No pragmatism yet to realise $5 trillion dream

India aims to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024. This means the economy will have to grow at eight to nine per cent per annum for three years continuously. If we look at the economies of countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, they have grown economically strong as their growth graph went up continuously. Our growth rate in the last five years is only around 7.5 per cent and following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, it has taken a nosedive.

Experts suggest India increase the ease of business and ease of living to enable the private sector to create wealth over a long period. Though some efforts such as digitisation of economy, scrapping over 1,300 laws, rules and regulations have been made, the challenge is still high. Despite all this, India is still at 65th position. The biggest challenge before the country is twofold: One, take proper decisions without linking them to elections, secondly, ensure their implementation by the State governments.

What is missing in India is the competitive spirit among the States. Though we keep chanting the mantra of competitive federalism, the real spirit is missing. Many States particularly those ruled by regional parties think they are an independent entity. They should realise that they are just trustees of public money and any decision they take should be judicious. But unfortunately, a majority of decisions taken in the name of welfare are merely aimed at garnering votes and winning polls. The welfare of party seems to be high on their agenda.

In a discussion recently, someone recalled the song written by Bhakta Ramadas. "Evari abba sommu ani kulkutuntivi Ramachandra..." (Whose money are you enjoying Lord Rama). He sang it when he was jailed and tortured, following allegations that he had misused public money to make ornaments for the Lord. It may look a weird comparison, but the fact is any party in power introduces schemes making all kinds of promises and most of them are named after the Chief Ministers or their family members if in power earlier. The idea is to publicise the schemes as if it is a largesse from the ruling party. Instead, if the governments go in for well-planned, non-election-oriented welfare schemes, they would be able to contribute more to the national kitty and only then can the economy grow faster.

We have seen how every government promises free houses for the poor. Some even say it would be in saturation mode. If we look at the figures of houseless poor three decades ago and now, the number continuous to grow. Every government claims they have constructed lakhs of houses but still there is not a single district in the country where there are no poor without houses. Why is it so? Where lies the fault? No government seems to be examining this aspect. For the sake of votes, they keep making fancy announcements and fail to deliver.

Let us take the health and the education sectors. Still in many remote places, people carry patients on cots as they don't have motorable roads. Similar is the plight of education. There is no proper planning and a majority of schools lack not only in facilities but also do not have faculty. Every leader talks of good governance. But still there are hundreds of districts in the country which are backward in education, health, maternity, infant mortality, agriculture and nutrition.

The challenge in India is that we must plan and create growth and cities which can be the key drivers of India's growth. Till then the $5 trillion economy cannot be achieved.