previous
regime was criticised for either hiding the real
numbers or ‘massaging ’ them. The unemployment
figures, highest in 45 years, were not released until
the elections were over and critics maintained that
growth rates were bumped up. Making government
statistics credible and their timely release are impor-
tant to send the message that this government is
serious about economics.
Another step in the right direction is to keep poli-
tics away from economics. Most policies in the past
five years had political objectives. Demonetisation
decimated the moneybags of opposition political
parties and GST helped the new moneybags—theA NEW RECIPE FOR SABKA VIKAS
The government must balance macro-economic concerns with gra ssroots issues and pursue transparency and continuity to revive India’s growth story
ALAM
SRINIVASIn a country
like India,
schemes
cannot be
imposed
from the
top as each
region has
localised
needs.44 OUTLOOK 8 July 2019