.
.
.
India lacks adequate governance, which is extensively required to pull the country up to a first world status by 2050.
There is only so much the private sector can do. For the country overall, for the sake of its cohesion............ socially, politically, economically, morally its the governments duty and responsibility to do the rest strategically in a planned looking forward manner. One is quite certain the Ambani's or any other businessman when they deeply look at future business investments don't do so socially, politically, economically, morally......most of the time, but whether their business investment will make a profit and given them steady returns.
This lack of governance is simply indicated by the national budget in Delhi which represents a paltry 15% of GDP (the official GDP, and not the one with the black economy included which would mean India's actual GDP is closer to $4--4.5 billion).
Pranab Mukherjee sahib can India have a peoples budget of $400 billion for 2012-2013? With massive expenditures and investments in the job creating INDUSTRY and INFRASTRUCTURE sectors.
This lack of governance means only 30 million Indians out of a population of 1200 million Indians (including supposedly 250 million middle class Indians) pay tax. There is ample computerized systems in India from Bangalore, and national ID cards are being introduced, so lets double the taxable base to 60 million for the 2012--2013 budget. Apparently $1.5 trillion worth of Indian money is lying idle in Swiss accounts, and we don't know the true figure for the rest of the 70 odd tax havens.
Clearly in the tax sector there is a lack of effective efficient governance.
This lack of governance means large swathes of Indian society are little impacted by government actions. To them the government in Delhi is irrelevant.
Then you have mis-governance...which means the little impact with the little money the government does use to exercise its writ is itself misused, hence the corruption scandals about everything from Defense contracts to staging the Commonwealth Games, and the source of the only joke I new for quite a while:
Indian Neta in Washington invited to a rich Congressman's mansion overlooking the Potomac. They start on their 15 course meal served on an elegant mahogany table, including roast duck, lamb, the finest caviar and Belgian chocolates. The Congressman shyly ushers the neta to the window, at the end of the feast and speaks.."You see that bridge on that river over there.......10%....I made 10% from that."
The neta impressed invites the Congressman to his Dili mansion over looking the Yamuna, and in his white marble colonial style mansion he too offers up a 15 course feast for his American counterpart. At the end of the meal the neta beckons the Congressman to the window with a SLY GRIN and the traditional Indian nod of the head and as they both peer through the huge window, the neta whispers in child like delight......"You see bridge over there by the Yumuna.....can you see it?"
The Congressman is puzzled, "Bridge what bridge?"
Neta pointing to himself, "100%......me got it all! Son in Harvard, and my money in Mauritius/Hong Kong....wife daughter in London for the summer shopping"
Whats that oft repeated cliche? India is doing reasonably well despite its government.
_______________________
Work it out
Jug Suraiya at TOI blog.Of late there has been a lot of talk of 'governance deficit'. Translated into plain language that means that the people who are meant to run the public affairs of this country - the politicians and the bureaucrats - don't know how to do their jobs. The bureaucrats - who in order to become bureaucrats generally would have had to pass often extremely competitive exams - might say that they know exactly what their job is, and how to do it. However, they are often prevented from doing so because of political interference. Maybe that's just buck-passing on the part of babudom, for there are many who believe that the ills of misgovernance that routinely plague the country are caused more by a generally inefficient, corrupt and unaccountable bureaucracy than by politicians. According to this argument, while politicians have to at least pretend to perform before the electorate or risk being voted out of office when their tenure is over, babus are secure in their jobs for the full length of their careers, and are under no compulsion to do their jobs or even to pretend to do so.
However, there seems to be a more crucial point of difference between politicians and babus when it comes to getting on with the job. While the babus at least know what their job is - whether they do it or not being a completely different matter - Indian politicians by and large appear to be totally clueless as to exactly what it is that is required of them by way of work. A TOI report on the responses given to an RTI application seeking to find out exactly what are the duties and responsibilities of our MPs and MLAs has shown that almost none of the respondents - including the Lok Sabha secretariat and the Election Commission - could give an adequate answer to these questions.
While the Election Commission brushed aside the queries saying that it was "not concerned with information sought", the Lok Sabha secretariat replied that there was "no provision either in the Constitution or the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business... defining duties and responsibilities of members of Parliament or through which the accountability can be fixed on non-performing MPs".
Spokespersons for both the Bihar and the West Bengal assemblies agreed that "there is no provision/rule through which the duties, responsibilities and accountabilities of MLAs are fixed". The sole exception to this denial of responsibility of our elected representatives was the Sikkim assembly which has rules "specifying the duties of MLAs", their "prime duty (being) to maintain communal harmony and peace among the people".
Ignorance is bliss. And being blissfully ignorant of just what their job entails - what they are actually meant to do once they've been elected into office - our political leaders can't be blamed for 'governance deficit', for not getting on with what they are meant to be doing. Because, as they've all too readily admitted, they don't know what it is that they are meant to do. So how can they be held responsible for not doing what they don't know they were supposed to be doing in the first place? And the answer to that, of course, is that they can't be held responsible. So the voters can go fly a kite. Or the governance deficit, whichever they prefer.
How are our politicians to be taught what their job is - apart from doing everything they can to hang on to power as long as they can and extract much as they can from the exchequer to enrich themselves? One suggestion might be to set up IIPs - Indian Institutes of Politics - along the lines of our IIMs and IITs, which are internationally acclaimed as centres of excellence. However, as well-meaning as it might sound, such a proposal is not merely hopelessly naive but also outdated.
For the truth of the matter is that the Indian political class, across the board, has long ago already set up its own institute of political training, the alumni of which are living testimonials to the world's first functioning IIP: the Indian Institute of Plunder.
