From: Sanjeev Nayyar
| T N Ninan: All the PM's men |
| The UPA-II government has underperformed in its first year |
| T N Ninan / New Delhi May 22, 2010, 1:14 IST |
A government cannot be much better than the sum of its parts. So, one year into the new UPA term, it may be instructive to look at how 15 economic ministers have performed — starting with the finance minister, who is doing so many things in the government that he is de facto the deputy prime minister, and should probably be called that. But in his role as finance minister, his record is very patchy. He has not been able to deal with inflation, and failed to introduce the goods and services tax in April, as he had promised. His fiscal correction plan has been inadequate, and may come unstuck despite the 3G bonanza. And the draft direct tax code had to be sent back to the drawing board.
Anand Sharma is lucky because he can bask in the flattering numbers for industrial production and exports. The challenge will be to demonstrate continued growth after the cushion provided by a low base disappears. And in food and agriculture, it is not clear what Sharad Pawar can claim to have done, given how he mismanaged the price issue. Agricultural growth in the last three years has been 2 per cent, or half the target rate.
As for the physical infrastructure sectors, Kamal Nath is nowhere near delivering on his promise of 20 km of new highways per day. Sushil Kumar Shinde, in the power ministry, has been underwhelming too. The power shortage is worse than five years ago, and new capacity in the 11 th Plan (2007-12) is likely to be barely half the target. The railways have seen deterioration in performance, while in telecom the 3G auctions have been a success — but that draws even more attention to the indefensible manner in which the communications minister handed out 2G licences earlier. And in civil aviation, Praful Patel is half-heartedly trying to undo the damage to his reputation in the first UPA, but his heart is not in it.
In the social infrastructure area, Kapil Sibal has been active, voluble and visible at human resource development. The initiatives on right to education, entry of foreign universities, exam and curriculum reform and expansion of professional education (the new IITs and IIMs), all promise change. But there is legitimate criticism that Mr Sibal's thrust will come in the way of private schools delivering education to poor children. In contrast, Ghulam Nabi Azad at health is neither seen nor heard from, though at least the Medical Council of India is being cleaned up.
C P Joshi at rural development is getting a lot of money, but is it spent well? In the mines ministry, B K Handique has still not pushed through a long-awaited law to mandate auctions for mines allocation, just as oil and gas blocks (and now spectrum) are handed out through auctions. Since mine allocations have spawned large-scale corruption (remember Madhu Koda of Jharkhand), this is a signal failure. Murli Deora in petroleum failed to get bids for half the oil blocks in the eighth round of bidding under the "new" exploration policy. Jairam Ramesh, meanwhile, could be called the Scarlet Pimpernel of Indian politics. He could become the best environment minister the country has had, but the task is as difficult as the one that faced Pimpernel in the story. Other ministers, like Salman Khursheed and Jaipal Reddy, have not made a mark, while the amazing Mr Azhagiri has been simply AWOL.
This list makes clear that the government has underperformed in its first year. As to which of these ministers are real assets for the prime minister, my guess would be Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh.
| EOM | ||
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