The Hindu Business Line : Prime homilies

It is not entirely incidental that the Prime Minster, Dr Manmohan Singh, chose to take the high moral ground before a gathering of Indian industry representatives. Inaugurating the annual general meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday, Dr Singh reminded his audience of its social responsibilities, peppering his talk with an extensive quote from Lord Keynes's seminal work, The Economic Consequences of Peace, encapsulating his vision in what he described a 10-point "Social Charter". This charter, he stressed, would enable industry forge a partnership with the government for inclusive growth.

Dr Singh cannot be unmindful of the fact that the United Progressive Alliance Government is more than halfway through its term, that general elections will come around early 2009 and that for all the good the Common Minimum Programme has done, the economy is deeply cleft by a rising prosperity that has catapulted India to the edge of developed nation status but leaving many far behind. Thus, even as GDP rose at 8 per cent, foreign exchange reserves exceeded $200 billion, India Inc snapped up multinational brands abroad and the organised economy about to face, for the first time, a skilled labour shortage, there are millions without jobs, vast areas that have no power, and the very real prospect of an unnecessary divide between rural landholders and the rest of the economy on account of the tensions over land acquisitions.

For Dr Singh, then, the CII podium provided a perfect stage to elevate economic discourse to moral aphorisms. His ten-point charter exhorted industry among other things, to respect workers, invest in their welfare, be mindful of their social responsibility by providing jobs for the less privileged (job reservations?) and discourage conspicuous consumption. None of these homilies is objectionable but it would have been also apposite for the Prime Minister to mention the steps or the charters he envisages for political governance. While markets often force companies into codes of transparent governance, so far governments have yet to evolve self-regulatory systems. To be sure, the Right to Information Act and the Fiscal Responsibility Act are credible and potent, new devices; but governance at the multiple tier levels still leaves much to be desired.

In this context, the Prime Minister's admission, at a conference a day before the CII meet, about corruption being rife in road projects was a telling commentary about the situation on the ground. But once again quality assurances from contractors that the Prime Minister seems to desire need enforcement mechanisms and that is where governance falters especially at civic and village levels. Delays in projects are as bad as cancerous corruption. The Prime Minister should remind elected colleagues and officials of the responsibilities they have to the nation as captains of industry do.

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