Sir, I am really very amused and amazed to see the competitive Socialism in the House today, and the enthusiasm amongst all Members to try and show themselves more Left than, possibly, even the Left today. But the biggest amusement was when my colleague, who, of course, has left, Mr. K.C. Tyagi, was speaking and he called us the Swadeshi Jagran Manch people. I am very proud to be associated with the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, and I have no hesitation in saying that I believe that India should be self-reliant, that we Indians should be proud of our heritage and if at all he believes that as Swadeshi Jagran Manch, he can pass comments on us, I think, it only makes us feel more proud today. Of course, I am also very conscious of the fact that Mr. Tyagi does not travel by rail gaadi and he does not even travel by ordinary cars. He uses good cars which are made by modern technologies that have come to India. He travels by air when he goes to the State of Bihar which, today, is deprived of all development, probably, because of the kind of thinking that he brings to the table which, of course, the people of India have outrightly rejected in the last election, and that is evident. But the fact of the matter is that what Shri Balagopal has raised does evoke a lot of sympathy and a lot of interest in the common man because there are certain anomalies that have come into the system. Fact of the matter is that PPP has become the vehicle to take India, out of an under-developed and a backward country that it was once upon a time called, to a progressive country and to a country which is, today, the pride of the world.

Sir, we started on the path of Socialism after Independence, probably because it was appropriate for the times then. But then we saw an era of nationalization of banks, mines, etc. The people of India thought that better times would come for them. But over a period of time, what did we see? We saw that the Government ran telecom, railways, airlines, even hotels and housing projects with DDA-type companies, power, coal, water, etc. Almost every aspect of common man’s life was run by the Government. And what was the quality of service that we were giving to the people of India? Did they get good quality water in adequate quantity? Did this country generate enough power plants or enough power capacity for the teeming millions and billion people? Did we, actually, give housing to people or did we take them into slums and, more often than not, homelessness? Did we create sanitation? Did we give them good quality of rail service? Did the Airlines perform any better as a monopoly of the Government or did it do better when there was more competition in the market? I think the country today is yearning for better quality of service at more competitive prices. It is unfortunate that a section of society believes that just because something is done by the private sector, it, necessarily, has to be bad or it, necessarily, has to be crony-capitalism. The reality shows that there have been instances which have reaped out of corruption, which have reaped out of the misuse of PPP models but, more often than not, it has happened because of political corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency and, maybe, at times, also because of complacency or involvement of the private sector. But just to castigate a good programme because there were certain inefficiencies in the programme, I think, will be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Today we have a land where we get telecom. This is the cheapest in the world, and in the same telecom sector we have Government companies which are languishing with losses. We have airlines which have given good service, but we have an airline which all of us resolve every year to fund another five to six thousand crores and are given Rs. 30,000 crores of tax payers’ money. We have so many inefficiencies coming into the system whether it is in coal production, whether it is in the area of state-run discoms. Not to say that the other side is necessarily the best but we will have to find solutions to the problem, not just criticize the programmes that are going on. The fact of the matter is, Sir, post liberalisation the country has seen large investments coming into good quality of services, costs have come down in a variety of sectors. I would like to quote an example of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Typically, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway would have, probably, taken years and years to construct a huge cost overrun. An honest Government constructed that well within PWD estimates, in fact, saved Rs. 200 crores out of the Rs. 1,800 crores, constructed it in time and had 15 years after it was completed. Even today it was one of the finest highways of India, done by the public sector, done by the Government. But under an honest leader, under an honest

Government it could be done efficiently. And at the same time, we have dishonest Governments which have probably indulged in massive corruption. Being sub judice, I will not go into those details.

But whether it is the telecom sector or whether it is the coal mining sector, we have seen problems in the highways programme. But I don’t think those problems emerge necessarily because the mode is public, private or joint. It emerged because of political corruption; it emerged because of laxity of the bureaucrats.

I think the better solution for all of us is to focus on what Mr. Balagopal has rightly said, we need to have strengthened regulatory mechanisms. We need to have strict monitoring of allocation of natural resources. We certainly need to do improvements in the system, but if we kill the PPP mode, if we bring in over-controls, if we bring in too much of Government interference, I think we will be doing disservice to the people of India, who are looking for a better quality of their lives, who are also looking at more affordability, which unfortunately, the public sector by itself has failed to give to the people of India.

This I am saying as a Member of the House because I passionately believe that we have to evolve more and more public-private joint partnership and, as Mr. Narendra Modi says, we have to bring the people also into that and I would urge upon Mr. Balagopal, Mr. Rajeev and Mr. Tyagi to participate in this movement, bring in probity. Otherwise, the nation will be left with States like Bihar and with States like West Bengal which for a large part was run by his own party, which has remained over the years deprived of the benefits of liberalization, probably on development.

Eyeing a quick-fix to blackouts, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal today said the government is working on innovative methods that can help more than double electricity generation to 2 trillion units without raising tariffs.

India faced a peak power shortfall of 6,103 megawatts, or 4.5 per cent of the requirement of 1,35,918 MW last fiscal, he said, adding that rationalising fuel linkages and sorting out transmission and distribution issues can solve the problem. In an interview to PTI, Goyal said the demand for power is legitimate and good quality electricity at reasonable prices should be made available to the end consumer.

“We did about 900 billion units last year and we can do at least 2 trillion units of power generation with existing assets commissioned or soon to be commissioned,” he said.

The doubling of power generation can be done without burdening the consumer with a higher electricity tariff. Goyal, who took charge of the ministries a month ago, said, “Ya, I am quite sure,” when asked whether this is possible without hiking electricity charges. Supply of coal, the fuel most used to generate electricity, needs to be rationalised by allocating it to power plants from the nearest source, he said.

For example, a power plant in Gujarat that ferries coal by rail from Chattisgarh can swap its allocation with NTPC, which depends on imported coal that is shipped through a port in Gujarat. Similarly, to solve coal quality issues facing power plants, crushing units can be set up at every mine that will ensure no boulders go to electricity stations, he said, adding that orders have been issued for installing crushers at every mine by the end of this year.

“Our focus is sorting out fuel supply issues, focusing investments in transmission and distribution, power supply to agriculture sector,” the minister said. “The bottlenecks can be clearly identified — if you ask me, the biggest one is to think a little out of the box.”

Source: The Economic Times

Piyush Goyal, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national treasurer and a confidant of Narendra Modi, said the poll scene will alter significantly once prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi steps up his campaign. Opinion polls only reflect the current mood, he said in an interview with Ullekh NP. Goyal, who works closely with Modi on the BJP’s economic agenda, also took on those who said that the candidate’s recent speech outlining his vision for India was old wine in a new bottle. He also said that the BJP was wholly opposed to foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. Edited excerpts:

Various opinion polls suggest that the BJP will emerge as the singlelargest party in the 2014 general election. However, the National Democratic Alliance (led by the BJP) will not have an absolute majority according to these polls. Are you anxious?

Not at all. These opinion polls reflect the current mood which is destined to change drastically in many states once Modi starts campaigning. He has so far done only one rally in Maharashtra. There are many states that he has’t really covered so far. His campaign, once it is completed over the next few months, will ensure that the NDA wins more than 272 seats very comfortably. Wait and watch. It could even be a landslide.

Are you taking stock of the threat from the Aam Admi Party (AAP)?
AAP is anarchic to the core and voters of this country are wise and they will reject that new party. Besides, you may have noticed that AAP is expected to eat into the Congress’s vote base, not ours.

Are you aware of the criticism that came after Modi’s speech that his vision of India is more or less old wine in a new bottle?
Modi does not believe in making promises and then failing. In Gujarat, he has succeeded in every plan without cost and time overruns. Power for all by 2012 was a promise made by the Congress and they failed. They had targets on coal production, and they failed, again. In containing inflation, they failed. They have miserably failed to meet targets in infrastructure development, from roads to building safety systems for railways. Modi, on the other hand, completely believes that all plans have to be outcome-driven. In fact, the success of the Sabarmati waterfront project is proof of his abilities in executing projects.

How well thought out were the plans he talked about at the national council meet?
Nothing was hypothetical. For each plan, he has a clear blueprint. He also has a clear funding pattern. Building mega cities – which Modiji referred to – is a project conceived when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power. Do’t forget that the NDA has a history of coming up with such massive projects. Our idea of SEZs, for instance, was large economic zones that were meant to become export hubs, tourist hubs, etc. What the NDA envisaged were unique identity zones, like smart cities. Those were largeformat cities where you could have a population of 1 or 2 million. We wanted them to be modern cities that would become growth engines for the Indian economy.

Remember, in the Vajpayee regime, we approved only two SEZs. Unfortunately, after 2004, everything under the UPA became an exercise in corruption. The UPA regime thought that this was a scheme (SEZ programme) to oblige friends and relatives. They approved 600-plus SEZs all over the country. They vulgarised the concept so badly that you could have a 25-acre SEZ as opposed to the large-format ones that were planned earlier. They were, by definition, special economic zones, not special economic buildings. The UPA made a joke of this plan. Under the Congress, those projects became real-estate loot.

A country that had made sovereign promises – that these SEZs will get certain tax benefits – reneged on them. So, first the UPA misused the policy, then killed it, and the whole world was laughing at India. So plans are all good and may be similar, but it is execution that counts. And Modi is committed to doing that.

How will a national gas grid proposed by Modi be of help to people in the countryside?

Gujarat has created a gas pipeline grid. Instead of troubling the people with a cap on LPG cylinders they can use, we believe every town can be connected through a gas grid. And then we will use gas cylinders in the villages at subsidised rates. Our villagers who are poor will no longer have to burn kerosene and ruin their health. So LPG factories wo’t close down, and LPG manpower wo’t go waste. Therefore, plans, for Modi, are to be implemented not slept over. 

What are the advantages of proper implementation of the price stabilisation fund announced by Modi?
See, there was an onion crisis here. It was not that our onion production had gone down. In fact, it had gone up. Yet prices shot up to Rs100. Maharashtra (which is led by Congress-NCP) was the culprit. NCP did not allow Congress to interfere in this. Now, what would a Modi government do in such a situation? He would have immediately procured onions from anywhere in the world using the price stabilisation fund. The mere announcement would have made hoarders bring out all the onions into the market.

What will the BJP’s poll manifesto say about FDI?
I cannot fully answer that question, but we are out and out against FDI in multi-brand retail which will hurt small traders. In fact, the manifesto will spell out specific plans to improve ties between the government and small businessmen, small retailers and traders to make their lives easier. Also, wherever FDI is permitted, easier clearance mechanisms will be evolved to make the bureaucratic process much less cumbersome, especially in sectors that give a boboost to Indian manufacturing.

Source: This article is sourced fro Economic Times

Today is the auspicious day of ‘Akshaya Tritiya’, an important holy day, for Hindus and Jains. This day is considered to be the harbinger of luck and success and acts of charity today are believed to usher in blessings. The word ‘Akshaya’, in Sanskrit, means ‘never diminishing’. Sadly, due to the failures of the Congress-led UPA government, the term can no longer be used for the Indian economy.

Over the last few years, as the Indian economy under the Congress’ much touted economists received a battering, confidence in the India story diminished and equity markets floundered, Indians resorted to purchasing gold for security instead of investing in assets that bode well for the nation in the long run. Investments in real estate and gold are widely believed to be “unproductive”, since they do not catalyse a multiplier effect on the rest of the economy. The people started investing in gold as a “safe investment”, since their faith in the government eroded and this myopic view led to crowding out of much-needed capital for infrastructure and growth oriented investments.

This resulted in gold imports reaching stratospheric levels triggering a Current Account Deficit (CAD) crisis and the rupee deteriorated to lifetime lows of 68 against the US Dollar. The average Indian who is already saddled with back-breaking inflation and extremely low per-capita income, is compelled to helplessly channel his meagre savings into gold assets, further exacerbating the situation. In response, the Congress unleashed a series of ham-handed moves to artificially control gold imports, which only led to large-scale smuggling, since the appetite for gold could not be curbed due to lack of stable policy and a credibility-deficit of this government! This is a classic example of how this inept Congress government’s flawed strategies repeatedly make things bad to worse.

The way out is three pronged – First, restore faith in the Indian economy by initiating a set of investor-friendly moves (unequivocal message on taxation policy & tax-terrorism, ending inter-ministerial turf-wars and policy paralysis). Second, articulate priorities of how government’s resources would be used and skew it towards capital investments which ensure rapid & large-scale job creation, infrastructure build-out and resolution of our supply-side bottlenecks. Third, design policies that incentivize funnelling of domestic savings & investments into areas which are currently capital-starved (e.g., physical infrastructure, housing, manufacturing, tourism, SMEs/start-ups etc.), but are likely to yield transformative results across the spectrum, if capital is made available.

This Akshaya Tritiya, it is evident that only a Narendra Modi led government at the centre can resolutely push through these changes efficaciously, and restore the sheen and lustre to the Indian economy. Finally, acche din aane waale hain!