I am not in the habit of following the budget speech. But there's a first time for everything and I did tune in for some years. Mainly because I had to see 'what the budget did/ did not do for the youth'.
Listening to the FM's budget speech in full evoked in me a feeling similar to watching the annual Republic Day Parade. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, rural employment, mid-day meal and assorted other schemes named after members of the Gandhi-Nehru family were the first to march past.
I felt like making a trip to the nearest electrified village and doing a jig to the tune of 'thodi si dhool meri, dharti ki meri vatan ki'…If there is a road to reach that village in the first place.
Call me a cynic but this is how most of Young India feels when politicians rattle out statistics about 'development'. Seeing is believing and we don't like the dump of a country we see around a few islands of opulence and excellence.
Ironically, the FM's make a statement about young people building 'castles in the air'!
But sir, we're glad you used the word 'castle' and not humble jhopdi, or 1 room PWD apartment. We're glad that you approve of young India thinking and dreaming big. So are you.
Leaving aside the 'announcements' on duty cuts and tax tweaks which experts are better placed to analyse, what pleased me were some of the vision statements. Imagine an India where you don't have to stand in line to file a police complaint, get a birth certificate or register as a voter. Where you can demand information from government departments under the Right to Information Act through an online application.
No science fiction, that. The FM's plan to bring sarkari services online under a National E-governance plan. A more efficient and accountable government? Now that is something we will thank the FM for long after we've forgotten about cheaper soft drinks and Santros.
Speaking of thanks, students of Mumbai, Madras and Kolkata universities will be pleased with the Rs 50 crores allocated to each institution, in recognition of their completing 150 years. This is great news, except for the fact that the FM wants this money to be used for 'a specified research department or a research programme' when the problems that need to be addressed are far more basic!
And yet, as the minutes tick on, as achievements and proposed achievements parade by, you can't help getting carried away by a sense of pride. This is more just a 'budget', it is a document defining hope.
Because a budget implies 'living within one's means'. To which the young person's answer is I am not satisfied with that. Allow me to grow.
India is now a growth story and there is no looking back. What's more, the Finance Minister's end their speech with the immortal words of Swami Vivekananda, "We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. … our own destiny." Which is exactly what the young people of this country now believe.
For the underprivileged, the budget must continue to sow opportunities. And for the rest of us, allow us to enjoy the fruits of our own harvest.
There was more I wanted to say but could not due to the word limit. So here goes...
On education: The thrust of the budget outlay in education is towards primary and rural - rightly so. But higher education can't be left to fend for itself.
IISc Bangalore recieved Rs 100 crores in last to last year's budget towards upgradation and modernisation. Last year another well deserved Rs 100 crores went to Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
But what about a comprehensive policy that aims to upgrade all mediocre institutes to excellent ones, and the excellent to outstanding?
And also a quality control mechanism for private education. These are issues which of course need a whole separate forum for debate but if the primary schooling program is successful - imagine how many fold demand for higher education will increase say 10 years from now. And then, universities and colleges can't be set up or upgraded overnight!
On entrepreneurship: The Ministry of Finance has a pretty cool website where you can actually watch a webcast of the FM's speech and access budget speeches from previous years.
If you run a word search through the speeches you will find the word 'entrepreneur' used number of times.
Last year's speech specifically referred to young people building castles - and the FM said it is 'our job to lay the foundation for those castles'. So we enable you and you go out and create your own future.
Hope this translates to better power, roads, public transport - and other infrastructure which will allow us to be productive, not hassled citizens.
I am intrigued by this statement in particular: Recognize SMEs in the services sector, and treat the small scale enterprises in the services sector on par with the small scale enterprises in the manufacturing sector.
If this meant access to credit for entrepreneurs in the service sector it would be a great step forward. The idea of a world of commerce where you don't have plant and machinery to pledge as collateral remains alien to the loan officer in the average PSU bank. And this is a stumbling block for entrepreneurs, young and old alike.
On accountability and follow up: Not to say the FM's lie but achievements like '10,366 villages electrified' are - I hope - published separately and verified by independent agencies.
Lastly, this article in FE raises the pertinent question: Where are yesterday's budget ideas?
Before this year’s budget comes up with another list of new schemes for rural India and the environment, it may be worthwhile to look at where we have progressed with regard to some of the big announcements of earlier budgets.
The restoration of water bodies, the launching a horticulture mission, subsidies for micro-irrigation and the launching of a mega bio diesel plan were some of the major initiatives meant to breathe new life into India’s rural economy.
Unfortunately, by the time these schemes made their way through several ministries, it was already December 2005. With the end of the financial year round the corner, there was the usual rush to release money. In terms of actual work, however, there was very little to report.
Budgets I guess, have lost their relevance currently. Gone are the days when people used to assemble to hear luminaries like Nani Palkiwala give their take on the budget. The 91 budget was suppossed to be path breaking ..what did the newspapers report on the following say ..nobody told that india was entering a new era ..even now the major reforms are happening, but the budget is no indicator of the real policies and financial condition.
Doing away with the standard deduction for the salaried. So now the generally-no-way-out-of-the-tax salaried person is in the same league as a businessman, who has umpteen ways to hide his real income! Also sad to see the industry honchos giving unusually high marks to the FM. Why have such surveys in the first place when you know the boot licking industrialist won't dare say a word in earnest, for the fear of IT raids and other such govt retribution, if he publicly critises the FM.
What a whimper of budgets from the FM's. Seems like they are braindead...
Tax ATM usage. What!??
Wait there's more. Tax credit cards and debit cards further. Nuts !??!!
Umbrellas to cost more. Packaged food and poultry products to cost less, icecreams to cost less... blah blah !!
It seems like those old oppressive Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh day budgets, where they decided the prices of little items like soap, detergents, toothbrushes, safety pins etc.
And in 2005, P.Chidambaram came up with the funniest harebrained idea .. withdrawal tax. If you withdraw your *own* money from the bank, you will be taxed.. ha haha..
Regarding grants to Universities, it seemed IISc haven't received 100 crores that it was granted last year. And, I can't vouch when will Madras, Bombay and Calcutta Universities receive their promised grants!! It happens only in India!!
And, in the last budget, there was an allocation of 1000 crores for a Desalination Plant in Chennai. Not a single word about that has come yet! Who is responsible? State or Central? What happens to such allocated but not spent money?
"But higher education can't be left to fend for itself. "
Primary and secondary education give far more social returns than higher / professional education.
Higher education should be liberalized and private players should be allowed to enter. The government should only set up an independent regulatory agency like the TRAI for the higher education sector. And yes, FDI should be allowed. Today, people are willing to pay for education. For those who can't, the private sector should offer scholarships to promising candidates. The not-so-promising ones can always get a loan - the banks will only be too happy to advance loans to students of good universities.
By giving a free rein to the market forces, the quality of education will automatically improve and stupid anomalies will disappear. It is good for the country to realise that it is the youth of this country that is going to take the country forward not someone like our esteemed politicians who are hell bend on wasting the country's money. For any development, infrastructure, transport and power is important. Unless and until we improve those, we will not be moving forward.
Does any one really verify the gibberish that is thrown by politicians in the form of data. I am really interested to know where from these data are collected. If they can never be verified, whatever one says is true isn't it?
With the prices of all commodities rising every year and no substantial salary increase of the common man, where from can they squeeze out a comfortable life? Has anything been done to answer these questions.
"For the underprivileged, the budget must continue to sow opportunities. And for the rest of us, allow us to enjoy the fruits of our own harvest."
Hope the media, NGO's and development agencies continue to discuss, debate, push and nag the government every week, every month to implement its plans and show results for allocations. And not just wake up next year on Feb 27th!
No comments:
Post a Comment