Two suggestions for 'Make' in India

You would agree that 5 year of working in a state govt industry & commerce department's single window cell are enough to understand its working to comment authoritatively on its efficiency & productivity. Well I have been there and done that. Therefore read the suggestions carefully.  India has long been relying on 5year plans to industrialse its mainly agriculture and services dominated economy. But the results offer no solace to any object analyst. All states in India have ‘single window clearance’ teams as part of industry and commerce department. 

Every ‘new’ Industrial promotion policy promises to end ‘inspector raaj’ and reduce harassment of entrepreneurs by providing all needed clearances in one place thus helping investor to navigate the paper maze in a profitable manner. But on the ground nothing seems to change since Dr Manmohan Singh liberalised the economy in early 1990s.  Present Hindu Nationalist govt in India made many promises before 2014 elections to remove the bottlenecks facing industry & commerce but their hammer & tongs approach to problem solving have further complicated the matters. Hence India is once again seemingly to fall back into hole of the Hindu rate of growth from which Dr Manmohan Singh rescued it. Question facing all industry commerce experts is how to find ways to jump start the new investments through large scale programme of industrialization.

It's not really very difficult to spawn a million MSMEs in India despite major socio-economic bottlenecks. Firstly the govt must those who are ready to set up a new business unit. Well yes its that simple. You wouldn't be surprised to know that many entrepreneurs visit govt single window services and district industry centers searching for solutions. And first question on mind of these greenhorns is ‘what are hot new profitable projects suggested by govt? ‘ it should be damn easy for industry facilitation officer of the govt to answer the question. Why it's not so is beyond logic, imagination. Govt can surely ask its officers or appoint a consulting service to draw detailed ready to use project reports for facilitating quicker decision making by the prospective investors. 

Agriculture officers of various govts work with farmers advising them on new crops and yield but such service in industry & commerce is missing. I recommend that the guys like Amitabh kant tasked with Make- in-India mission must wake up and provide tailored solutions for MSMEs through each state. Those visiting industry & commerce departments in any state must be followed up with and provided with several project feasibility Studies to spur industrialization mission. 

Secondly the central govt may engage one of India’s IT giant TCS preferably to create a competitor of Alibaba of China with thousands of downstream startups. These two are obvious suggestions besides many others could be researched and applied. Question is will the govt move beyond lofty speeches and window dressing to focus on the gargantuan challenge of creating new industries to provide jobs for huge unemployed Indians? Let's hope Indian politicians shift focus away from elections and get down to saving India.

GST roll out could not have been better

How could ‘56 inch chest’ scholars of Bharat Mata  forgive India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanium for admitting, on NDTV in December 11, 2015 interview, that his team haven’t undertaken any research to study the impact of GST –VAT act implementation on India’s GDP? Well Arvind is widely accepted as genuine economist, like Manmohan Singh, who knows his subject better than most of Bharat Mata Sevaks and would not like a genuine scholar desist from speaking the truth. Chanting GST mantras is the new fad in the media and political circles rather than among business management circles and academia. The truth is that GST Bill may not add to the GDP growth rate in the short run at all and Modi Sarkar may not benefit from its roll out even in 2019 elections. 

Yes.Current GST bill hanging fire in the parliament is not something significantly new than the current VAT system of tax administration prevalent in India. It is merely an improvement on the present structure of tax administration in India that would be followed by several other reforms in future. The GST-VAT proposed Bill have some concrete proposals, like the Constitution of India which have been amended a hundred times already and still called a Great piece of original scholarship crafted by a team of highly revered scholars under the stewardship of Ambedkar, and many not so well defined proposals that would need to be resolved expediently to facilitate the ease of doing business in India for spurring the economic growth. Let’s examine few mythologies thrown up by political pundits extolling the virtues of the GST Bill.

First things first, there is no Ram-baan cure for India’s labyrinthine tax administration system and therefore the GST bill is no panacea. Stop and think a while you would notice that India already has VAT in place and it clocked rather mystifying GDP growth under the stewardship of a scholar PM Manmohan Singh.  Therefore India need to elect, & select, more leaders like Manmohan Singh, competent & skilled, rather than making new laws that get subverted by incompetent and corrupt Indians. Few Great leaders and entrepreneurs at the helm hold more promise of progress and fast economic growth as compared to new great laws and statues. Tighten your seat belts and wait to experience new unexpected shocks coming in the way of economic growth in India in the period post the promulgation of the GST bill. Ease of doing business in not solely predicated on the complexity of the tax administration regime.

(an old piece, left unposted)