Modi@2: There’s Scope for Mid-Term Course Correction on Economy

The BJP govt must draw a roadmap for generating jobs and not merely gloat over GDP figures, writes Rajiv Kumar.

We have all succumbed to the unrelenting pressures from financial markets and the media to continuously shorten the period over which performance should be evaluated. Such ‘short-termism’ was hitherto confined to the stock market-driven corporate sector. It has now unfortunately been extended to the policy sphere as well.

This rather counter-productive tendency effectively rules out strategic planning and execution, which is so vital for promoting and sustaining job-generating growth. But given our hyperactive financial markets and an ‘over competitive’ democracy, the second anniversary of a five-year term is, I suppose, as good a time as any to evaluate the incumbent NDA government.

At the last count 51 schemes and projects had been launched in these two unparalleled hyperactive years in Lutyens Delhi. These 51 range from the ultra-ambitious Digital India, Skill India, Make in India and Swachh Bharat, to those which have already been forgotten like the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna.

But there can be no doubt that these schemes, most with catchy acronyms and with their ambitious targets and tight timelines, should have galvanised a somnolent administration inherited from UPA II. They have shaken the bureaucracy out of its lethargy and inertia. There is an audible buzz around Vijay Chowk these days and in the Bhavans down the Rajpath.