Breakdown nation: The cost of weak leadership

                                                Breakdown nation: The cost of weak leadership  

"In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing"                                 

-Theodore Roosevelt

No one can imagine the country which was being hailed as the breakout nation has become the breakdown nation in short span of time. One really wonders, what are the reasons for such debacle?

Well, I think answer is pretty simple; this great country of ours, the land of opportunities has everything right except strong, transparent and decisive Leadership.

Its seems that economist, Investors and academicians have took into account only the positive factors in to account while pronouncing, India as next economic superpower like Domestic market size, Demographic dividend, Investment, infrastructure growth however I really doubt anyone has consider the prime mover of the all theses things and that is strong, clear and decisive leadership to move the nation in right direction.

Let’s take look at state of illusion we believe in:-

v  Largest democracy with Worst Governance

v  Huge domestic growth with very High inflation and very few Indigenous Brands to cater to this high domestic growth

v  Huge Demographic Dividend but where are job for millions getting in job market every year?

v  Large agricultural sector which is having only 35% agricultural land under irrigation, and every year 1000’s farmers suicide/year

v  Huge IT sector which is almost dependent with no real global IT product

v  Huge infrastructural growth which is hardly moving ahead due to complete policy laps, and bottlenecks at each step

v  Great entrepreneurial spirit however huge obstacles in starting & doing business

          (70 Licenses are required to start new business in some of the cases)

v  Great strategic location but unstable & volatile neighborhood with no real trust factor within these countries like Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh…

v  Strong manufacturing sector which is recording sluggish growth or stagnant since last few years.

Can every problem be sorted out immediately? May be not……however all these issues can be address to great extent…..As I believe current state of Indian economy has every thing right except the leadership. The current leadership has failed to win the confidence of the investors, have failed in giving clean and transparent governance to the nation. Even now, as we have entered in pre-election mode, the current leadership have relied more on populism over rational decision making similar to decision making in pre-election phase of 2009.

Current state of decision making (Populism over Rational):-

1

     2013 ( Pre-Election Year) , “Food Security Bill” instead of designing mechanism to provide employment opportunity for masses to earn the food………….( what happened to GARIBI HATAO since last 60 years) Its classical case of looting tax payers ( who usually don’t vote in large numbers) to benefiting non tax payers (who vote in large numbers)

         2009 (Pre-Election Year) , Government designed loan waiver scheme to farmers costing 60,000 Crore to the nation

One really wonders, If farmers need loan waiver or

Irrigation facilities? (Only approx. 35% land is irrigated after 60 years of Independence)

Continuity in electricity (One of the most developed states Maharashtra has failed to provide electricity for half a day continuously in rural area)

And even after the scheme is offered there are some crucial questions unanswered like:-

Did loan waiver schemes reach to real beneficiaries?

Did it solve the farmer’s problem for lifetime?

What about the accurate forecasting from MET department? Do they get that?

Is there any improvement in supply chain mechanism for farmers to get fare price?

In this phase, the nation needs a leader who believes in Great Indian Dream, Who can sell Indian Story to the world, He must not be just honest but can give good governance in functioning of entire government.  He must reach out to nation and understand the public sentiments; He should rise above the religious and sectorial politics and should take rational and logical decisions rather than popular decisions, and above all he should be able to break the shackles of policy paralysis and make things moving. 

If we look back to the history, every nation which has attained the new heights & prosperity had great deal of leadership to steer them in right direction with their wits and wisdom.

I think we are due for one such leadership since long time…..hope to get one soon………………………………………till then expect the large number of welfare schemes, inaugurations and illusionary promises coming our way for next half year.......

Yogesh Baviskar