So, the Govt. has completed 9 moths in office now.
And as they say...
The honeymoon period is over.. Its time to deliver... (pun not intended)
The time begins for some tough and strong decisions now.
As things stand, there are still some major issues plaguing the Indian Economy:
1. Poverty and more than that, the lack of access to and ignorance of poverty alleviation schemes
2. Poor economic and industrial growth - resulting in poor situation of Employment
3. Poor state of affairs of healthcare - especially in govt. sector, which is supposed to be accessible and cheaper, as well as be of good quality. This was brought to front by the recent deaths in the health camps
4. The sorry conditions of the education system and I am not even talking about the secondary or higher education, but even at the primary education level, which is supposedly the fundamental right of every child. The quality of teachers, school infrastructure, curriculum and facilities is abysmal and needs drastic improvement if we are expecting any improvement in the quality of entry level workforce provided by the system.
5. The agriculture sector, which is the bread earner for 48% of Indian populace, is highly energy intensive and low on productivity. The problem of disguised unemployment is still inflicted upon the sector.
6. The energy sector (in which I have a special interest, for obvious reasons) is another area requiring strict policy initiatives. We talk of 100GW of renewables, 24x7 electricity by 2019, Investment in Advanced ultrasupercritical technology, etc. This is all good. However, on the other hand, we have problems like high AT&C losses, poor generation efficiency, fuel supplies, poor financial health of discoms, etc. affecting us (I plan to take up Power Sector scenario in a larger way in a future post)
7. The manufacturing sector was expecting a fillip by the Make in India policy. However, the reality is still not rosy. The IIP is still lower and manufacturing sector is still grappling with the problems of lower investments. There has been no real development in investment front - However, I know that it is way too early for any policy to have real on-the-ground benefits, and I actually hope that this policy becomes successful. However, one aspect of this policy, which is the focus on FDI, rather than on technology transfer, is and area on which I have my own disagreements. This would not bring in newer technologies in the country, which are the need of the hour.
8. Every country that has developed, has had some USP.
Earlier in UK, then Europe and finally, USA - innovation or rather, innovators;
China- cheap workforce to duplicate and even improve upon any technology; etc.
India on the other hand is seen as the largest potential MARKET by the foreign companies. And a market doesn't provide any USP, other than an opportunity for them to dump their own technologies in the nation.
(And I don't say that we don't need that or that we can get by without them - NO - we do them and that too urgently. But we need to develop and USP, something that we can offer to the world, not just money, but something else, and here, the focus on R&D and policies needs careful looking into.)
9. In line with the above point, I expect an improvement in the R&D situation in the country. The R&D in India is still focussed on achieving incremental growth in technologies. We need to look more towards inventing/ discovering breakthrough technologies because that is the need of the hour to achieve technological leadership in the world. For this, the R&D budgets of the govt. need to be enhanced drastically. Just token sums of Rs. 100 Crore per schem won't be enough. We need Thousands of crores actually.
10. Further, we need to bring back the Indian talent that has been provided costly education at subsidized rates by the govt. , but has been plucked (or hand-picked) and taken away to off-shore avenues by the prospects of available technologies for doing research, hefty pay packages, high standards of living, etc. There is a huge need for reverse brain drain.
And as they say...
The honeymoon period is over.. Its time to deliver... (pun not intended)
The time begins for some tough and strong decisions now.
As things stand, there are still some major issues plaguing the Indian Economy:
1. Poverty and more than that, the lack of access to and ignorance of poverty alleviation schemes
2. Poor economic and industrial growth - resulting in poor situation of Employment
3. Poor state of affairs of healthcare - especially in govt. sector, which is supposed to be accessible and cheaper, as well as be of good quality. This was brought to front by the recent deaths in the health camps
4. The sorry conditions of the education system and I am not even talking about the secondary or higher education, but even at the primary education level, which is supposedly the fundamental right of every child. The quality of teachers, school infrastructure, curriculum and facilities is abysmal and needs drastic improvement if we are expecting any improvement in the quality of entry level workforce provided by the system.
5. The agriculture sector, which is the bread earner for 48% of Indian populace, is highly energy intensive and low on productivity. The problem of disguised unemployment is still inflicted upon the sector.
6. The energy sector (in which I have a special interest, for obvious reasons) is another area requiring strict policy initiatives. We talk of 100GW of renewables, 24x7 electricity by 2019, Investment in Advanced ultrasupercritical technology, etc. This is all good. However, on the other hand, we have problems like high AT&C losses, poor generation efficiency, fuel supplies, poor financial health of discoms, etc. affecting us (I plan to take up Power Sector scenario in a larger way in a future post)
7. The manufacturing sector was expecting a fillip by the Make in India policy. However, the reality is still not rosy. The IIP is still lower and manufacturing sector is still grappling with the problems of lower investments. There has been no real development in investment front - However, I know that it is way too early for any policy to have real on-the-ground benefits, and I actually hope that this policy becomes successful. However, one aspect of this policy, which is the focus on FDI, rather than on technology transfer, is and area on which I have my own disagreements. This would not bring in newer technologies in the country, which are the need of the hour.
8. Every country that has developed, has had some USP.
Earlier in UK, then Europe and finally, USA - innovation or rather, innovators;
China- cheap workforce to duplicate and even improve upon any technology; etc.
India on the other hand is seen as the largest potential MARKET by the foreign companies. And a market doesn't provide any USP, other than an opportunity for them to dump their own technologies in the nation.
(And I don't say that we don't need that or that we can get by without them - NO - we do them and that too urgently. But we need to develop and USP, something that we can offer to the world, not just money, but something else, and here, the focus on R&D and policies needs careful looking into.)
9. In line with the above point, I expect an improvement in the R&D situation in the country. The R&D in India is still focussed on achieving incremental growth in technologies. We need to look more towards inventing/ discovering breakthrough technologies because that is the need of the hour to achieve technological leadership in the world. For this, the R&D budgets of the govt. need to be enhanced drastically. Just token sums of Rs. 100 Crore per schem won't be enough. We need Thousands of crores actually.
