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Journalism of Courage
In a season in which there hasn’t been much cheer on the economic front or on governance and execution, the Modi-led government may have some brownie points to score with the latest rankings of the World Bank on Ease of Doing Business showing that India has moved up four notches higher compared to a year ago.
Some of it has to do with the push by the government and states to cut red tape and the number of approvals required to open a factory or other units, and to make it easier for scores of businessmen and young entrepreneurs to start their ventures.
Yet, if some of these efforts do not succeed fully, it will not be be because of a cussed middle and lower bureaucracy or netas standing in the way. Hobbling India’s entrepreneurs or lakhs of small businessmen is the poor quality of infrastructure. Most states report several hours of power cuts daily. Add to that clogging at ports, issues with tax administrators and civic bodies, hordes of inspectors and a range of approvals needed and India will have to settle for such incremental improvements in global rankings.
It is illustrative that in two segments where growth has been rapid — information technology earlier and for start ups in e-commerce — the going has been much better given the limited interface with the bureaucracy or inspectors in keeping with their nature of business. There is a cost to doing business in India and factoring that into the overall business plan isn’t a good reflection on the business environment in the country. For, it is those small and medium units which can generate the number of jobs which a country with a young population needs.
And if India – which figures among the top ten economies in the world– still ranks at above 100 in terms of ease of doing business and celebrates moving up just a few notches higher, it will be unfair to Indian entrepreneurs.
