Hari Seldon wrote:
A tad sad to see critical areas like having our own payments gateway + clearing house (RuPay), online transactions platform (UPI, BHIM etc), solar module production and R&D etc not getting sufficient govt push - lotsa opportunity for new ideas, innovation, startups, capital etc abound once these enablers hit critical mass. Only.
Yawn.. All these WILL crash and burn and remain still born , precisely for the reason that these are Govt controlled and operated and "pushed".
India doesnt work that way. It is a truism in India that whatever the Govt touches crashes and burns, especially in the business side. In India Govt DOES NOT WORK, while in Cheen and other Asian countries, Govts actually work and that is why their Govt run command and control stuff actually works.
Case in point, just a very basic simple thing like actually cleaning the streets and enforcing public cleanliness and more importantly traffic rules. India , unfortunately happens to be around the FILTHIEST countries in terms of public spaces. Our streets are littered with garbage, our people have no second thoughts of littering, of cleaning their houses and throwing the garbage on to the streets, of spitting wherever they want , of relieving themselves without regard, of drinking tea in paper cups in the street in front of a shop or someone else's house and then throwing the cups right there after they are done drinking.
I wont even talk anything here about driving and traffic discipline.
It doesnt HAPPEN in ANY other Asian country (to the east of us). Does it happen even in Sri Lanka ? NO. The country is clean and spotless. Traffic is disciplined. Does it happen in Thailand ? NOPE. The country is clean, Bangkok, even the poorer areas are clean, side streets are clean, people don't spit wherever they want, don't litter , and more importantly , Bangkok traffic while HEAVY is disciplined and not the absolute chaos. You don't hear honking. You don't hear people driving randomly.
Okay, you go to Koh Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya, other places outside Bangkok, same story. Go to the grand palace in Bangkok, it and it's surrounding areas are spotless, clean, no garbage, no crush of random hustlers. Go to Mysore palace , the palace itself will be clean (why so?), while the surroundings are a god awful mess (why ? Palace clean but surrounding area is a mess ?)
You go to Cambodia ? Far far cleaner and no garbage on the streets. People don't spit on streets, driving more civilised than in India.
Why is all this in the economics thread ? That is because Govt there is competent. They can get the simply basics like cleaning up the street, enforcing basic laws in littering on zoning, and indeed traffic enforcement right.
In India, govts in any level are so incompetent, they can't get the basics right. They can't have litter free streets, they can't police people people littering. They can't enforce traffic.
It is this, if they are so incompetent that they can't even clear garbage and enforce littering and driving laws, WHAT will they do with more important and complex things like Business ? Cant happen. Wont happen.
In India, unless these are driven by private groups and the govt simply keeps it's flea picking hands and dumb incompetence (more so with the so called "regulators") out and stays out, nothing will happen.
Dont extend the "Asian" model to India. We are a different people. We are not them in that respect. Our Govt is supremely incompetent . The only thing we share with them is corruption. While they are corrupt (like us), their Govt actually WORKS. Our's doesn't . So you are far better off depending on "God" (however mythical that is), than on the Govt here.
Note - This has
NOTHING to do with economic prosperity. We are where Thailand was in 2005 roughly, in terms of per capita income. Is India TODAY, as clean and well maintained and with traffic as Thailand was a dozen years ago ? No way. In another 15 years, we will probably be definitely where Thailand is TODAY in terms of per capita income and indeed might even catch up with Thailand shortly after that. But will India, 20 years HENCE be actually as clean and neat and traffic as well regulated as in Thailand. NO WAY IN HELL. We will probably be 3 times the per capita of SriLanka some day soon, but will our streets be as clean as Sri Lanka's ? No. Will the traffic be civilised ? No. India will get there economy wise thanks to it's enterprising people , but the govt as always will continue to be corrupt and incompetent.