Politics survives on cliche and slogans.Certain words become popular
at certain times, only to be replaced by other words at other times. After
1991 there was a spate of these words of the age. Liberalisation,paradigm
shift and indicative planning were the new buzz words. But after all these
years,the progress actually achieved is quite low. Why ?

We have the knack of taking only the shell and leaving the core behind.
We had a cursory look at the S.E.Asian countries,China,Korea and Taiwan,
discovered that these countries grew by allowing liberal doses of foreign
investment,and so be it. In India of course some money came in, there was
a lot of growth in computers and software(the IT sector) and suddenly people
were getting more worth for either money in TV,fridge,car and other white goods
but now even this trickle is drying up. What went wrong again ?

We went wrong in finding the proper order of things.we have a 100 million plus
literate labour force, and we need jobs for them. So first we need foreign
manufactures to start their production from here.But this needs power, I mean
electricity,not muscle power or voter power ,so we should have started with a
lot of power plants ;of course there were Enron and Cogentrix, but they never took
off. Why? Because we insisted that our SEB & should be the intermediary between
Enron and the consumers,SEB with all their "transmission losses" of 22%free
electricity to farmers,huts and politicians,and inefficiency. Compare the
transmission losses of BSES, the private company which supplies uninterrupted
and stable power to Bombay city. Transmission losses of BSES is very low
compared to that of SEBs. Highly efficient and cost effective.It would be wonderful,
if we have a similar set up all over India.

The best course would be to start numerous industrial estates- with a private
power plant, that the power company and the manufactures in the estates negotiate
the price ; keep out the SEB and IAS officers and trade unionists and politicians. Then
soon you will have an industrial estate and thousands of jobs ; no money the part
of the govt, and no commissions,"kickbacks",negotiation teams and foreign tours
either. But we went the bureaucratic way,and are still negotiating about power
purchase price,etc.Even Lenin recognised the role of electricity as for back as 1920.
Our bureaucrats are yet to catch up with early Twentieth Century.They will reach
21st century sometime after 2150, I hope.

Then the second step would be to allow the foreign manufacturers to employ us-the
Indians of course the unemployables like our bureacrats, politicians,economists,
& trade union leaders cannot expect any job from the foreigners. But there are other
and lesser Indians in their millions,who are capable and to work. We were preventing
them from working under a foreign management,saying that the American(or the
Japanese or the Koreans) will underpay them .And we are not giving them employment
ourselves.Being underpaid is much better than being unemployed. We will not employ
the millions-nor will be let them get employed by foreigners.except if they manage to
crawl out of India to the middle east or Singapore.Have you seen an electronic/computer
product of late? I have seen Siemens monitor, Casio digital diaries,Sony peripherals,and
lot of other things,all made in China.It would have been "Made in India"but for our ignorant policies.

If we fear too much that the foreign companies may exploit an labour,we could have
framed labour agencies, run by Indians,that would take up labour contracts with the
foreign companies.But we didn't. The reason is that, we are still suffering from east India
Company syndrome, believing that given half a chance,the "imperialists"will turn that
into a colony No sane person, especially a capitalist with money to invest,will dream of
"conquering" India again - we have spoiled India too much to be of any use to anybody.
The Indians are not the hardworking,intelligent,artistic and honest people that they were
in the 17th 18th or 19th century.So we need not worry about away colonialism-direct or
indirect.No western country will be eager to take up the headaches of the Indian Republic.

Third, we should have scrapped all the nonsense public sector units like the Bicycle
Corporation of India, ET&T,Indian Telephone Industries,etc.(of course not BHEL, NTC
and some others)and put all the money into primary education. We should stop all the
useless scheme operations from 1955(DWCRA,SITKRA, and others),dismantle the
Block Development Office whole sale,and instead spend the money thus saved in printing
primers for children in all the Indian languages. We didn't and we won't.

We should have allowed everybody (Indian,Foreigners, Indian + Foreigners) to enter
into the basic amenities-roads,phones,transport,etc. We didn't and if we did allow them,
that is after lots of its' and buts,only into basic service not into cellular, or with
so much restrictions.

We did none of the realistic and proper things. We made some superficial changes
and there followed some superficial developments. We don't have the capacity to
understand the steam age capitalism. We don't understand the modern economics.For
example,an average American earns 240 times more than an average Indian but consumes
electricity equivalent of 8750 Indians ! This shows how cheap electricity is in USA.
All around the world, right from the days of Pharaoh, bulk consumers always get a
discount. But under our E.Bs and telephone department, the more you consume, the
costlier the unit price is ! Weirdest logic !

I do agree that administration cannot be run like a business. But then
administrators cannot run a business. Let our bureaucrats accept this.

To sum up, to really develop India,

1.The power production needs to be increased manifold. Preference should be given to
Thermalpower, using natural gas, oil and coal , in that order. The oil should be imported
by theindividual company at its own cost, not through RBI's foreign reserves.These
companies should be allowed to sell the power to who ever that desires it, at whatever
price they choose,preferably restricted in area. Let SEBs continue to function till our
people are exorcised of their phobias about private sector - may be forever, I won't mind.

2. The foreign companies should be encouraged to "source" their manpower here and
establish manufacturing facilities. No "Single window clearance","Automatic approval",
"Fast Track Options"and other bureaucratic nonsense, but declare Eco-friendly industries
like computer parts and electronic items, etc totally free. The ministry of Environment
is not at all protecting the environment, but has become another way of harassing the
few unsuspecting investors.The sooner it is dismantled, the better. Hazardous
industries are still going on just as ever.
Remember : in India, one more monitoring/controlling/clearance authority means one
more palm to grease, that's all.

3.Allow total and fair internal competition.No "MRTP"Acts and commissions are needed
all the district consumer forums should be allowed to prosecute the erring companies on
their own.In our country, till our institutions acquire a fair measure of integrity,
the only way of preventing corruption is decentralisation. The ancient Athens had a
Supreme Court whose judges were impossible to bribe - simply because there were 1000
judges ! Authorise every district forum to prosecute and you make it impossible for
the companies to bribe their way through !

4.Concentrate on primary and secondary education. In future, an illiterate will be at a
grave disadvantage. the primary education should be in the mother tongue, simple and
rigorous. The syllabus needs to be pared down for the primary education.

5.Steel, Aluminum and other metals and alloys should allowed to be imported freely.Only
free competition will enable our indigenous producers to become really efficient.Only
when Indian consumers and other downstream industries get the best and cheapest
steel,will our economy grow.

6.Dismantle goverment monopolies of Oil sector. Let the cheapest oil win.
Of course, Indians will be finally forced to take up these steps. After all didn't
Spencer say " Man will do the rational thing, but only after exploring all other
possibilities " !

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