The Hindu Business Line : Year of three I's

THE UN has declared 2006 to be the year of deserts and desertification, to draw attention to the dangers inherent in the shrinkage of arable land and the drying up of aquifers due to reckless exploitation by human settlements springing up all over the place due to population explosion and the greed of unscrupulous real estate developers and their accomplices in officialdom.

As per the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the Dog, which, we may suppose, also includes the under-dog, if not the deputy, joint and additional dogs, as well!

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has, however, scored over them by hitting the nail on the head in the Indian context, and declaring the year to be that of three I's: Implementation, infrastructure and investment.

Having knowledge of every nook and corner of government over a period of 40 years or so, he knows its Achilles' heel more than any other in the Cabinet.

Of course, at the bottom of all the mischief are three other I's indolence, indifference and indiscipline — but leaving them aside, it is certainly time to put an end to the state of affairs in which grand announcements masquerade as achievements, and promises as performance.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the bane of the Indian work culture is the pace and quality of implementation not matching the expectations aroused by Budget allocations and policy pronouncements. If only all that is promised is executed within the time and funds envisaged, most of the deficiencies plaguing the country in social and physical infrastructural sectors could be remedied and the rising input-output ratio would catapult the rate of growth to impressive heights. Hence, Dr Singh has done right by putting implementation as the first and foremost of the desiderata to which the year should be devoted.

The other two I's also are wisely chosen, being the sine qua non for accelerating economic development in line with, if not ahead of, the needs and demands of rapidly increasing numbers being added to the population, particularly in the form of job opportunities for a large proportion of them who would become part of the work-force.

It is, however, one thing to make a grand declaration and another to ensure that it is lived up to.

In other words, the implementation on the ground of the clarion call for implementation is going to be the key.

B. S. Raghavan