We all want to shine

The new government should ensure that economic development is faster and well
distributed to all sections

Unlike many others I see the results of the present elections as pro-reform
and not anti-reform. It is not an anti-India Shining vote. It is a ‘We all
want to Shine’ vote. No one is saying we want to have less of information
technology or mobile phones or highways or any of the other symbols of ec-onomic
development. People are saying that we want to have more of it and faster. And
well distributed to all cross sections of society. Let me give a couple of
examples.

At a recent career options session that happened in a village on the
outskirts of New Delhi, guess which were the career options that school kids had
maximum questions ab-out. Not farming or plumbing or jobs in PSUs or manufactu-ring.
Not even information technology. They were about biotechnology. In fact, the
career counselor was quite unprepared for the questions. The kids clearly had a
more long-term vision of the future than one would normally give them credit
for. And they would happily vote for the person or party that they see will
bring their dreams closer to them. Quickly.

On a recent visit to a hill area, 300 km from Delhi, I was completely
astounded to find that mobile phone cards were not available for a period of
three months-and that they were being sold at a premium. Simply because there
were too few available. The purchasers were not only the rich in those areas,
but cab drivers and traders of the area. They would happily vote for those they
feel can get them the mobiles. And if they feel that the incumbent government
has only ensured the availability in metros and large towns, they are likely to
ease it out. As they have done.

While more analysis of why the results came out this way will continue and
some more answers will be found, one hopes that the conclusions will not be
erroneous. In any case, finding the reasons from the past is sometimes less
important than finding out the future impact.

One possible impact of erro-neous conclusions could be a slowdown of the
processes that lead to economic growth. That would be sad. After a long time, it
appeared that we were gaining some momentum and getting towards closing the gap
between India and the international community. If that momentum is lost, it
would could take months-or even years to get it rolling again. There is an
argument being floated that government changes do not matter since the direction
of the reform processes remains the same. I am afraid that is not quite OK.
India, like most other econo-mies, has been growing for the last 50 years or
more. One does not recall a time when people said we have had eno-ugh growth,
now let us change things so that we stop grow-ing. The direction has never been
a problem. The key problem has been, and rem-ains, speed of change. And that
should not slow down. That would be the real disaster-and not the birthplace of
the per-son being widely seen as the new Prime Minister.

Therefore, the new govern-ment should ensure that the growth pace is kept up.
And that people get and get to see an equitable distribution.

IT and telecom develop-ment have unfortunately got embroiled in the reforms
debate in a convoluted way. Both these areas have occu-pied center stage in the
last few years and if you occupy the center stage you get the bou-quets-you also
get the brick-bats. Since the benefits have accrued to few people, it is natural
that there are some brickbats. There are assertions that Chandrababu Naidu lost
since he was too pro techno-logy. The NDA alliance lost bec-ause it gave too
much impor-tance to the new technologies. That is completely incorrect.
Therefore, it would be a good idea to leave IT and telecom alone and let them
grow. The much touted BPO and IT indu-stries are shining (even if that is a bad
word post elections) examples of what India can do outside its borders and they
have a role to play there. They are not by themselves huge job creators. And
will not be in the near future. All said and done, they employ, maybe, one
mil-lion people. India’s total emp-loyment is 400 million with a need to add
five to 10 million jobs a year. That is not going to come from these sectors.

So to take away the empha-sis from them would serve no major purpose. And in
all probability, there will be little change in priority on these sectors.

Shyam Malhotra is the
Editor-in-Chief of Cyber Media publications.