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Initiate faster reforms

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DQW Bureau
New Update

The decision made by the BJP led National Democratic Alliance to initiate the long-awaited disinvestment process in government-owned companies is a welcome step. Especially because it concerns entities like Indian Airlines (IA) and Air India (AI) in which 51 percent stake will be given out. This means that the government will cede control over it.

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At the same time, it has taken an unduly large amount of time to take this decision. It may be recalled that Yashwant Sinha, the Finance Minister, had first announced this during the presentation of the Union Budget in June 1998. Not only has the decision come very late, it concerns only a few companies besides IA and AI.

But as the old saying goes-better late than never. So, the government will have to ensure that the entire process is implemented at a very fast pace so that the right signals go to the international community. It'll also have to take care that the entire procedure is done in a very transparent manner so that there is no ambiguity anywhere.

More than two years back, the NDA government led by the redoubtable Atal Behari Vajpayee was voted back to power with a comfortable majority. And it was expected that the 24 party coalition would get down to the business in hand in right earnest. The IT industry has been especially looking towards this government with a lot of hope.

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The hope is directed towards the fact that the comprehensive report prepared by the IT Task Force is still to be implemented. This report had a number of recommendations, which if implemented have the potential to bring immense benefits to the industry.

But unfortunately, nothing seems to have happened on this front. To be fair to the government, it had started on the right note. As widely expected, a new IT department was constituted with PV Jayakrishnan as its first secretary. In addition, Pramod Mahajan was given the charge of the IT Ministry. This development had brought a lot of cheer to the industry. But since then, nothing more seems to have happened. In addition, the bill to introduce cyber laws in the country also seems to be stuck somewhere.

This has meant that the IT industry has been left in suspended animation for now. And they are left wondering as to what to do to attract the government's attention. The government would do well to dispel this notion and get into the IT bandwagon again. As a first step, the disinvestment process can be initiated in CMC also, which in turn would send the right signals.

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