Best of BS Opinion: Prosperity depends on execution, not entitlement

India's development ambitions will depend not on promises alone, but on sustained reforms, better-designed welfare, inclusive products, capable leadership and accountability

Prosperity is often described as if it were a natural reward for having the right ingredients: A large market, a young population, a welfare platform, grassroots institutions, reform intent, or a famous corporate motto. But ingredients do not become outcomes on their own. Growth must be pursued, schemes must be reworked, products must fit people’s lives, leadership must make hard choices, and values must be backed by accountability.

 

Our first editorial today, “Reforms for higher growth”, makes this point through India’s developed-country ambition. India has completed 35 years of economic liberalisation, but the next leap will require sustained reform. To become a developed economy by 2047, India will need higher growth, more jobs and a stronger external sector. The editorial argues that trade must be central to this effort. Lower and simpler tariffs, deeper use of trade agreements with the UK and the EU, possible entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and more accommodating bilateral investment treaties can all help India integrate better with global value chains. Growth will not follow from aspiration alone; it needs competitiveness.

 

The second editorial, “Comprehensive support”, takes the argument to farm policy. The extension of the PM-KISAN scheme is expected, and the direct-benefit transfer mechanism has worked efficiently. But continuing the scheme unchanged may not be enough. The ₹6,000 annual support has not been indexed to inflation, tenant farmers remain outside its coverage, and fertiliser subsidies continue to weigh heavily on public finances. The editorial argues that PM-KISAN could be used more intelligently: To include vulnerable tenant farmers and to rationalise fertiliser subsidy through direct payments linked to landholding.

 

M S Sriram’s column, “Learning from self-help groups”, shows what execution looks like when products are built around real behaviour. Self-help groups worked because they understood trust, proximity, discipline, small savings and cultural relevance. Women saved regularly not because a formal system lectured them on financial literacy, but because the product fitted their lives. Sriram argues that policymakers and markets must stop assuming that the poor cannot save. The issue is not incapacity among customers; it is lack of imagination among providers.

 

Debashis Basu’s column, “Prosperity: The visible hand”, turns the focus to national development. Prosperity does not emerge merely because policies, models and plans exist. Leadership matters. Countries grow when leaders build institutions, make course corrections, pursue human capital, integrate with global markets and focus on execution. The visible hand of honest, capable and accountable leadership can decide whether potential becomes progress.

 

"The ‘Bard of Google’ spins a story", Leah Rich’s review of Claire Stapleton’s Don’t Be Evil looks at corporate culture. Google’s idealistic story and famous motto could not substitute for accountability when employees confronted misconduct and retaliation.

 

Promise is never self-executing, show these pieces. Prosperity, inclusion and trust depend on whether systems do the hard work after the slogan has been written.