Tags:
Journalism of Courage
We8217;ve heard a considerable amount about how the economy needs stimulating. The phrase 8220;pump-priming8221; has been thrown around a lot, usually by people who haven8217;t thought very hard about what it would mean in this context. These columns have already pointed out that while keeping the economy safe from a downturn will mean that some form of expansionary policy will be required, the textbook responses aren8217;t going to be possible; India simply has too long a lead-in time before some sorts of expenditure will begin to take effect. This is particularly true of spending on infrastructure. However important a particular project might be, in many cases it will be as much as 18 months or so before the impact of sanctioned spending now will pass through the system. And according to the currently notified schedule, the really big bidding doesn8217;t start till April next year. By that time, it will be too late. The best thing to do is to expedite projects already in the pipeline.
Given that, allowing chronic delays in a vital section of infrastructure projects is unacceptable. This newspaper has now documented that some are being so badly implemented that they are in danger of losing World Bank funds 8212; doubly problematic, given that such funds are not likely to be easily available again. The Bank has almost 2 billion pledged in road projects, and losing a large proportion of that would make replacing the funding very difficult indeed. The National Highways Authority of India needs to arrest its slide into mediocrity.
