The New Bombay Plan places a burden on govt
Visit the website www.nic.in/pmcouncils/reports/ for a day's reading. Consider the comprehensive list of subjects covered: "Revival of Traditional Industries" (Nusli Wadia ), "A Policy Framework for Reforms in Health Care" (Mukesh Ambani ), "How can India Avoid the Pitfalls of Globalisation?" (Rahul Bajaj), "Unshackling Indian Industry" (Nusli Wadia ), "A Policy Framework for Reforms in Education" (Mukesh Ambani ), "How to get Disinvestment Going - Building India's Future" (G P Goenka), "Food & Agro-Industries Management Policy" (Nusli Wadia), "Infrastructure" (Ratan Tata), "Capital Markets & Financial Sector Initiatives" (Mukesh Ambani), "Knowledge-based Industries" (M R Narayanamurthy), "Service Industries" (A C Muthiah), "Administrative & Legal" (Kumarmangalam Birla).
I have not had time to read through everything available on the website (all reports are not available in full) nor indeed may anyone in the Prime Minister's Office have had time to do so, but I have read with great interest the paper written by Rahul Bajaj and Sanjiv Goenka on "How Can India Avoid the Pitfalls of Globalisation?" Knowing Bajaj, knowing of his interest in such matters and his willingness to find time for matters of national interest, I am sure he has actually written some parts of this paper, and would have read through whatever draft he was given by the ghost writer in great detail to make sure that his way of thinking is adequately reflected in it.
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"The document reveals the mind of some of India's most important business leaders 10 years after the 'new economic policies' of liberalization and globalisation were launched in India. "
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It's a paper worth reading. It will be an education for economists, economic policy makers, students of the Indian economy and journalists who write on the Indian economy.
To begin with, the Bajaj-Goenka paper kicks off with quotes from UNCTAD's Trade and Development Reports and liberally quotes from the UNDP's Human Development Reports. Anyone who knows anything about the UNCTAD and UNDP and about their views on 'globalization' will know exactly what I am trying to get at. There is no reference in this paper to anything that the IMF or the World Bank or Montek Ahluwalia may have said on the subject! And thereby hangs a tale.
These documents are important because they reveal the mind of some of India's most important business leaders 10 years after the 'new economic policies' of liberalization and globalisation were launched in India. There is concern expressed in them for the marginal impact that the 1990s growth process has had on poverty and inequality in India. Equally, there is caution being expressed about hasty globalization that can end up destroying what India has tried to build for over half a century -- domestic enterprise.
To quote from the Bajaj-Goenka paper: "The group takes particular note of the high incidence of poverty, which is a serious aspect of the globalising Indian economy. Stark inequalities can be a recipe for socio-political and economic de-stabilization in a globalising economy.
"The group is also concerned that while inequalities between the developed and the developing countries has increased during the last decade, the latter are being denied necessary growth opportunities. The group recognizes that the industrial economy is passing through a trying phase of transition, and is concerned about the high incidence of industrial sickness and joblessness amidst a huge backlog of the unemployed.
"There are several other concerns eg (i) poor performance of agriculture, (ii) decline in domestic savings; (iii) large fiscal deficit; (iv) weakness of the financial system on account of large NPAs and bad loans; (v) inadequate export earnings; (vi) poor infrastructure; (vii) high cost of capital etc. to mention a few."
These are important concerns being expressed and the other reports spell out in greater detail what needs to be done. Together they constitute a "New Bombay Plan" for India, and, like the old Bombay Plan of 1944, they place an enormous burden on government, giving it the responsibility to steer the ship of the Indian economy through the uncharted waters of globalization.
For all those who imagined that governments have no role to play in the modern economy, and that the market will do all, these papers offer a useful corrective. Indian business wants globalisation 'managed' by the government, to preserve what exists and build anew on it.
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