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Discussions so far: Policy
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS SO FAR:
TOPIC: POLICY ISSUES
Utkarsh proposed:
----------------
I am forwarding my thoughts to a few members. Please suggest we you would
to add any thing else or want to add any of these at a later date. From
some earlier discussions we feel that we will make this as a two part
process. To start with we will identify a set of issues in phase I and
the rest in a phase II. Once we agree at least on the issues by the
membership, we wil start discussing these issues in detail and bring in
research available on the issues as well identify experts on the issues
to develop a policy statememnt for the issue. If any one of you do not
agree with this procdure, please let me know. But make sure that you
suggest an alternate to this procedure. A simple objection is not enough.
Following are the issues I thought can be part of the First Draft of
manifesto:
· Deregulation of the Banking Industry
· Deregulation of the Road Transportation Industry
· Privatization of the State Electricity Boards
· Educational Policy
· View of Free press
· Privatization of City Waste Management Services
· Minimum wage Policy
· Complete Privatization of the Telecommunications Industry
· Tariff Reform
· Administrative Reform
· Review of Police and Justice System
· Policy to develop Infrastructure
Manish's response:
------------------
with reference to the issues raised, I find the last 4 issues
a bit fuzzy:
tariff reforms
admin reform
review of police and judiciary
policy to develop infrastructure.
Infrastructure would include roads, railways, communications,
telecom, and many more things. All these should be dealt
with separately as a separate issue because each one of them
needs a lot of investment and individual decisions need to
be taken.
I would expect taxation and tax reform to be a part of
the reform agenda. Industries would welcome simplifed
tax code and less of "inspector" influence.
A major point that we seem to overlook is the country's
policy on petroleum, power and energy. Cost of power and
petrol are crippling the industry. The US seems to be
enjoying the cheapest gas rates in decades while
we pay 20/- a liter for the same gas in india.
The other issues raised are relevent and in agreement
with the present state.
Prem's response:
---------------
> Deregulation of the Banking Industry
Sounds good!
>
> Deregulation of the Road Transportation Industry
I am assuming by this you mean privitization of road transport, like RTC etc.
Sounds good.
>
> Privatization of the State Electricity Boards
OK.
>
> Educational Policy
Sure!
>
> View of Free press
Don't we already have a free press? Do you mean the privitazation of AIR and
DD?
>
> Privatization of City Waste Management Services
Is this like picking-up of garbage etc? We also have to see if there's anyone
who has the resources and is willing to do these kind of things. I guess, we
can't say we'll privitize it at this point. We can probably say we will
'review' and modify these services.
>
> Minimum wage Policy
This is quite important! We must concentrate of enforcing something like this
to end the exploitation of labor in India. Good thought!
>
> Complete Privatization of the Telecommunications Industry
Fine!
>
> Tariff Reform
>
> Administrative Reform
>
> Review of Police and Justice System
>
> Policy to develop Infrastructure
As far as my knowledge goes, infrastructure involves - roads and highways, and
electricity. It's better to separate them into two different categories.
I guess, telecom also comes under this.
>
I liked what Manish had to say about things. It's absolutely necessary to
focus on Energy. I would like to know if anyone is an expert in this field.
>From a very cursory look at the energy picture itself, which I had a chance to
have recently, it is obvious that it's going to be very tough for India to
sustain our dependence on oil and coal imports. I wonder what the policy
makers are thinking about it; it's as though we are sitting on a resource
time-bomb, but no one seems too bothered. We have to have white paper, if it
already exists, related to energy.
Also, I agree with Nitin that Population needs to be given a place on this
list. I am sure a lot of work must have been put into this area by the Govt.
already; again, it would be nice to know what has been suggested so far.
Here's a prioritized list according to me:
1. Education Policy
- primary and secondary education
- higher education based on India's strategic needs in
most crucial sectors.
2. Population Control
3. Decentralization and strengthening of local government (panchayats)
4. Comprehensive energy strategies for the next 50 years
5. Deregulation of Banking Industry
6. Comprehesive review of the trasportation infrastructure
7. Electoral reform
8. Judicial reform geared towards speedy justice available to all citizens.
9. Revamping of the police force geared towards providing the
impeccable law and order in the country. We need to reduce the
strain on our para-military forces; they should not be called
out for every minor reason.
10. Administrative reform: I would very much like to know what Sanjeev's
thoughts are on this point. Sanjeev: Are you happy with the structure
of our beuracracy? Do you think we are selecting the right people for
the right jobs? How rational is the policy of taking a generalist into
the administrative services, where one is supposed to make really informed
decisions?
11. Telecom policy
12. Effective policy to reduce the crippling influence of trade-unions on
economy.
13. Minimum wage policy
I would love to hear from you all further on these points.
Sanjeev's response:
------------------
Quick response: Two things are quite un-necessary: minimum wage control
and population control. I have studied population control as part of my
specialization and as mentioned elsewhere, population is something that
comes down as a result of a) education b)increases in income and c) drop
in infant mortality. No emphasis - directly - on this issue is required -
at all. I am presenting a very simple paper in Chicago next week on this
topic (it is available also on my web site). Julian Simon and Easterlin
must be understood very carefully before we spend any thought on
population.
Minimum wage: I have been involved in its implementation and know that
this breeds corruption and other nasty things. In a fully computerized
economy like USA this might work (even here ALL economists point out that
it is a harmful thing and distorts incentives), but in India any control
has bred and will breed corruption. Nobody actually receives a minimum
wage: only the inspectors help increase the cost of the employers by
taking bribes to show that the minimum wage laws are being upheld.
Legislataion without a fool-proof (and I really can discuss any of these
proposals since I have seen these in the field) method of implementation,
is quite dangerous. We need to reduce, not increase, our laws.
Decentralization and panchayati raj are other failed socialistic concepts.
I don't mean that there should not be local government (something which
does not quite exist in India yet), but the current methods doing this is
socialistic and completely corrupt. The focus must be to get the people
out of the villages into cities. NO nation in the world has ever become
rich by using labor (ploughing land). Neither has anyone of the members of
this group. Our brains are rotting in remote corners of the nation. We
need to focus on urbanization and powerful economic policy to get people
educated and rich. Local governance is a must, but the resources should be
primarily raised locally, not given like charity to the local
institutions, as in India today, a thing that breeds complete moral
decadence and corruption down to the village level.
Srinivas Padmanabhuni's response:
---------------------------------
With reference to the policy topics being discussed
in the recent past, I would point out out that if
we can get access to the full text of the
portions of the Indian constitution text pertinent to
some of the common topics regarding governance of the
country, it would be of great help.
I in particular am interested in the sections of
the Fundamental Rights, and Directive principles of state policy
in the constitution. In my opinion, the
"rights" "duties" "principles" considered in the constitution
have been written after great discussions and great considerations
by great think tanks like Dr. Ambedkar etc.
And even though it is tragic that many of the portions
of the constitution remain in "paper", since our conglomeration
desires to provide a model of ideal governance, on all issues,
it would be great if we all could have access to some critical
portions of the constitution, especially pertinient to the
Fundamental Rights, Duties, Directive principle of state policy,
and Centre-State relations etc. Would anybody have any concrete suggestions
as to how to get access to these portions?
Thanks for your time..
Sanjeev's response:
------------------
Try:
http://star.hsrc.ac.za/constitutions/constindcont.html
It would be excellent if someone took the time to look into this. I have
some training in the Constitution including training by Parliamentarians,
including a talk by the then Speaker Balram Jakhar, in law-making in the
Parliament, and I think our Constitution is excellent. We can do almost
anything while working under its umbrella.
Srinivas's response:
-------------------
Hi Sanjeev
THis is a great site. I will see to what extent i can read at least some
portions of it. I am interested in the fact that this document is
well-researched document and since the agenda is to provide ideal
governance we need to have the constitution in the back of our mind as
well we can use it as a tool for our policy statement preparation. What
do you think? -srinivas
Utkarsh's response to Sanjeev:
-----------------------------
Please see my answers in CAPS below. Thanks, Utkarsh
Quick response: Two things are quite un-necessary: minimum wage control
and population control. I have studied population control as part of my
specialization and as mentioned elsewhere, population is something that
comes down as a result of a) education b)increases in income and c) drop
in infant mortality. No emphasis - directly - on this issue is required -
at all. I am presenting a very simple paper in Chicago next week on this
topic (it is available also on my web site). Julian Simon and Easterlin
must be understood very carefully before we spend any thought on
population.
SANJEEEV, I WILL TRY GO TO YOUR WEBSITE AND READ ABOUT POPULATION
CONTROL. BUT JUST AS A LOGICAL THOUGHT, YOU CAN DO BETTER IF THE
POPULATION GROWTH IS SLOWER THAN YOUR ECONOMY IS GROWING.
Minimum wage: I have been involved in its implementation and know that
this breeds corruption and other nasty things. In a fully computerized
economy like USA this might work (even here ALL economists point out that
it is a harmful thing and distorts incentives), but in India any control
has bred and will breed corruption. Nobody actually receives a minimum
wage: only the inspectors help increase the cost of the employers by
taking bribes to show that the minimum wage laws are being upheld.
Legislataion without a fool-proof (and I really can discuss any of these
proposals since I have seen these in the field) method of
implementation, is quite dangerous. We need to reduce, not increase, our
laws.
I AGREE IN TERMS THAT WE NEED SYSTEMS TO IMPLEMENT THIS. ONE WOULD
REQUIRE LOT OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION TO ACHEVE THIS.
Decentralization and panchayati raj are other failed socialistic
concepts. I don't mean that there should not be local government
(something which does not quite exist in India yet), but the current
methods doing this is socialistic and completely corrupt.
WELL YOU HAVE TO BE MORE ELABORATE HERE. BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO GIVE POWER
TO LOCAL BODIES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF VILLAGES. BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND
LOCAL ISSUES BETTER. YOU HAVE TO THEN TIE IT BACK TO HIGHER LEVELS.
HAVING SAID THAT I MYSELF NEED TO READ AS HOW THE PANCHAYATS WORK AND
WHAT REFORM IS NEEDED TO MAKE IT TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL.
The focus must be to get the people out of the villages into cities. NO
nation in the world has ever become rich by using labor (ploughing land).
Neither has anyone of the members of this group. Our brains are rotting
in remote corners of the nation.
I WILL DISAGREE WITH YOU ON THIS ONE COMPLETELY. YOU CAN NOT BRING 800
MILLION PEOPLE TO URBAN AREA AND CREATE JOBS. TO START WITH YOU HAVE TO
STILL FEED 1 BILLION PEOPLE. WHAT I WOULD RATHER PROPOSE THAT WE BRING
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY TO VILLAGE LEVEL. I THINK MOST OF THE FARMING
IS DONE BY PRIMITIVE TOOLS. IF TECHNOLOGY IS APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE, YOU
CAN BRING JOBS RELATED TO JUST NOT AGRICULTURE BUT FOR INDUSTRY PRODUCING
AGRICULTURE MACHINERY, EXPORT OF FOOD GRAINS, MAY BE EXPORT OF SUCH
MACHINERY TO DEVELOPING NATIONS. REMEMBER IT BRINGS $50 TO SELL A DOZEN
OF RED ROSES IN THE WEST. WE HAVE TO WORK ON ALL THE FRONTS.
We need to focus on urbanization and powerful economic policy to get
people educated and rich.
EDUCATION HAS TO BE BROUGHT TO PEOPLE IN REGIONS WHERE THEY LIVE. WE NEED
TO BRING UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES, POLYTECHNICS CLOSER TO VILLAGES WHERE MOST
OF THE INDA LIVES. WE NEED TO WORK FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE URBAN
AREAS. IF YOUR URBAN AREAS LOOK LIKE POOR VILLAGES, THAN IT SEEMS TO ME
THAT WE ARE FAILING ON BOTH FRONTS.
Local governance is a must, but the resources should be primarily raised
locally, not given like charity to the local institutions, as in India
today, a thing that breeds complete moral decadence and corruption down
to the village level.
I THNINK THAT IS WHY TAX REFORM IS NEEDED. I DO NOT KNOW IF THE
GOVERNEMNET PASSES TAX MONEY BACK TO STATES BASED ON TAX COLLECTION OR IF
THERE IS ANY ACCOUNTABILITY OF SUCH TAXPAYERS MONEY. TO START WITH WE
SHOULD RAISE THE ISSUE OF PROPER TAX COLLECTION. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T
HAVE RIGHT SYSTEMS TO COLLECT SUCH TAXES THAN EITHER YOU COLLECT
INAPPROPRIATE TAX OR THE WEALTH STAYS IN POCKETS. GOVERNMENT IS UNABLE TO
PROVIDE SERVICES IT IS SUPPOSED BY THE TAXPAYERS MONEY. IN A LONG RUN
GOVERNMENT BORROWS FROM IMF OR OTHER AGENCIES, HIGHER DEBT, HIGHER TAXES,
HIGH INFLATION, CURRENCY DEVALUATION FOLLOWS. ALSO YOU RUN A PARALELL
BLACK ECONOMY. AND YOU HAVE WHAT WE HAVE TODAY IN INDIA.
Sanjeev's response:
-------------------
Population:
> SANJEEEV, I WILL TRY GO TO YOUR WEBSITE AND READ ABOUT POPULATION
> CONTROL. BUT JUST AS A LOGICAL THOUGHT, YOU CAN DO BETTER IF THE
> POPULATION GROWTH IS SLOWER THAN YOUR ECONOMY IS GROWING.
Unless we propose to kill people off, there is no known method of
population control except education and consequent increases in incomes.
Health care and provision of contraceptives is a basic must which can
however, not support a rapid decline in population: that must come from
the maximizing decision of each and every couple. I am not saying that
population is not a problem; only that the solution is through highly
competitive economic policy and through 100% literacy and rapid increase
in higher education. That is why there is no need to spend (too much) time
discussing population: nothing can be done about it directly: only
indirectly. Of course, this idea - that population is not a direct policy
issue, is quite difficult to grasp - and needs popularization.
Minimum wage:
> I AGREE IN TERMS THAT WE NEED SYSTEMS TO IMPLEMENT THIS. ONE WOULD REQUIRE LOT OF
> GOVERNMENT REGULATION TO ACHEVE THIS.
Goverment regulation has always meant - at the time of implementation,
creating new jobs and giving most of these jobs to the relatives and
friends of politicians and bureaucrats; it has always led to increase in
corruption and increase in the desire to create more paperwork and larger
bureaucracies. I have seen this at every level of my work in Government
and theoretically also, this is a well established fact.
A small government, highly efficient, is needed. I know that this is
another concept very difficult to explain to people; one has to try to do
it. One could have a "desired" minimum wage without insisting on its
regulation. That would help labor - if exploited - to fight its way to the
desired minimum. But most of our labor is illiterate and bound by too many
other exploitations. Therefore minimum wage support is not what they need
(even if that were possible).
The rule of successful companies all over the world is to pay their people
more than they get elsewhere, to prevent turnover and to increase the
motivation to improve themselves, as well as to increase loyalty. If a
company pays below minimum wage, it would soon go out of business. Thus it
would be in the interest of companies to pay wages higher than the
"desired" minimum wages.
But if one tried to enforce such a thing, that would mean more corruption
and more bureaucracy as well as all kinds of things that we want to get
rid of. Second, one cannot ever - and I mean ever - even dream of
implementing this kind of thing in rural areas successfully and
consistently, or in the informal sector. There are actually many other,
very powerful arguments about why minimum wages are harmful to any
economy, but I leave those arguments for now.
People should aspire to become rich not through minimum wages but by
increasing their productivity. That is why the intense focus on education
and on higher education (In US 25% of the adults have attended college):
the key issue.
Local governance at village level:
> WELL YOU HAVE TO BE MORE ELABORATE HERE. BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO GIVE POWER TO LOCAL
> BODIES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF VILLAGES. BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND LOCAL ISSUES BETTER.
> YOU HAVE TO THEN TIE IT BACK TO HIGHER LEVELS. HAVING SAID THAT I MYSELF NEED TO
> READ AS HOW THE PANCHAYATS WORK AND WHAT REFORM IS NEEDED TO MAKE IT TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL.
The problem is having these local bodies at the expense of investment in
education and in good economic policy. We are spreading our resources thin
on relatively irrelevant issues. The implementation of local government at
the village level is desirable (I am all for democracy) but we want to get
people educated first. It is meaningless - as far as I have seen in actual
implementation of local government - to provide a few thousand rupees to
people whose only goal then is to do local politics to grab that petty
money. While, at the same time, 75% of the women in those villages are
illiterate and do not get to even come close to that local government. We
are thus not only creating the kind of politicians we have today, but
preventing education from becoming the key goal of the nation. We have a
lot of "paper" democracy - at all levels; but almost no real democracy,
because education and economic competition is almost completely missing.
I am not suggesting that many of these issus are not important or that we
should not have views on them, but suggesting that we focus on key issues,
always, and let the other issues take care of themselves. Ultimately,
money has to be appropriated to each policy. Therefore, keeping the
agenda/ policies very limited, and very tightly knit, is best.
Spending effort (and worse, money) on everything under the sun, will
detract from the basic goals. Let us make sure that in the next 10 years
every child, woman and man in India has at least a primary education. And
in the next 20 years that at least 10% of Indians have attended college.
At the same time, let us ensure that wasteful government expenses are
reduced, new recruitment is cut, government is cut in size by at least
half, and that we set into place policies which will attract not only
foreign investment, but our own NRIs. The moment these things come into
place there will be a flood of people into urban areas (we don't have to
create jobs: jobs will be created automatically) - and that is why we need
to focus intensely in training and building up a skilled army of urban
planners.
Therefore I am only suggesting (always for discussion) that on a scale of
100, education and good economic policy (including small government) ranks
as a topic with relevance of 100 while many other topics are significant
but rank much lower. In fact, many (though not all) of these "other"
problems are caused by lack of education and lack of good economic policy
and therefore will actually disappear as soon as the first two are taken
care of.
Urbanization:
> I WILL DISAGREE WITH YOU ON THIS ONE COMPLETELY. YOU CAN NOT BRING 800 MILLION PEOPLE
> TO URBAN AREA AND CREATE JOBS. TO START WITH YOU HAVE TO STILL FEED 1 BILLION PEOPLE.
> WHAT I WOULD RATHER PROPOSE THAT WE BRING EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY TO VILLAGE LEVEL.
> I THINK MOST OF THE FARMING IS DONE BY PRIMITIVE TOOLS. IF TECHNOLOGY IS APPLIED
> TO AGRICULTURE, YOU CAN BRING JOBS RELATED TO JUST NOT AGRICULTURE BUT FOR INDUSTRY
> PRODUCING AGRICULTURE MACHINERY, EXPORT OF FOOD GRAINS, MAY BE EXPORT OF SUCH MACHINERY
> TO DEVELOPING NATIONS. REMEMBER IT BRINGS $50 TO SELL A DOZEN OF RED ROSES IN THE
> WEST. WE HAVE TO WORK ON ALL THE FRONTS.
This was partially answered above. I am not saying that we have to bring
people physically to urban areas. That would be actually impossible. But
just watch how people actually move. People always move to areas of higher
wages. Urban areas are therefore bound to grow very very rapidly as
education and good economic policy is implemented. This has happened not
only in the West (we tend to think that the West is somehow "different")
but in the East (S.E.Asia and China). There is no escape from 75% level
of urbanization if India has to become rich and powerful. We don't want to
waste our brain power in the villages, tilling land with ancient ploughs.
I think of each illiterate woman hiding inside a small hut, holding a
child in her arms, as a powerful brain. She has all the capacity to create
wealth as you and I have. She is not genetically inferior to you or to me.
Being in urban areas is cost-effective: you can give telephones easily,
public transport, and other such things, as well as more modern things
like internet connections. Keeping people in rural areas is economically
inefficient and wastes a tremendous amount of resources. Just try to
scatter the USA into urban areas and you will find it suffering a deep
economic collapse. Urbanization is an optimal solution to the wealth
maximizing problem. It is not something that happens "somehow" in the
West alone.
Well, that's it for now. More later.
Prem's response:
---------------
As far as urbanization is concerned, we need to define it more precisely.
I am quite sure that we don't want all the people to rush to the cities.
Can we not modernize our villages and turn them into better places? I guess
once we have information flowing freely, people don't really need to
move from where they are.
My main concern would be, can we avoid the problems that are faced by people
in the Urban west, such as crime, long distances to commute to get to any
place, complete loss of community atmosphere etc. by being smarter? Do we have a blue-print for such urbanization
already developed by any of the planers and thinkers in India? For sure,
we don't want to go through the same learning curve that the west did.
Also, we need to think about the social and cultural aspects of urbanization.
Is it possible to create a city that feels like a community? Can we create
a `homely` city? I would like to know of any studies and blueprints that
focussed on these issues in a comprehensive fashion. I believe that `people'
rather than some heartless material benefit should be the focus of our
effort.
I completely agree with Utkarsh that Tax collection must be made more
efficient. Also people should know where their taxes are going. Is the city
tax going to the city administration or somewhere else? Where is our sales
tax going? How about the property and road taxes? We need to focus on Tax
reforms.
Sanjeev's response:
------------------
Urbanization:
> As far as urbanization is concerned, we need to define it more precisely.
> I am quite sure that we don't want all the people to rush to the cities.
> Can we not modernize our villages and turn them into better places? I guess
> once we have information flowing freely, people don't really need to
> move from where they are.
> My main concern would be, can we avoid the problems that are faced by people
> in the Urban west, such as crime, long distances to commute to get to any
> place, complete loss of community atmosphere etc. by being smarter? Do we have a blue-print for such urbanization
> already developed by any of the planers and thinkers in India? For sure,
> we don't want to go through the same learning curve that the west did.
> Also, we need to think about the social and cultural aspects of urbanization.
> Is it possible to create a city that feels like a community? Can we create
> a `homely` city? I would like to know of any studies and blueprints that
> focussed on these issues in a comprehensive fashion. I believe that `people'
> rather than some heartless material benefit should be the focus of our
> effort.
I think urbanization is only the simple ratio of percent urban in a
nation. For India this ratio is about 27% now. The tendency to think of
"urban" vs. "rural" is, in my opinion, one more artificial category. We
must think purely of more productive vs. less productive. If members of
this group were more productive working as farmers, they should have taken
up jobs in rural areas in ploughing or whatever. If they are more
productive in producing wealth through industrial or other production,
they should go into that area. And so on.
Let us not think of rural areas as the places where only "community
feeling" exists. These are also areas of mass massacres - in Bihar,
Andhra, Assam, etc. I have worked in deep rural areas of Haryana and
Assam, and I assure you that there is no special community feeling in
these places, except that the people know each other and each other's
families a little better. On the other hand, there are constant disputes
over land, murders, and other crimes - particularly on women, which are
unreported because these are so many. People in urban areas often know
more people (not necessarily their neighbors), and often have a better
sense of community with their nation.
But apart from this issue of community feeling, I look at the tremendous
waste of human resources in rural areas (arising primarily from lack of
education) as the key problem.
We are grossly underutilizing our agricultural potential today. At a level
of productivity less than half of that of China, we have the potential to
double our grain output in a single lifetime, using lesser people and more
machines on our land. We definitely do not need so many people to supply
us food. There is therefore a big waste of human resources in rural areas
which we need to channelize into urban areas [provided we have a strong
urban policy in place].
We often talk of keeping people in the villages but all of us invariably
live in urban areas and earn tons of money compared to the average
peasant. I wish to suggest that we should not decide for the rural people
what is best for them. Let each of them take their own decisions.
Given the freedom of choice, the rule has been that people tend to migrate
from areas of low wages to areas of high wage (that is why most of the
people in this group are abroad, rather than in their ancestral villages
in India).
I am myself considering the decision to leave the IAS on two grounds: one,
that I can do nothing much by being a small cog within the system and two
[and that is very important to me as a person with two children], because
I prefer to be paid more than paid less. Earning closer to my actual
potential and providing the best tennis coaching, the best computer access
including the internet to my son, is better for my family. In my basket of
choices, there is no scope for going to a rural area, whether in India or
in the USA. Please therefore cause an inquiry into human motives by
looking into yourself, very closely. Much of the behavior of the Western
societies will then show up as maximizing behavior.
Let us not deny but respect these individual decisions, which, by
maximizing one's own potential, actually maximize the country's potential.
For example, would I contribute today more to India by living in a remote
village in the interior of a jungle without a telephone or the internet,
or by helping discuss issues with you over the internet and help promote
necessary change in India? Or at the very least, help in maximizing my
son's potential?
All statistics point to rapid migration to urban areas whenever true
economic growth starts in a nation. The fact that India has only a 27%
level of urbanization is enough to put it at the bottom of the heap of
nations in the world even if no other data on India were available. That
is almost the "law" of economic growth. Almost no nation has ever
violated this law.
I thought that we are assembled here with only one major determination: to
make India rich and powerful. No doubt there are many other goals in a
human life. But we must prioritize. In my view, these priorities are:
Give opportunities to people to become as educated as they can.
Give opportunities to people to become as rich as they want to be.
Give opportunities to people to decide where they live or what
they do with their lives (except socially harmful things).
To build good communities we need to focus intensely on planning our
cities properly. We need to build satellite cities which are
self-sufficient but close enough to the main metro to feel "part of the
big city". These will have to be almost surely on the pattern of the
suburbs of the West, where you find families out on the parks and fields
each Saturday and Sunday, playing games with their children. The more
planned are the urban centers, the better the community feeling.
Therefore the tremendous emphasis I wish to put on good urban planning.
Our bunch of urban planners is clearly the most incompetent in the world
[well maybe not: maybe Bangladesh planners are worse]. They have no
concept of economic forces swamping their pathetic planning. We have to
plan for huge cities with big sattellites. It is these cities that have
grown the fastest in the past 50 years in India (as has been the case all
over the world). Big cities get bigger. Just as we have to respect the
decision of illiterate and pooor people to choose more children over less,
we have to respect the decision of literate people to choose urban areas
over rural, and of highly literate people (like us) to choose to work
abroad in the world's richest cities.
About modernizing villages, that, as I mentioned in an earlier note, is a
highly inefficient method. I have seen what immense losses occur in our
State Electricity Boards due to the "urge" to supply electricity to all
villages. Sending huge lines across the state is cheap. Supplying small
tiny connections to villages is costly, difficult to monitor and manage,
and collecting revenues is impossible. That is why rural electrification
is "free" almost everywhere. Are these subsidies sensible? So also with
telephones, roads and whatever else you consider modern. I am not saying
that we should not supply these to our villages, but I am trying to show
how this is actually a much costlier strategy. That does not mean that we
close down our villages. Just that moving toward urbanization is something
that we need to consider from the angle of efficiency, also.
Therefore from all angles, in terms of tapping into our reservoir of
human brain power, in terms of reducing our costs, as well as in terms of
respecting each individual's decisions, good and sensible urbanization is
necessary. If we are to promote rural areas then we need only to
increase illiteracy and employ every second person in a government job
and we would have succeeded. We can also totally mess up the country by
trying to providing T3 connections and cellular phones to each village.
Take the case of Korea. North Korea is almost entirely rural (greater
community feeling) while S.Korea is almost entirely urban (greater
wealth). They both originate from different models of the world: one
considers that the "West" or capitalist systems have failed because of
things like urban crime and family breakdown. They want to impose
"indigenous" solutions (basically socialism - which was invented by a
German, anyway).
The other was an open model, wanting to learn from others, and willing to
admit that the West is actually a superior model (despite the apparently
high urban crime and apparently long commutes) because of its superior
results. The results are obvious to see today, in a mere 35 years. People
are dying in North Korea out of disease, starvation and poverty [rural
death rates are always higher than urban ones; more infants, children and
elderly die of diseases in rural areas than in urban areas...], while
people in South Korea are stinking rich today.
Let us ask a slum dweller in Dharavi why he or she is living in that slum
where there is so much filth? The answer will be "Paisa. Yahaan paise hai.
Gaon mein bhookh hai." These people have voted with their feet for money
over all other priorities. Let us help them earn more money and live a
life like each of us lives in the USA (why don't we prefer to work in
North Korea instead?). These people break up with their families for
months merely to earn a few extra rupees for their children back home.
They go to prostitutes because they are away from family, and get AIDS,
and die like vermin. Let us make it possible for them to bring their
families to the cities and live a life that we want our own children to
live.
Well, I hope this reply was not too long! We need more discussion. Because
only then will we actually be understanding the issues and promoting the
real interest of India, which is served best by allowing each individual
to reach his or her maximum potential. Thanks,
Utkarsh's response:
-------------------
All:
Should we start with the following topics? We can come back and add more.
Let me know if we want to delete any topic if we think it is not a
category I issue.
I will suggest that we start with education. Let us bring subject experts
and research material to the table to define our view on the education
policy. We will send a message to the membership to agree on the
following list and send us their views and any material available to them
on education. We will also contact Department of Education to get their
present policy statement.
Thanks,
Utkarsh
Reform topics to be listed in the First Draft of the manifesto:
· Deregulation of the Banking Industry
· Deregulation of the Road Transportation Industry
· Privatization of the State Electricity Boards - i.e. power generation and distribution
· Educational Policy
· View of Free Press - To my understanding, Press is not completely free
and there is a bill pending in the parliament for debate.
· Privatization of City Waste Management Services
· Complete Privatization of the Telecommunications Industry
· Tariff Reform
· Tax Reform
· Comprehensive Energy Policy
· Policy to build and maintain Robust Highway Systems