From License Raj to Land Raj

It is wisely said that India is a rich country with poor people. With rich mineral and agricultural resources we are quite a study in contrasts: on one hand, we have a large, undernourished population; on the other we have food grains rotting in our godowns and then a huge influx of refugees from neighbouring countries to feed. As mineral prices have skyrocketed, the heavyweight local goons and politicians have looted our mines illegally, exported raw minerals like iron ore and pocketed piles of cash as is evident from the recent case of the Reddy brothers in Karnataka. Earlier illegal activities thrived on sale of opium, then gold and now mines. These are a great funding mechanism for launching terrorist and other tactics to derail India’s growth. The Maoist insurgency too is being fuelled owing to our inability to control the earnings of gang lords. We have fortunately increased the resources for forces that protect our borders but the police forces required to secure our projects and resources have proved to be quite inadequate. It would have been more prudent to invest our limited resources in providing them better training, arms and ammunition than increasing the salaries of our Members of Parliament who have no accountability of any kind. Now that their pay packets have been confirmed, a policy of penalties and pay cuts should also be introduced for non-performance of MPs. It is a well known fact that we spend over Rs 50,000 crore a year owing to delay in execution of projects. Now we have an environment minister who is doing his job ‘so well’ that it is difficult to find any project worthy of execution that does not cause any damage or disturbance to the environment. We also know well by now that ‘land’ is the principal reason for delay in execution of projects. Now shouldn’t the government start incubating land parcels such that they are worthy of execution for a certain sector so that the promoter can then put his expertise of fast-track execution to test rather than waste his time and resources pondering over the uncertainty of his projects? Anil Agarwal of Vedanta is a classic case in point. Even more shocking is the case of the 100 small hydro projects that have been blocked in Uttarakhand as the Union Environment and Forests Ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has refused to grant them clearance. Now what happens to the investment that has already been made by various bodies and investors? Even if the matter drags on in court and, after lobbying and corruption, the same proposal under a revised name sees the light of day, the country would have lost out and the state lagged behind while earlier investments would remain in jeopardy. Closer to the commercial capital, the location of Navi Mumbai airport too has caused controversy. Instead of flexing its muscles on existing projects where investors have already sunk in money, why doesn’t the ministry of Jairam Ramesh find ‘eco-friendly’ land sites for various sectors like power, airports and other industries and provide a solution for organised growth? Or else we would just have ‘landed’ from License Raj to Land Raj! In this issue: Understanding the need to give recognition where it is due but not forthcoming, we have instituted a new column on Engineers (this coincides with Engineers Day being celebrated in India on the 15th of this month); and announce awards in Marketing, to be held next year, for which we have included a survey form from this issue on. Finally, the photo feature on the 5th CWAB Awards, held on 20 August in Mumbai, reflects the industry’s participation in our effort to reward excellence and encourage transparency.