Too early for FM to express ‘satisfaction’

There is no doubt that the Indian economy fared well in a year of global turmoil and grew much faster than most economies, but for Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to express “great satisfaction” as he looks back at 2015 is rather premature. What the aam aadmi wants is employment and prices under control, but he has got neither. Providing millions of jobs in the first year of the Narendra Modi government was one of the major election promises of the BJP. There has never been a mention of this in any accounting of achievements of this government. Perhaps Mr Jaitley should have mentioned how much employment has been generated in case the nation missed these figures. Growth without employment was what the Manmohan Singh government was accused of.

And this is not cynicism. It is just expressing a fact that cannot be denied. We agree with Mr Jaitley that too much cynicism and negative criticism hardly helps matters. Mr Jaitley has put the growth figures for the year at 7-7.5 per cent when most analysts are revising it downwards. It would be nice if India could achieve even eight per cent, as Mr Jaitley once mentioned, and some others in authority too regard as achievable. A country with a population as large as India needs 10-12 per cent growth to reduce poverty. But it must be accompanied by growth with employment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s various schemes, like Swachchh Bharat, are designed to not only boost production but also provide employment. His “Start-up India, Stand-Up India” and “Make in India” initiatives can also lead to an explosion in employment if they take off robustly.

Mr Jaitley needs to look more into how these programmes can be made mainstream, His agenda for 2016 can create the environment for Mr Modi’s schemes to take off. Imagine entrepreneurs not having to run from pillar to post to get permissions and put processes in place! Mr Jaitley’s agenda for 2016 includes structural reforms, rationalising of direct taxes, ensuring further ease of doing business, and more money for physical and social infrastructure and for irrigation. If he can get all the stalled projects running again this would generate a significant number of jobs.

Mr Jaitley’s intentions and resolve would have been more meaningful if he could have put a deadline for all the plans on his agenda. It would have meant monitoring and accountability because that is the only way to get results. However, this stress on irrigation, whilst welcome, ignores the needs of nearly 90 per cent of the farming population who are dry land farmers at the mercy of the vagaries of the monsoon. It would be productive if he could include them in his plans if agriculture is to add significantly to GDP.