The Hindu : 'Nation facing crisis of governance'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 02, 2002

National

National

'Nation facing crisis of governance'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 1. The former Secretary, Economic Affairs, A. N. Ram, today said there was a national crisis of governance now and "if we look at any published document, we find that India is one of the lowest ranked countries in terms of productivity, transparency and governance.''

"It ranks highest in terms of corruption. Redressal to this crisis is through our elected representatives,'' he said at the Roundtable on "Augmenting Economic Growth: Role of Governance,'' organised by the PHDCCI. Mr. Ram said the judicial system was very disappointing and in the entire system the only silver lining was the media, which was really trying to uncover the scams and scandals. He said: "If our economy is growing today at 5.4 per cent, it is because of the initiative of the private sector.''

Today, the problem was more of implementation of the policies. The entrepreneur "in our country still requires 28 clearances even after getting the clearance from the FIPB whereas in China, it is truly a single window clearance".

He said the country was highly over-regulated and "we need to evolve systems which is in consonance with the practical reality". The Government's role can be in sensitive areas such as defence, foreign policy and in outlining the broader guidelines. The management of the economy should be left to the private sector.

Quoting from physics, he observed that the image could never be brighter than the object. If the object was poor, the image cannot be good. This was what has happened in the case of India. Referring to foreign direct investments, Mr. Ram said $4 billions worth of investments was a drop in the ocean for a huge country like India. The FDI target of $ 10 billions could have been met had there been transparency and proper implementation of policies.

On the foreign exchange front wherein the country boasted of having $55 billions worth of reserves, Mr. Ram pointed out that 60 per cent of the money was hot money which came for parking while the real inflow was very small. If this hot money were to go, the country would be left with hardly $22 billions worth of foreign exchange reserves.

Surendra Singh, former Cabinet Secretary, said there had been a steady decline in governance over a number of years. The decline had taken place in many areas wherein the Government activity had become non-functional, a hindrance and counter-productive.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National