Much Work Ahead for A Happy New Year
Politics, policy have to innovate to improve matters
If winter comes, can spring be far behind, asked the poet.In business, regrettably , there is no guarantee of the automatic inevitability of warmth succeeding chill that attends on seasons. Yes, Asian economies did survive the financial crisis of the late 1990s, in which economies and companies paid the price of excessive borrowing. But some corporate giants went under, never to recover: once-mighty Daewoo, for example. The rate at which big Indian companies are selling off their producing assets to pay off accumulated interest on borrowings for projects that are yet to be completed suggests that we cannot rule out such a scenario in India either. Yet, it is not inevitable. Politics and policy can intervene to check the rot.Politics has to shed the partisan pursuit of one-upmanship that has become its hallmark in the year that has gone by . Even if the ruling side and the Opposition hate each other, both share a common responsibility to look after the collective good. If that calls for cooperation on vital matters, cooperate they must.
The initiative has to come from the go vernment, which has to abandon the campaign mode of taunting and harassing the Opposition at every given opportunity within the country and outside. The Opposition must reciprocate and work with the government on vital legislation, such as the bankruptcy code and the goods and services tax. Hostility and confrontation must give way to engagement and accommodation. The economy will pay the price for failure on this count.
Roads and Railways lead the charge in reviving investment in the economy . More power to them. At the same time, resolute action is required to complete stalled but viable projects, after disengaging them from their debtcrippled promoters. This process will entail both forcing promoters and their lenders to take haircuts and bailing them out with fresh financing. Fear of being labelled suit-boot-ki-sarkar should not hold policy's hand from taking the needed corrective action. If solutions fail to materialise, politics would venture outside the mainstream. And winter would prolong.
The initiative has to come from the go vernment, which has to abandon the campaign mode of taunting and harassing the Opposition at every given opportunity within the country and outside. The Opposition must reciprocate and work with the government on vital legislation, such as the bankruptcy code and the goods and services tax. Hostility and confrontation must give way to engagement and accommodation. The economy will pay the price for failure on this count.
Roads and Railways lead the charge in reviving investment in the economy . More power to them. At the same time, resolute action is required to complete stalled but viable projects, after disengaging them from their debtcrippled promoters. This process will entail both forcing promoters and their lenders to take haircuts and bailing them out with fresh financing. Fear of being labelled suit-boot-ki-sarkar should not hold policy's hand from taking the needed corrective action. If solutions fail to materialise, politics would venture outside the mainstream. And winter would prolong.
Source: Economic Times, 1-1-2016
