Opinion An agenda for governance
A check list of mega projects delayed by filibustering tactics makes it obvious that India needs a National Investment Board
A check list of mega projects delayed by filibustering tactics makes it obvious that India needs a National Investment Board (NIB). But does any government have the nerve to effectively jettison the current Cabinet-led system of project clearance even though it was never designed to do project clearances round the year. It is designed instead as a system of checks and balances which the conflicting interest groups have wonderfully read up on to red light projects.
The chief weapon of the interest groups is Rule 4 of the Government of India (Allocation of Business Rules,1961. Clause 1 is clear that whenever a subject concerns more than one department,no decision be taken or order issued until all (have) concurred.
Yet once the NIB is operational,the rules of engagement change radically. In economic subjects all ministries will operate as second fiddle to the finance ministry,that too in a limited time framework. Governance will effectively rest with the Prime Minister aided by the finance minister and the minister for law and justice.
So no minister can hope to use a Cabinet meeting to develop cohorts,or hold out threats on mega projects. It will not travel to him unless it was his department which floated it and if he delays an approval,the project will melt away from his table to crystallise at the NIB. These are the widest range of changes in the way the government functions from the time it set up the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in the 1950s.
This centralisation of work will also mean the government will have to change the responsibilities of ministers to address Parliament and take charge of projects. Since the clearance for projects also mean a corresponding change of policy,the finance ministries remit looks bolder by the day.
Naturally the finance ministry has suggested the Prime Minister should chair the NIB. If Singh takes it on,it culminates the first letter he had sent out to all departmental secretaries in November 2004,mostly asking them to operate through him. He had to backtrack then. It will not happen now,if NIB comes through.
Subhomoy is Deputy Editor based in New Delhi.
subhomoy.bhattacharjee@expressindia.com
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