Finally the political drama and suspense came to an end today evening, with Dr.Manmohan Singh becoming India’s 13th Prime Minister. While I feel happy that India is headed by a senior, experienced Bureaucrat turned Politician, his Jumbo cabinet of 68 Ministers leaves much unsaid.
The reality of coalition governments in India forces the need for these Jumbo sized cabinets. Some time back, there was only a talk to enact a law to restrict the cabinet size to say 10% of the total number of members of Parliament/Assembly. I feel it is high time we enact a law to restrict to 5%. Having said this, there is also an easier alternative; We the People of India instead of giving fragmented verdicts favouring regional parties for Parliament, should vote decisively in favour of any one of the National Parties.
The country looks to Dr.Singh for lot of deliverables. Personally I think the priorities should be
- Expansion of Economy (which in turn will mean more Industries and Jobs) through Privatization and other measures
- Continue and give more thrust to Golden Quadrilateral and National Highway schemes started by earlier Mr.Vajpayee’s government. One of the reasons why economy grow in USA in 20th century, I feel is because of excellent Interstate and Freeways. There was free movement of material, people, idea, money, which resulted in massive expansion of economy
- Improvements in Agriculture sector
- Implementing Value Added Tax, simplify all indirect taxes including Service Tax, Excise Duty & Customs
- Enact any pending laws which will further encourage free trade and competition in Telecom, Insurance & Banking
- More trade cooperation with all neighbouring nations including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and to Singapore & Malaysia
- Finally, continue the benefits given to Software and increase the benefits given to Hardware industry.