To,
The Honourable Prime Minister of India,
New Delhi.
Respected Honourable Prime Minister,
Sub: A highly
fruitful and satisfying Second term
This is perhaps my third and last
letter to you before you complete your first term as PM which is a success by
any reckoning despite shortfalls in meeting all the aspirations of all 130
crores of people. The policies and
reforms introduced are no doubt very bold, imaginative and unparalleled and the
fact that they are whole heartedly welcomed and supported by the people is by
itself is not a mean task but a very great achievement. The shortcomings if any,
however, lie not in your policies but in their implementation due to certain vital
and very fundamental information missing in the scheme of things. The major flaw is lack of data on
employment, income, generation and distribution of wealth. The depth of the
informal economy is so deep and unfortunately it has not been fully fathomed out
by any Government so far is a wonder and is the root cause for all the ills in
the economy. Whether it is agricultural growth, industrial output, inflation,
employment, black money generation, corruption, capital formation, generation
of non- performing assets not only in banks but in the whole economy, evasion
of taxes and laws of the country, the information does not get captured fully
to frame policies and their effective implementation. The Country has produced
worldly recognised great Statisticians and Information Technology Experts, but
still it has not been able to generate
data on certain vital basic aspects of the economy is an unacceptable state of affairs
leading to failure of very grandiose schemes. In this background, the introduction of Aadhar
is a landmark but a lot remains to be done to make the Aadhar a fool proof
mechanism to capture some of the essential and vital statistics to support the
economy and Governance. The other issue
one can think of is general deterioration in Ethics and values seen in the
society due to the faulty education system practised over several decades.
To give an example as to how the
information does not seem to get reflected in national statistics, I would like
to briefly cite the following from my own experiences and perceptions. I live
in a fairly large Complex in Bangalore where there are 2000 flats. The area is
surrounded by a few lay outs consisting of lots of independent houses, flats,
schools, offices of all kinds, hospitals, malls and all kinds of shops and
establishments one can imagine. I do a mental survey during my walks and
otherwise by my casual observations day in and day out and I find that there is
no shortage of employment, income, tax, economic activities to generate wealth
and its distribution. To what extent, the data gets captured is a million
dollar question. I casually observe that there are hundreds of security guards,
maid servants, car drivers, car cleaners, iron wallahs, milk and flower vendors,
carpenters, plumbers, electricians, hawkers of all kinds spread in and around
our complex earning definitely not less than ten thousand rupees a month. Many may
have migrated from rural areas and the fact remains that there are no
agricultural labourers to work in the fields and many lands are allowed to
remain barren. My own gut feeling is that many earn more than the cut off limit
prescribed for Income Tax and they do not seem to get reflected in the
employment data of any kind or for that matter in the GDP itself. Likewise one
gets a doubt as to whether all the shops and establishments which include
dispensaries, hotels and restaurants earning in thousands and lakhs of rupees
and that too in cash, generate genuine bills and report the correct earnings
and tax collected. This may be true of thousands of complexes, townships sprung
over the entire country . The idea is not to suspect their dealings but to what
extent their economic activities get reflected in the National Statistics and help
policy formulation is a matter of great concern.
The erosion in values seen in
every walk of life in the society poorly reflects on our ancient culture,
wisdom, civilisation and way of life. This needs to be tackled on an urgent
basis though there is no quick fix solution. Perhaps, through quality
education, enhanced value systems in our judiciary and administrative set ups,
a beginning can be made to bring back fast the lost values and build a strong
foundation for future generations to come. For that to happen, you have to be back in
power and I wish and pray for your grand success in the coming election. The Country is rich and great in all respects in terms of human, natural and other
physical and financial resources and with a very dynamic and resulted oriented
leadership the so called Ache DIN promised cannot be very far off. God is Great.
Wishing you the very best and all
successes for your good thoughts and sincere actions
Yours faithfully,
