05-26-2007, 11:45 PM
Indian Express
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As our columnist today argues, the <span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>NDA had more by way of both symbol and substance when it came to infrastructure and that the UPAâs failure is all the less defensible when one considers the economic policy talent it has at its disposal</span></span>. Just one example makes the UPAâs confused thinking clear: three years have passed without a single step being taken in planning for regulators in the infrastructure sectors. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->If one trawls through the speeches of Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, many splendid arguments for better regulation can be found. That only reinforces the question why progress has been limited with the two of them batting for the idea. <b>Related questions are why the highway project is caught in turf wars that started as ministry versus planning commission but seems to have expanded to include the PMO as well, and that too not over a matter of high policy but over appointments. If appointing officials takes so much time, whatâs the hope, one might ask, for building highways faster. </b>
Then thereâs power, a sector that should have seen the PM and the planning commission chairperson using all their political/executive power to force through some reforms. <b>The Electricity Act has been short circuited, Coal India seems as invulnerable to reform as it was in the heydays of Indian socialism, and some state governments â like that in Maharashtra â have created an awful mess in the name of power reform, knowing no strong critique is coming from the Centre. </b>A seriously dysfunctional power policy could well be the UPAâs most prominent infrastructure legacy. True, of course, that airport reform started because the PM forced it through, an achievement no one can take away. But look at the loss of momentum now, look at the small-minded debate on which bunch of babus should regulate civil aviation. Another achievement: the Railways. But there letâs take the credit away from the collective (the UPA government) and give it to the individual (Lalu Yadav).
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As our columnist today argues, the <span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>NDA had more by way of both symbol and substance when it came to infrastructure and that the UPAâs failure is all the less defensible when one considers the economic policy talent it has at its disposal</span></span>. Just one example makes the UPAâs confused thinking clear: three years have passed without a single step being taken in planning for regulators in the infrastructure sectors. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->If one trawls through the speeches of Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, many splendid arguments for better regulation can be found. That only reinforces the question why progress has been limited with the two of them batting for the idea. <b>Related questions are why the highway project is caught in turf wars that started as ministry versus planning commission but seems to have expanded to include the PMO as well, and that too not over a matter of high policy but over appointments. If appointing officials takes so much time, whatâs the hope, one might ask, for building highways faster. </b>
Then thereâs power, a sector that should have seen the PM and the planning commission chairperson using all their political/executive power to force through some reforms. <b>The Electricity Act has been short circuited, Coal India seems as invulnerable to reform as it was in the heydays of Indian socialism, and some state governments â like that in Maharashtra â have created an awful mess in the name of power reform, knowing no strong critique is coming from the Centre. </b>A seriously dysfunctional power policy could well be the UPAâs most prominent infrastructure legacy. True, of course, that airport reform started because the PM forced it through, an achievement no one can take away. But look at the loss of momentum now, look at the small-minded debate on which bunch of babus should regulate civil aviation. Another achievement: the Railways. But there letâs take the credit away from the collective (the UPA government) and give it to the individual (Lalu Yadav).
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->