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2G scam or coalgate: India's tale of failures

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Supriya Rai
New Update

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Picture this, 2G spectrumgate cost Rs. 176,000 crores while coalgate loss is at Rs. 186,000 crores to the national exchequer. The figures, though presumptive, are enough to tell the sorry state of India's growth story.

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2G scamOn the flip side, the alleged swindles are leading to policy inertia. Lost are the 96 (49 in Lok Sabha and 47 in Rajya Sabha) Bills in the political cacophony. The reforms are now on back burner. Thanks to India's lawmakers, plagued with political chaos on auditor's reports and regional interests.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his historical address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Aug 15 attributed the growth adversities to the global economic conditions. But, in the same esteem, the domestic rundown propel missive worldwide.

K Subramanian, IT advisor to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, said that despite the estimated presumptive loss, nation's GDP would be impacted. "Even though some entrepreneurs might have got sops, there is an obvious deficit to the nation's revenue," he said.

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The government, Subramanian said, didn't benefit from the allocation of natural resources, as it could have done. Competitive bidding, he believes, is a de-facto principle. Though, the loss figures are tentative, but a bid process would have decided the actual loss, which may be lower or higher," Subramanian added.

ASSOCHAM Cyberlaw Committee chairman and senior Supreme Court counsel Pavan Duggal feels that the alleged scandals are hampering the India's growth story. "Since, we are falling behind the growth trajectory, the general impression going overseas is antagonistic," he said.

Government is hesitant to take key policy decisions, including FDI, which Duggal said is in tenterhooks. "There is a need to give clear vision to the nation and impressive impression to investors in general," he said.

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Duggal feels that parliamentary logjam indicates broader policy paralysis while he's of the opinion that legislative Bills should be passed. "There is inherent problem in collation government, but that does not mean that reforms take a backseat," he firmly added.

Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) president Alok Bharadwaj believes that constraints in the progress journey are dampener. "Political consensus is much needed to thwart slowdown and growth malfunctions," he said.

The internal factors that derail growth, Bharadwaj said, need to be fixed. "If political leaders don't agree to a point or government fails to take good decisions, then the things will not change, and the victims would be the people of India," he opined.

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Praveen Dalal, techno-legal expert and senior attorney at India's top court is of the opinion that growth is severely affected due to vast existing corruption and lack of transparency and accountability in the country. "A special focus on e-governance initiatives should be leveraged to bring about reforms," he said.

Indian government, Dalal said must formulate development-oriented policies and regulations to inculcate trust and confidence among the foreign and local investors. "The absence of adequate, appropriate and public interest driven legislations is one of the key causes for limited growth in India," he added.

Professor MP Gupta of the Department of Management Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) believes that crucial Bills are waiting for discussions in parliament while politics is playing spoilsport. "The government isn't taking decisions due to alliances and local interests, which is impacting growth," he said.

"From 9 per cent GDP to as low as 6 per cent in last couple of years is worrisome," added Gupta. New policy Bills that focus on electronic service delivery and domestic manufacturing are a welcome move, but unfortunately, their fate still hangs in the House," he said.

The government, Gupta said, is focusing on electronics industry in a big way and the recent transformation of the department of IT to DeitY is a testimony to it. "India is a big market for electronics while the FDI in retail will usher economic accretion," he opined.