FOCUS ON MANUFACTURING

In the 1990s, Manmohan Singh painted the economic canvas of India, in a very different hue.

I was the president of the student body while at Masters, and he was the finance minister. I had invited him personally for my annual function, and he spoke to close to 90 mts without a shred of paper in hand.

The finance minister par excellence I believe has made the most insipid prime minister.

But from then to now, India has travelled a long journey.

Area 1990 2012 Agriculture 29 18 Services 44 56 Industry 26 27

While her performance in services is commendable, the performance in the manufacturing is pathetic.

Sustainability I believe shall come from industry and manufacturing. All other development shall be far more fleeting than that comes from manufacturing.

Even the resilient Indian entrepreneur is far more reluctant to put up a manufacturing unit, than a services unit. The owner of a manufacturing unit is treated like a sitting duck in the country. He is hounded by so many agencies and their clearances that he buckles under the weight of regulatory approvals.

Speak to any entrepreneur and he is repentant about having put up a manufacturing unit instead of a service unit, as the hassles right from unions to government clearances and officers’ unending greed for graft and unofficial gratification just bogs him down. What is even more repugnant to the very rationale of brick and mortar industry, is the ailing supply chain and rickety road system of the country. It takes just ages for commercial transport reaching a destination. The obstructions and check points faced by truckers in India is the highest in the World. The entire system is an anathema for trade.

Another phenomenon that is noteworthy is that the opening up and dismantling of the Raj benefited the south of India more than the North, while the population grew more in the North. One reason could be the far higher FDI that the India south of the Vindhyas has received, than that North of it. It could well be due to the diaspora being more from that region as well, and it is they who are ploughing back money to regions where they hail from and which they understand better.