Recommendation to the Central govt. Revive the idea of Aadhar. Call it what ever you want. But revive it with proper legislative framework. You will need it sooner or later. Many have now joined the chorus of cutting subsidies, etc. Good. Get rid of subsidies that go to the rich and middle classes. But a lot of this goes to the poor too. You cant and shouldnt just take these away from them without any replacement. (Nice to talk about job creation and all that. Let jobs come. Welcome. But poverty in India is so miserable, ultra poor cant wait for jobs that may or may not come in the long run.) Same goes for things like LPG etc. that goes to the middle classes. Some transfers need to continue in a transparent and efficient manner. Some needs to be slowly phased out. Some need to be shut down asap. Same goes for fertilizers. Politically it would be very difficult, plus a lot of hardship on poorer farmers, if you get rid of them in one shot. Wealth and income transfers are reality of any societies. Some of them well justified too. As an aside. I am sure smart politicians in India will remember Naidu as CM of AP and his shocking loss. Same with NDA under Vajpayee and loss. Crudely put, both got carried away with too much focus on urban middle class dreams, necessary infrastructure that pays off in the long run, mostly advise from industry. Times may or may not have changed. But not improving the lot of millions of poor and poor farmers, removing subsidies for them and not replacing it with cash, will be political disaster. Subsequently, having cash and then not having a proper transparent and efficient way to transfer cash will lead to scams and cynicism. Actually you dont need an Aadhar or any such thing to convert all this into cash. Like I have argued many times, like some other people, you can take all the subsidies, convert them into cash and drop cash from helicopters. There would be no financial poverty in India anymore. But since we are talking about better governance and all, plus to ensure good governance framework is in place, so that even econo-political misadventures in the future can have some semblance of fiscal sanity, society will need an Aadhar type framework. Opponents of Aadhar have come up with some very good and a lot of bogus arguments. Listen to the good objections, like data protection and privacy for example, and provide legal sanctity and safeguards. Meanwhile, Modi Govt should invite another great politician of our times. This time from a bit far away. Invite Lula, ex-Pres of Brazil, to India to learn from a politician on how to implement direct subsidies for the poor, improve their condition to a large extend, and get re-elected over and over again. (Until when term limits kept him out. I think.)
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 07:26:44 +0000
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