IIM bill: Degree of unfreedom
Policy Perspective

IIM bill: Degree of unfreedom

Slogans of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Minimum Government’ won’t ring true if IIMs are being strangled. The bill says that there will be a ‘coordination forum’, whose role is to ‘facilitate the sharing of experiences, ideas and concerns with a view to enhancing performance of all institutions’ and ‘deliberate on matters of common interest’ and, more frighteningly, to ‘perform such other functions as may be referred to it by the Central government.’ The prime minister needs to explain to the ministry of human resource development (HRD) the meaning of his “moola mantra” and election promise “minimum government, maximum governance”. The proposed new IIM bill from the HRD ministry does the opposite. It claws back a lot of existing autonomy of these institutions and reduces IIM boards to the rubber-stamping handmaidens of the ministry. This new move to take greater government control comes despite the lack of evidence of the need […]

June 25, 2015 0 Comments
Policy Needs to Focus on Middle India
Policy Perspective

Policy Needs to Focus on Middle India

India’s economic policy has worked hard for the rich. A new approach is needed to serve the rest and must go beyond the wish list of India Inc. It’s time to think about the Indian economy not as some prize stud bull that has vital statistics we can all be proud of, but as an instrument of improving the lives of all Indians, steadily, year on year, and giving them the resilience to withstand the inevitable down cycles and shocks. Growing faster than others or breaching a GDP growth target number does not automatically achieve this. The test of a good economy is also not what heights the Sensex has scaled, especially when the gap between it and the real economy is so wide. Today, most Indians do not have a regular monthly-salary paying job. They have some form of self-employed livelihood on which they live — modestly in good […]

May 30, 2014 0 Comments
Time to Share the Pain
Policy Perspective

Time to Share the Pain

As prices rise and subsidies are cut, India needs some more socialism to keep markets working Recent economic policies may give stock market investors reason to cheer, but many Indian households are in pain and it is about to get worse. The ‘there-is-no-choice’ discourse propagated by analysts and business leaders is that the price rise of cooking gas, telecom, diesel and train fares is good for aam aadmi because it will make industry more profitable, reduce the fiscal deficit, cut interest rates, inspire more confidence for investment and individuals to borrow to spend, and lead to a higher GDP growth rate number. As a result, many Indians will have opportunities to earn more, spend more and live better. India will become a more attractive FDI destination and that will, in turn, lead to more benefit for aam aadmi. Maybe we will understand the human consequences of economic reform better and […]

January 28, 2013 0 Comments
People Ready, Policy Lags
Policy Perspective

People Ready, Policy Lags

Indians are using mobile and digital services in innovative ways, but policy must ensure low prices Indians, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, have all discovered the magic of mobile and of internet enabled services. ‘Product-based’ metrics like internet penetration, number of users and their activity levels or even share of smart phones to total phones nowhere near tell the story of the how central these services have become to Indian society. A people-based understanding will reveal a very high ‘digital quotient’ for all Indians, including the less privileged ones. Policymaking around issues that will impact the pricing and regulation of these services must fully take into account why and how this ‘public good’ is truly for the public’s good. In India, in addition to personal or household ‘ownership’, there is ‘regular access though I don’t own it’— my cousin has it / he created my email ID and manages […]

November 26, 2012 0 Comments
Kirana RIP? Not Yet
Policy Perspective

Kirana RIP? Not Yet

The small-store owner is too important, nimble and innovative to be bumped off by big-box retailers The arguments for and against FDI in retail are, at a generic level, valid on both sides. However, since the devil is usually in the detail, the facts about India’s small retailers and suppliers, the conditions stipulated for FDI, and recent experience with the effects of domestic modern retail need to be viewed together before the likely outcome pronounced. The big fight is about whether this new policy will kill small shops, massively destroy livelihoods and take away GenNext’s opportunities. Facts suggest otherwise. Consider the kirana, the one most feared to be at risk. About 5-6 million of the 8 million FMCG-stocking kiranas are in rural India, and are totally safe, as the new ones can only come into the top 53 cities. R Sriram, founder of Crossword and retail expert, tables two insights. One, in many […]

November 28, 2011 0 Comments
Urban India’s rising resentment
Policy Perspective

Urban India’s rising resentment

There is resentment building up in the “aam janta” in urban India that the government and policy-makers need to understand better. If for nothing else, at least to promote more empathy and to handle the situation more sensitively to prevent the anger from spilling over onto the streets. In India, big waves are often caused by confluences of little ripples, and there is one brewing that needs to be diffused. The increase in petrol prices, the likely steep rise in LPG expenditure, the increase in the EMI burden and prolonged food inflation, all coming together, destabilises most sections of urban India, barring the very rich and the very poor. The least of the problem is that people will now, like in the old days, have to watch their budgets more closely and make tough “not buying” decisions. That would perhaps be the case with the top 30 per cent of […]

August 20, 2011 0 Comments
Problem Isn’t Consumer Demand
Policy Perspective

Problem Isn’t Consumer Demand

The primary problem at this juncture is not the lack of consumer demand, but the lack of funds desperately needed by companies to stay afloat on a week to week basis. This, if not addressed soon, will cause corporate collapses, leading to job losses and business associates collapsing, leading to more job losses, and a shattered faith in the economy. Typical stories around us today are of companies that have over leveraged themselves and expanded aggressively in the past few years; and who have, until recently, diverted cash flows to fund even more aggressive expansion. The implicit assumption they made was that further equity and/or debt would be available on call; the question was never about its availability, but only about its price. Part of the reason for the aggressive expansion was the valuation payoff that several of them, especially not-yet-listed companies, assumed that they would get. Part of the […]

December 10, 2008 0 Comments
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