Power sector reform is a disaster twice over. What is the status of the PSU bank reform, for example? Where is the promised bank holding company? Longer tenure for PSU bank chiefs, accountability of their boards? All good ideas idling in George Fernandes’s deadly orbit. And by the time it is done, it is such a jumble of bureaucratese that it looks more like an overcooked spaghetti bowl. There is a pattern to the Modi government’s economic decisions: The follow-up, the design of the plan, implementation takes too long. Rules drafted were so complex, that you’d be high on something illegal to make a disclosure under these. The tax rate was so confiscatory and punitive, it was no amnesty. Chidambaram’s VDIS (Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme) of 1997. It’s still not in public, and the file has been sent into, what late George Fernandes had said about India’s defence purchases, “bureaucratic orbit”, circling idly with no destination.Īfter demonetisation, the prime minister announced his Garib Kalyan Yojana, which was a kind of tax amnesty scheme, hoping to collect big bucks like P. There was a committee to overhaul direct taxes under then-CBDT member Akhilesh Ranjan, which submitted its report in 2019. But here is a quick listing from the top of my mind, and with the help of ThePrint’s Senior Associate Editor for economy, Remya Nair. Granted, you can blame that on politics or Rahul Gandhi. We can begin with his first big reform, the Land Acquisition Bill.Īlso read: Don’t absolve Modi by saying he doesn’t have the right team to bring in economic reforms But there was a severe enough crisis even ‘the day before’. There is indeed a factor of ‘the day after’ corona worsening our economic crisis. India’s economy was in a steep fall for almost two years. Why has he, then, been struggling so badly in converting his economic reform ideas into reality? It isn’t just coronavirus. Think demonetisation and nationwide lockdown at four-hour notice from 8 pm. Is Narendra Modi capable of implementing his ideas, especially the big, reformist ideas? You would have to be nuts, or a Naxal, urban or rural, if you said no. Which brings us, sort of naturally, to the third question. But, as a Class 1 child would do in her arithmetic, draw a line under all these, and the answer will be pretty much zero.
Railways, agriculture, banking, manufacturing, labour laws, power sector, civil aviation, FDI in new sectors, PSUs, coal, mining, taxation - the list is impressive. If the answer to the first question is yes, what does he have to show for as he begins his seventh year?Ī lot has been announced and welcomed by those like us waiting for reforms to resume after a 10-year drought since UPA-2 began its slow suicide in 2010. Narasimha Rao, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee? And third, how successful is he in implementing his reformist ideas? Three questions: First, is Narendra Modi an economic reformer? Second, where would he rank in the list of India’s reformists: P.V.