Asoke K. Laha
President & MD, Interra IT
I was very eagerly listening to the Finance Minister's Budget speech as a matter of habit. If my memory is correct, every Finance Minister, who has occupied the chair since 1991, has regaled in using one single word  “reform”, though it might have been used in other near-synonymous senses like liberalization, privatization, disinvestment, deregulation and words of that ilk. The much experienced and equally shrewd Finance Minister - Pranabda- cleverly tried to bury that word into the labyrinth of complex political issues that nakedly stared at him at the time of presentation of the Budget and even now.
Is that a deliberate attempt or by accident? If it is a deliberate attempt, are we at a historical timeframe that we are distancing ourselves from the reforms process and trying to embrace a new paradigm? But a few things are becoming crystal clear, whether we like it or not. People tend to give any damn to ideologies. I believe that, in the recent elections across five states, polity has voted for parties and individuals, whom they thought professing affirmative actions, wherein they could identify themselves as a stakeholder. They voted for parties and individuals, who promised them essential commodities like grains, vegetables and other dailies at affordable prices, who promised them to protect their property against irrational acquisition, who assured them law and order. Yes, there can be exalted expectations of owning a laptop, a tablet or a cycle free of cost. There is nothing wrong in offering these goods to polity free of cost since most of them cannot acquire such goods in their life time.
I know we were discussing about reforms and its present disconnect in the social and economic milieu. The common perception is that the fruits of reforms have reached only those who are in the mainstream. The reforms process, it is believed, has bypassed the poor and underprivileged. The data that has been rolled out by the Government to prove that percentage of the people below the poverty line (BPL) has evoked strong resentments across the party lines. Compounding this is the allegation that whatever development has taken place till date since liberalization is through a process of crony capitalism, euphemism for handpicking the favourable few for awarding licences and contracts.
Happily, there is a new dynamism to greatly deploy the tools of knowledge economy for larger welfare of the people. Let me refer to some of them. It is the objective of the Government to set up large data centres in all states, that collate all information in one place and provide the planners and administrators to conceive and implement the projects. We have now decided to link 1,500 universities and higher schools of learning so that a knowledge seeker can access information from any source, irrespective of the fact that he or she has  enrolled in that institute or university. We have a massive plan to digitize courts, which can be of great help in reducing the huge pendency of cases. We are now embarking on linking 2.5 lakh villages digitally, of the over 6 lakh villages in the country. I hear such declarations and proclamations emanating from the public fora aired by responsible persons. I only wish such things get fructified at the earliest rather than remaining as talk points to hit the headlines in the media.
Could reforms come through only by liberalization, de-regulation or privatization? When the Railway Budget was introduced in Parliament, there was a great rejoice among the so-called pro-reformers that the Railway Minister has shown the guts to increase the railway fare, which has remained untouched under various dispensations for the last nine years. The move was hailed by everyone as a trigger to follow the reforms path. What I could not understand was the bonding of reforms with the increase in the fare for ordinary classes. A labour coming from the remotest part Bihar or from South to Delhi or a family of four or five visiting their home towns from Delhi, will have to shell out a substantial part of their income by way of train travel fare. If we are giving that  section some reliefs from the general hike, it will not tantamount to anti-reform but a genuine gesture that can help the Government to show their solid support to the common man who is reeling under the pressure of price rise, unemployment, etc.
I would have been happier if the IT buzzword cloud computing was spoken about. Like me, many would wonder how the name cloud computing has come, but all would agree about its benefits to all corporations including SMEs. I believe that this platform will redefine the virtual media like what internet had done a few years back.
Reforms do not necessarily mean allowing FDI in multi-retail trade or allowing FDI in insurance. It is all-encompassing. One of the greatest edifices of reforms is the Delhi Metro, which runs with clock-wise precision. At a less glamorous level, the urban railway system set up a few decades back in Mumbai has an impeccable track record as well as the tiffin delivery system in vogue in that city. The focus should be on people, speed, delivery and access - and not necessarily on wealth creation, value addition. That is why I believe that the meaning of the reforms has to be understood in the new context and the sooner we realize it the better, since there is a cardinal principle that tolerance has certain limits. Could we expect a reformed budget next year and years beyond?Â
