Bait and switch: The maths of promises and delivery will have to add up

On the three major subjects on which the country would like to hear from the prime minister - defence expenditure, healthcare spend, and economic difficulties - there is only silence, writes T N Ninan

When getting into the swing of its seventh year, the Manmohan Singh government was about to be savaged by the Comptroller and Auditor General in successive reports, and would soon lose all sense of purpose (the operative word, if you recall, was paralysis). At the same stage, the Narendra Modi government is a study in contrast, giving every impression of being in a tearing hurry to deliver. Among the latest set of promises made on Independence Day is a new medical ID card for all citizens, a Rs 100-trillion infrastructure programme, optical fibre connectivity for all villages in three years