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HomeOpinionModi's 3 Ps, 5 Ts and several As (alliterations) can't substitute serious...

Modi’s 3 Ps, 5 Ts and several As (alliterations) can’t substitute serious thought or action

Real economics involves choices, like whether direct transfers should take precedence over investment for growth. Alliteration does not obviate such choices.

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Narendra Modi is back at his alliterative best (or worst). He told the Confederation of Indian Industry early this month about five Is: Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure, and Innovation. And Thursday, he told the Indian Chamber of Commerce about three Ps: People, Planet, Profits. This harks back to the three Ds (Democracy, Demography, Demand) and five Ts (Talent, Tradition, Tourism, Trade, and Technology) of the early Modi years. We also had, somewhat embarrassingly in the current context, INCH to MILES: India-China towards a Millennium of Exceptional Synergy.

Other elements of the current approach to economic revival also hark back to earlier promises. It should be plug and play, not command and control, Modi says. That reminds one of minimum government, maximum governance. Should one believe in such wordplay, given the experience so far? The political initialisations provoke a laugh (RSVP for Rahul, Sonia, Vadra, and Priyanka!), but the rest stand in danger of getting reduced to a yawn. Anyone can string together a few alliterative words, but are they a substitute for serious thought? And do they make for a strategy or plan for coherent action? Can one really make sense of the five Is and five Ts?

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has become expert at translating such slogans into power-point presentations. One package of slides was presented as a strategy for double-digit economic growth, and we know where that has led. It is equally embarrassing to recall another initialisation, EPI (Every Person is Important), while looking at the travails of millions of migrant labourers. Where did slogan translate into policy or action? But to be fair and present the positives as well, the Modi government has delivered in different ways on the three Ss (Speed, Skill, and Scale), through highway construction, bank outreach, and other programmes.

To be sure, some of the acronyms or initialisations are simply evocative ways of describing government programmes, like USTTAD for Upgrading Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development, or UDAY (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana). Unfortunately, discom debt is reported to be at a peak, and one doesn’t know about USTTAD. The other problem with proliferating acronyms and alliterations is that they make recall difficult, and therefore lose meaning as guides to thought and action. Does anyone remember SMART, for instance? It apparently stands for a “Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive, Techno savvy and Trained” police force!

There is no limit to the things that an ambitious government wants to achieve, but resources are finite. Real economics therefore involves choices. Or every day would be Christmas, with all the goodies we wish for under the tree. So how does one prioritise, or choose when there is a conflict implicit in two goals (e.g. manufacturing and pollution control)? People, Planet, and Profits sounds appropriate just now, but if providing for people and the planet eats into profits, can we also ask for ambitious investment? The prime minister spoke Thursday of building into global supply chains, but so far that has yielded precedence to the protection of local kirana stores. It is also made more difficult by rising tariffs, designed to achieve Make in India. And, if Every Person is Important while unemployment soars, should giving meaning to that slogan force monetary and fiscal policy to make room?

In short, one needs a coherent worldview for a given context, and clearly stated priorities that fit into it like a jigsaw. If the resources available are x per cent of GDP, how should they be allocated among defence, health and education, and physical infrastructure? Should direct benefit transfers take precedence over investment for growth? If resources are shrinking along with the economy, should one indulge in expansive homilies, or hunker down as the defence brass are at last doing? No more dream-world talk, for instance, of a third aircraft carrier. We need to go further down this road. How about giving up on expressway projects that cost about Rs 100 crore per kilometre, and build hospitals instead at between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore per bed? Alliteration does not obviate such choices.

By Special Arrangement with Business Standard.


Also read: Modi govt’s three rushed ordinances can help agriculture, but not farmers


 

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15 COMMENTS

  1. I think Print has a single point agenda, that is go on criticizing Modi and Amit Shah. Your reporting and articles are just anti Central Government propaganda and no wonder common man doesn’t even know your existence. For God’s sake please change your mindset and report Objectively and impartially!

  2. Modi – India and Imran – Pakisthan both with ZERO GDP……Bhah – bai – bhah and Maushe – Allah in the same Titanic Boat Sinking Together.

  3. Print ,a biased & prejudiced web magazine by Shekhar Gupta, who was with striking judges of supreme Court & also rejoicing with JNU tukde gang. A rotten negative mindset in the name of journalism.

  4. what can you expect from a man who has no education except to read or speak Pre prepared speeches,, the man has been misleading and lying from the moment he became PM,, never talks about his or his govt failures. Ohhhhbloidy so many, but spends years bickering about the previous govt n the Nehru family, can you get along, and stop barking and tell us about your success which is a bucket of lies

  5. The initialaisation or wordplay of Modi in 2014 was attracted by the gulliable middle class intellectuals who were love last relationship with Dr.Mohan Singh.Modi reduced economics to a world of fantacy. Now GDP numbers,IIP(could not even publish for the month of April,2020) migrant workers problems, failure of lockdown,looming corona pandamic (4th highest in the world) etc., are threatening to become monumental proportion.There is no room for day dreaming. but still,as old habits die hard, he has just playing the out mod(i)ded phrases and initials which people are fed up with. expecting some concrete answer to the day to day problems of ordinary indians. will he wake up or people will have other choices.

    • do you have anything useful to say? for starters please state 5 achievements of this govt in the past 6 years
      wake up, just because realities hurt does not mean everyone is pro congress

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