Industrial Economist (IE): The three most impressive achievements and three areas of concern of the Amrit Mahotsav years?
S Ramadorai (SR): The first is the Green Revolution, which enabled the nation to become self-sufficient in food grain production. It contributed to the widespread reduction of poverty, averted hunger for millions and raised incomes.
Economic liberalisation introduced in 1991, opened the country to the global economy. It encouraged private sector, paved the way for competition and brought out the best in Indian businesses and entrepreneurs.
The third is the field of science and technology. Impressive progress made in the areas of space, nuclear and information technology, helps project our soft and hard power and achieve rapid socio-economic progress. India can be considered to be on par or even better than most other countries in space and nuclear technology. The size of the Indian IT and ITeS industry, led by TCS, grew from $100 million in 1990 to $1 billion by 1996, changing the course of development of the country for ever. Today, IT industry earns billions of dollars for India and employs millions of Indians, directly and indirectly. We created an industry based on equal opportunity for every Indian and it is acting as a backbone of the vision for a Digital India.
The first area of concern is climate change. It is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. Disastrous effects are seen across the country. Addressing climate change requires deep scientific knowledge and collaborations across national and international levels at a scale and speed like never before.
Growing inequality, be it in wealth, income or gender, is a cause for concern. The Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this crisis. Creating equal opportunities for all and fostering inclusive growth to bridge inequality is an urgent imperative.
The third area of concern relates to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises [MSMEs]. Unavailability of adequate and timely credit and its high cost, lack of modern technology, poor research and innovations, insufficient training and skill development and complex labour laws make Indian MSMEs globally uncompetitive. Strengthening this sector will help accelerate growth of Indian economy and expand employment.
IE: Policy changes that would help India become a stronger nation…
SR: A nation is said to be strong, where people have decent standard of living, have access to quality education, healthcare and social security.
Access to quality education and healthcare must be a fundamental building block to create a better world of sustainable peace, prosperity and development. It should be a national priority.
The enactment of the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020 is a bold effort to provide the framework for sweeping changes in the entire education system. However, the real test lies in its translation from policy to action both in scale and quality.
Great strides have been made in digital technology; but there still exists a huge digital divide. There is a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure gap – ‘hard’ includes the devices, electricity, telecom, servers, data centres… while ‘soft’ includes the digital platforms, content, legal and policy measures across value-chains… India needs both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure.
Indian public health system has made a great contribution providing healthcare to the masses. Yet, there is need to create a robust and inclusive public health infrastructure on war footing.
IE: Do you think there is a need to check the proliferation of political parties?
SR: India’s multi-party democracy goes well with the diversity of the nation. I believe the issue of political instability due to a fractured mandate would go away as the voters become better-informed and educated. I notice changes: look how differently people vote in assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections!
IE: Representation of women in legislatures continues to be low. Do you think a statute ensuring this could be the solution?
SR: India ranks 149th out of 193 countries in terms of female representation in the Parliament.
We do take pride in the fact that India had (and has) elected women as President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha… Women account for half of the population, yet they have an abysmally low 14 per cent representation in the Lok Sabha and 11 per cent in the Rajya Sabha. To bridge this gap, we should pass the long pending legislation – the Constitution (108th Amendment – Women’s Reservation) Bill – to level the playing field for women. We should ensure equality as guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution.
