Has MNREGA been able to achieve the desired results? Why do we still see dropouts at various stages of education? Are out tax rates too high?
A new book "Making Growth Happen in India: A Road Map for Policy Success" by V Kumaraswamy seeks to answers these questions and several others while suggesting that for a successful economic reforms policy, the government's programmes should be firmly anchored in the reality of the social and micro-institutional context.
The book, brought out by Sage Publications, is more about design of programmes and delivery thereof and less about the macroeconomic policies and strategies. It has two parts - the first looks at the current reform programmes and their effectiveness while the second is about an alternative growth plan.
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Kumaraswamy, CFO and Head of Strategy in JK Paper, suggests that if corruption has to disappear, it is essential for the government to adopt a pricing based on the value created for the consumers.
On monetary policies, he says that these can have effect in well-functioning markets where the investment decisions by businesses and personal financial decisions are impacted by the cost and availability of credit from banks.
The book starts with re-examining some of the more crucial mistaken assumptions that our reforms seem to be based on. Besides operation of MNREGA and RTE, topics like misdirected attempts at inflation control for the last three years, flaws in land acquisition laws, false logic behind many subsidies, disinvestment, Competition Commission, and minimum support prices are also analysed.
According to the author, MNREGA is like giving excessive grace marks to a student who keeps failing his examinations repeatedly.
"It might provide short-term succour, but in the long term, they tend to damage the system as well as stymie individual growth and eagerness to work," he says.
"By making MNREGA a quid pro quo for specific targets in its social interventions at individual levels, the government can reach better implementation efficiencies," he suggests.
