Gadkari's success at road ministry may have a lesson or two for Modi govt

There is merit in defining at the outset clear mandates for key ministries, appointing people with ability and energy, and then leaving them to do the job, argues TN Ninan

If a prize had to be given to the most effective ministers in the Narendra Modi government, with the focus on those in charge of what one might call the “executive” rather than “policy” or purely “administrative” ministries, the first would probably have to be given to Nitin Gadkari, the man in charge of road transport and highways. He has been a bundle of energy and ideas, and delivered on the ground. It is no mean achievement to have virtually trebled the speed of highway construction over the past four years, after having inherited a landscape pockmarked by stalled projects