On road to a corruption-free India

Employment intensive sectors such as agriculture, housing, tourism, textiles and retail must flourish and grow, writes a policy expert. Narendra Modi donned an unexpectedly huge challenge on himself and every citizen of India to completely disrupt and totally metamorphose our economy and society. With no Indian untouched by this move and by massively utilising social media platforms, television and radio, the Prime Minister is determined to be connected directly to each one of us in a most unprecedented manner. In such uncertain times, despite remaining fully supportive though anxious, people would expect the Government to strongly reassure them that the focus on the creation of many more jobs, enhancing economic activity and increasing household incomes, remains at the core and is the overriding measure of all Government actions. Employment intensive sectors such as agriculture, tourism, textiles, retail and especially housing, must flourish and grow if the pledge for a worthier future is to be fulfilled. The RBI Act does not mandate autonomy and some economists have rightly argued in favour of the Government directing the Central Bank to be more sensitive to its imperatives. The recent events demonstrate the supremacy of the Government in monetary policy and hence it should be much easier for them to redouble their exertions to infuse massive doses of less expensive liquidity and cheery optimism into our economy urgently and quickly if we are to avert the danger of our economy stalling or worse, spiralling downwards. Ministers and officials have made several statements recently about protecting the honest and severely punishing the dishonest. The only objective way to determine who is honest and who's not, is to examine all of a person's or entity's financial transactions and evaluating those against the current tax code and other applicable regulations. This massive time consuming and manpower intensive investigative exercise can only be conducted by the legions of revenue collection officers whose integrity, impartiality and efficiency we'll have to hope for and rely on. It would be most unreasonable to expect businesses or individuals to function normally, begin to spend or invest aggressively till this dreaded burden, real or otherwise, of the taxman eases. The adherence to the pre-election promise made in 2014 by the Prime Minister to not permit “tax terrorism” must be upheld to remove lurking apprehensions. As there cannot and will not be any turning back would it not be wise on the part of the Government representatives to now drop the sharp discourse of “us versus them”, and accusing those not sharing their views or implementation methods as bedding with black money and terrorism Would it not be more helpful if the Government reaches out sincerely to welcome and be responsive to recommendations from all manner of business, political and social organisations, so together, we can confront successfully this perilous and arduous journey ahead To imagine an India where government officials efficiently conduct their responsibilities and don't demand bribes, where every citizen pays full taxes, where the smallest of transactions is captured by the banking system, and where the income and wealth inequality gap narrows, is the astonishing dream and dare the Prime Minister has placed before the country. We must fervently hope that our political leadership has fully absorbed the enormity of the huge leap of faith this vast and diverse country has taken in their ability to deliver on this promise and realise this awesome vision for India. Such an extraordinary and monumental opportunity to regenerate belief in ourselves and reaffirm the values we wish establish for future generations is unlikely to come by any time soon.