Time to exorcise the ghosts that refuse to let us be

India has been a sovereign nation for 60-plus years. However, we have been stymied by ghosts (which must be exorcised) from achieving our true potential.

While it would be impossible to cover all the issues, let’s talk of simple things, which can be implemented easily with major impact.

Raj hangover
While the ‘brown sahib’ epitomising upward mobility (accent, family, school, college, club, company, golf, etc) has thankfully been substituted by good man, the lantern representing mobility of the hard-working, well-educated middle class, the Raj is still alive and kicking.

We still have to understand that a democracy functions through a legislature and executive, members of which are the servants and not masters of the voting public.
We need the same revolution in the functioning of our democracy that transformed businesses when they had to move to a ‘customer-centric model’.

Simplistically, we are talking of: Customer service
We must fix standards of customer service for functions performed by the state for the benefit of the citizens. These standards should be monitored and there should be a complaint redressal mechanism. The result would be that the citizen knows what to expect and the government servants become accountable. Implementation is simple and the results are fantastic. A visit to Mumbai’s property transfer office would show you the revolution that can be achieved. The use of technology can ensure proper, time-bound and result-oriented implementation.

Many of the ex-communist countries like Bulgaria have a maximum time allowed for response from government offices and if no response is received, the request is deemed to be approved.

It may not be obvious, so let’s mention that this applies to politicians as well and they should be monitored through proper functioning of parliament. Have we seen the control exercised by the chair in countries like the US and the UK? This can only be achieved through the cooperation and agreement in terms of standards and discipline by all members of parliament. Also, for key objectives, we need review by joint parliamentary committees, which is published.

Walk the talk
We are a poor country. Can our representatives lead the way in austere and pure living? What happens then to Lutyens’ Delhi, or the Rashtrapati Bhavan, governors’ houses, circuit houses and summer retreats? The old queen’s bungalow in Australia is a tourist attraction. Such palatial houses were meant for our colonial masters as symbols of supremacy. Surely our elected servants of the poor public do not want to flaunt/ display such privilege. If we sell the palaces of our VIPs and use the money effectively, we can eliminate poverty and give the common man a ‘chance’ —- remember, as politicians you are living for him.

Security
The security given to all and sundry in the establishment means we are an unsafe country. Then what is the plight of the common man and is it not a failure of our elected government? Clearly, if the powers that be felt unsafe like all of us, they would do a lot more to ensure safety in general.

VIP lounges, convoys, etc
Do our elected representatives have the right to inconvenience the public? Are they not one of us? The rage of having to wait for VIP traffic or watch privileges accorded to our so called public servants has been felt by all. Having lived in a number of countries, I must confess that a comparison to Indian official privileges is difficult to find.

Subsidies
The objective of helping the underprivileged is a must, but no less a person than Rajiv Gandhi felt that the leakage in subsidy was to the extent of 90%. No wonder we have not been able to make a sizeable dent in poverty despite spending mind boggling amounts. We need a complete revamp of our subsidy mechanism to ensure proper distribution and monitoring. Technology can be of substantial help in reducing points of leakage as well as monitoring of result.

General subsidies normally do not reach or benefit the intended beneficiary, primarily because people at the bottom of the pyramid do not have access to items subsidised. Illustratively, how many small, marginal and landless farmers use electricity, fertilisers or subsidised loans? The same is true for the urban poor.

Similarly, we must understand that providing loans to the poor uneducated without the infrastructure and guidance for creating viable livelihood only compounds his problems.

He takes the loan spends it and is now worse off than before. The micro finance model of providing loans coupled with support to provide for sustainable business has proved a success. It only takes a loan of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 to make a family self-sufficient.
Let’s not politicise the issue in terms of rate of interest. It does not make a difference as long as the beneficiary is left with a surplus to live after paying all expenses including interest.

We are all aware of the leakages in our public distribution. We need a public/ private initiative which uses technology to eliminate or substantially reduce leakage. Let the private/ public sector quote for distribution. Let the telephone companies and banks combine to enable distribution through cell phones.

Why are priority sector targets given only to banks? We all know that banks finance the real economy and it, therefore, follows that the best way to promote industrialisation would be to have targets for both banks and industry. Banks and industry would then work jointly along the supply chain from farm to fork and raw material to final product to reduce risk, which would lead to lower interest rates and easier access to credit, reduce middlemen to improve price to the consumer and return to the producer. Currently, we have banks chasing industry to bring about this transformation.

The writer is managing director, HDFC Bank. Views are personal.