New Government. New Budget. New Ethos.

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Must the new Budget of the new government of Dr. Manmohan Singh have a new ethos of its own altogether?

I do believe it must. As the clamour from every segment of interest-group dies down, and just as every top CEO of a real-estate, construction, durables, FMCG, and every one of the 29 verticals of industry quietens down, the new government has a task ahead of itself. A task it must address with a world-view that is far ahead of the individual agendas put forth by every lobby group there is within the country.

Let me paint an ethos canvas then. A dhobi-list of expectations of my own. July 6, 2009 will tell us in many ways whether we are there or not.

A dhobi-list of hunger. This is a hungry nation.

The nation hungers for:

1. Jobs: Too many have been lost to date. The textile sector has lost anything between 26 lakh-40 lakh jobs altogether for a start. One of the key criticisms leveled at the GDP growth numbers of the last three years has been the issue of jobless growth. What we need today are very specific schemes that look at creating jobs. The growth plan for the next five years needs to be job-fuelled growth. Never mind if the GDP growth number stands at an average 5.5% per annum. Job-fuelled growth of this quantum would be a big boost to the morale and the sentiment of the people at large.

2. Environmental Protection: The horse has not yet bolted in India. The environment can still be protected. The issues and policies that will define the Budget and its plan for the year ahead must be nature-inclusive. India has a story of being green. Our carbon emissions are relatively in control. We need every budgetary action to be Green in its ethos. The ultimate litmus test of good activity is green activity. The government's active participation here will be a very positive and affirmative action. Our spends need to be green-governed and green-led.

3. Farm-sector reform: Farm sector reform is a priority. This is a sector that does not have a lobby of its own. This is a sector that cannot raise a collective strong voice as yet at industry fora. At best there is lip-service done for this sector. It is indeed a black-hole for many. A sector difficult to understand, very dissipated in its needs and very very diverse.This sector needs the crutch of positive governance at this point of time. Do give it exactly that.

The Indian economy grew at 5.3 per cent in the third quarter ending December 2008. Agriculture clocked a dismal -2.2 per cent, going below the Plimsoll line of acceptance altogether. Manufacturing is at -0.2 per cent and the hitherto booming services sector is at 9.9 per cent.

These numbers in themselves have a story to tell. The sad story of the neglect of Indian agriculture. The sad story of agriculture, which contributed to a mother share of the GDP at the time of independence and today contributes 17 per cent, marginalizing the sector and marginalizing in many ways all those who comprise it as primary farmers, farm owners, farm workers, farm support systems and every art and craft that is a sub-set of this farm economy at large.

4. Privatisation and Nationalisation at the same time: Privatisation and nationalisation are not oxymorons anymore. Both are acute needs of a nation on a fast-track of growth. I really do believe that the two critical components of long-term growth of the economy will lie on the basis of investments in the realm of education and health. These are two crucial sectors. If both these sectors need to be spurred on in an inclusive manner, we need both privatisation and nationalisation of institutions and effort.

Take education. I do believe we need private effort to be spurred on through the initiatives of entrepreneurs who have entered the category, basis the lure of money and long-term insulation of their funds. We need acute privatization of education to be encouraged with little and no governmental intervention at all. This will ensure a very high quality of education being doled out, outside the ambit of marks-besotted education that is the basis of a lot that has been laid out in the Mcaulay system we currently follow. While privatisation will largely cover some 12-18 % of the population, the price of such education will be outside the reach of many. To touch the rest of the population we need incentivisation of social and educational entrepreneurs to set up very high quality efforts in the realm of particularly primary and secondary school education. Education at this end must be totally nationalized with education being made a priority sector investment. Bringing in Public-private partnership efforts here will be a welcome move. The same goes for health and hospital management. Acute privatization at one end and gross nationalization at another. An inclusive effort.

5. Infrastructure investments: Our current levels of infrastructure investments do not compare favorably with China. We spend 6% of GDP on infrastructure and China spends 8.5%. We need rectification there. In terms of money. In terms of project planning interventions. In terms of project funding innovations. And of course in terms of quick implementation norms. Public infrastructure projects take just too long to complete in India. We need intervention here. We need cusp activities coming to the fore to battle the needs of the nation. Take power. We need investments not only in the macro units that will run the nation on the whole without individual corporate groups having to invest in captive power generation, but we also need investments to spur on micro-power generation projects to the fore.

6. E-governance and transparency: Corruption has been a big issue with the Indian economy. An issue that is normally not tackled by weak and shaky governments. An issue oft swept under the carpet of macro-governance. We need the establishment of an ethos here. As government expenditure is bound to increase, it is important to put together norms to save on leakages that have been traditional in the country. Investment in E-governance structures at every level from top to bottom, reaching right up to the Panchayat level in the country will help ease the situation. Application of funds needs the monitoring efficacy of e-tracking and e-governance.

If the Budget 2009 ahead falls within the ambit of this expectation of mine, I do believe we are on the way to where we want to be as a nation.

(The author is a business and political strategy specialist. Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com)