Roll back myriad activities of government

Contemptibly dismissed for several decades as a nation perpetually at the take-off stage, according to all available indicators 21st century India seems to have belatedly fulfilled its early promise. Currently after averaging 8.5 percent plus GDP growth for the past three years, the Indian economy is widely acknowledged as the world‚s second (after China) fastest growing and a preferred investment hotspot for foreign capital. With the Indian stock market enjoying an unprecedented bull run which has vaulted the Sensex from 18,000 to 19,000 plus within a duration of four weeks, more foreign investment (over $10 billion) has flowed into the Indian economy during the past three months than in any previous year. Moreover according to a recent Economic Times survey, the Indian nouveau riche spend $2.9 billion (Rs.11,600 crore) annually on luxury products and services, while Luxury Trends, a report published by KSA Technopak, forecasts that the number of Indian dollar millionaires is set to increase by 12.8 percent per year. Yet paradoxically, at a time in the nation‚s history when gleaming new shopping malls and supermarkets are brimming with consumer goods from around the world and reservations in five-star hotels and deluxe restaurants need to be made weeks in advance, beneath the glitz and glitter, the Indian economy remains a society of chronic shortages. In all essential goods and services the supply-demand gap is obstinately wide with the great majority of citizens having been by-passed by the statistical economic boom. For instance in the housing sector, the demand-supply gap estimated at 25 million homes is widening as real estate prices across the country rise exponentially because archaic laws governing the sale of land have not been reformed, creating artificial real estate supply constraints. Against this backdrop of islands of affluence and success in a wide sea of poverty and mass distress, it is pertinent to note that the persistent shortages of essential goods and services which define the Indian economy are in the government sector ‚ electricity, water, road networks, public education and health services. On the other hand the supply of goods and services produced by the private sector ‚ consumer goods, telecom, computer hardware and software, motor cars and bikes and even privately provided education and health services ‚ has experienced spectacular productivity gains since the liberalisation and deregulation initiative of July 1991. The colossal failure of government to bridge demand-supply imbalances in every activity it has initiated indicates it‚s high time the issue of its incompetence is squarely confronted. The plain truth is that government “dominance of the commanding heights of the Indian economy” has been a pathetic failure which has cost hundreds of millions of Indians heavily and wiped out the modest aspirations of an entire generation. The time has come to roll back the myriad activities of the Indian State and restrict government to its core functions of maintaining law and order and providing quick and efficient justice. Anything beyond this is quite clearly beyond its capability. Denial of the right to pursuit of…