Building a Better India – Part 6: Fast track clearances

Dalbir Chibbar 16 June 2014

While the environment is a priority for the nation, it cannot be used as a ruse to stall projects that become politically inconvenient

The high GDP growth from 2004 to 2010 was led by the service sector and not by agriculture and manufacturing. Such high GDP was unsustainable in the long term and that is what happened. Historically all developed nations have first witnessed long periods of high agriculture and manufacturing growth which consequently led to growth in their service sector.

Hence the future restoration of GDP growth back to above 8% rate must and has to be led by increased farming, agro- related and manufacturing activities, and exports. Hundreds of stalled and pending projects, both industrial and infrastructure related, worth crores of Rupees and in which PSU banks have high exposure, should be cleared and approved on a war footing by:-

Dismantling/ removing the red tape and unnecessary formalities. Hire experienced, talented, middle-aged, highly educated experts of related fields in sufficient numbers on 5 year contract basis. Policy and implementation paralysis need urgent cure through steroid.
Directing inter-ministerial cooperation and coordination with no room for ego or complacency. Restructure /consolidate/reorganise the various existing ministries.
Swift executive and administrative actions/ orders. Pointless to only form committees after committees with no real follow up action.
Reframing/renegotiating the stranded public-private projects to unlock the bank loans blocked in these projects and speed up infrastructure development.
Increase planned expenditure which was drastically cut in the last 2 years to meet fiscal deficit target to avoid junk status threats by international rating agencies and reduce wasteful revenue expenses.
Faster approval to pending economic reforms so that ruling govt cannot take refuge for its failures under this pretext.
Disband the central Ministry of environment and let the environmental clearances and permissions be decentralised to state pollution control Boards.

These quick steps have no legislative or bureaucratic impediments, and can be taken in the interest of the nation without much adieu. While the environment is a priority for the nation, it cannot be used as a ruse to stall projects that become politically inconvenient. In the context of stalling growth and what that entails for a developing economy, some environmental concerns may need to be put on the back-burner and any environmental side effects may need to be ameliorated in alternative ways.

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Building a Better India-Part1: How to create a smaller and smarter government

Building a Better India-Part2: Transforming political landscape

Building a Better India – Part 3: Bringing systemic changes in constitutional bodies

Building a Better India – Part 4: Identifying tax issues

Building a Better India – Part 5: Bringing tax reforms

(Kolkata-based Dalbir Chhibbar practised as a CA till 1990 and later started his own buinsess)

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