I strongly believe that progressive governance can only be brought about by a partnership between the government, the industry, the civil society, and the academic world. Each of these stakeholders have an inherent ability to be able to form policies which would be more populist in nature. In an ideal scenario, they would all balance each other.
In this article pulished in Livemint, Jagdish Khattar talks about how the government’s inability to deliver could hamper inclusive growth, and proposes Mission Forward as a possible solution:
“The role of the government in economic activity has come down substantially in the past two decades. Yet, critical areas of the economy, entirely or in part, remain the responsibility of the state. The Indian state’s inadequacies with regard to execution and implementation could, therefore, hobble the nation in its onward journey.
There is plenty of evidence, both anecdotal and structured, about schools without teachers, huge village clusters devoid of power, primary health centres ailing without medicines and trained doctors, roads that end before they reach anywhere and fair price shops diverting more grain than they dispense. Unfinished irrigation projects, too, make for a sad commentary. The state’s inability to deliver, despite its propensity to spend on these heads, means that inclusive growth will continue to elude us.
How is the corporate sector able to deliver on large and world-class projects? Companies begin any initiative with detailed assessment of feasibility. There is a clear sense of what is sought to be achieved, and what systems, structures and resources are required to fulfil those objectives.
When the mission concentrates on individual projects, it will find many where the project is better farmed out to the private sector. The latter already plays a major role in developing infrastructure. Private-public partnership here could do wonders. We now have a transparent system of inviting bids, even providing a viability gap. We can encourage foreign investment as well.”
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