By the time this article is published, almost two-thirds of the nation would have already voted. Though some of the more colourful contests are yet to occur, a considerable percentage of the country has given its verdict, which is now embedded in tiny chips.
The government that will take charge in May/June 2019 will have several issues to tackle, as is usual in such cases. What is not usual are the issues on the economic front. They demand immediate attention, tangential thinking and super-efficient implementation.
The nation, industry and government are walking a strange economic tightrope, which may win us plaudits or cause us to trip, it all depends on how far we can endure. What has brought us to this situation is a matter of debate and is being contested through the EVMs. However, such a situation does exist and the coming government cannot dismiss it.
The first priority would be to deal with the impending agricultural crisis. The prediction of a normal monsoon might be a reprieve, but chronic problems like falling agricultural output prices, challenges of sound finance, lack of processing technologies and others remain. What makes them urgent is the unprecedented unrest in rural India.
On the one hand, the widespread digital platforms have made them aspirational while on the other, the simultaneous fall in their income level has made them angry. Howsoever it may reflect in their vote, the new government will have to find solutions for them and quickly, at that.
Given the nature of the affliction, rural youth must be offered alternatives to farming and this should be top priority for the government. Not that urban youth is content either. The job market is shape-shifting, when not shrinking outright, even as urban youth is still plotting its coordinates. On the agrarian front, better data integration might be an interesting challenge.
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Integrated and reliable data on climate, soil quality, seed and fertiliser requirements, processing technologies and marketing opportunities, would be the quickest possible tool to deal with agrarian issues. Once upon a time, bad debts were the monopoly of the primary sector, specifically, farming. Not any more. The entire corporate world, at the moment, is saddled with lakhs of crores of rupees worth loans, which will probably never come back.
The new government needs to recognise this sincerely and recover whatever PSU banks/NBFCs/MFs can. But what is of the utmost importance is, those who built these poisonous mountains be punished and moreover, seen to be punished! Unfortunately, IBC notwithstanding, this does not seem to be happening so far.
Treasury collection is another area that needs desperate attention. With both, the GST and income tax revenues not meeting the target this year, it is crucial that the performance is better next year. The real task would be to achieve better collections without the taxpayer shouldering an onerous compliance burden. The latter part, especially for GST payers, does not seem to be working out so far.
There are other relatively minor economic issues, which still need immediate attention. The disinvestment roadmap, aviation woes, policy framework on RBI reserves and infrastructural demands are a few on the list. Each of them have a long history and yet, need innovative handling in the coming years. Infrastructure has always been synonymous with transportation.
Neither can health and education be recipients of meagre allocations. Certain issues belong to the present — the new monetary tool of dollar purchase and the policy defining cryptocurrency are two examples. Just like money, power, too, is hard to earn and still harder to keep. Let us hope that the rulers do not discover that five years down the line. It is only sound economic strategy that can keep them from reaching there.
(Ajit Joshi is a chartered accountant and political analyst. He can be reached at: meeajit@gmail.com)
