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Date:20-11-17

 Climate action alive sans us support

ET Editorials 

The Bonn conference of parties to the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change concluded with agreements to meet again (COP24 in Poland) to urge nations to live up to the commitments they have undertaken, to do the right thing by the environment and, in the process, by women, children, the poor, island nations and those buried under a rain of acronyms. A coal alliance decided to work for fast elimination of coal-based power generation that does not also carry out carbon capture and storage.

India-led Solar Alliance raised its global target for installed capacity. In this hubbub, as is also usual with many UN conferences, some useful business also got done. Despite the US pulling out of the Paris Accord, Bonn showed that the Accord remains alive, and several US regions and many large US companies would stay committed.The resolve to mobilise funds for climate change remained alive. Fiji, which chaired the conference, made nations agree to palaver without violent disputes. However, the fact remains that some key developments that would help contain global temperatures less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels lie outside the scope of UN confabulations.

One is a breakthrough in power storage technology, which would make storage and drawal of power as convenient and instantaneous as the storage of data has become today. Once that comes about, the world can truly shut down fossil power plants and stop paying capacity charge for conventional capacity merely being available, even if the bulk of generation happens to be from wind/sun/nuclear. The other is a technology breakthrough in capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Right now, the most practical carbon sinks are fresh forests. We need faster-acting ways to remove atmospheric CO2 such as the Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s experiment with converting CO2 directly into alcohol via catalytic action.For countries like India, designing energy efficiency into the new cities to which masses of rural folk would migrate over the next few decades is what would make the biggest difference.

Date:20-11-17

India as one thriving economic zone

ET Editorials 

The government has given the go-ahead to the first of several mega coastal economic zones mooted by former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra. The Shenzen Economic Zone and its cousins are testimony to the efficacy of industrial clusters in fostering growth and exports. But India also has to learn from the failed experiment with special economic zones. Enclave-specific administrative procedures and special labour laws fall foul of both India’s political economy and the law. There really is no alternative to the hard grind of reforming laws and simplifying procedure across the board, to make the entire country one thriving economic zone. The goods and services tax is a significant step towards this goal.

Special economic zones failed to take off on any large scale as they did not suit the political economy. Resources were misdirected and revenues lost, considering that large companies set up shop in SEZs mainly to milch tax breaks. Any sign of exploitation of cheap labour would turn consumers against products in rich countries. The WTO may also frown upon some tax concessions and subsidies. So, the adoption of taxation and legal regimes that are different from the rest of the country is wholly avoidable.Instead, the government must remove policy constraints to attract large firms to employment-intensive sectors such as textiles. An antiquated hank-yarn obligation, irrational labour laws and high-cost manmade fibres and blends are things India’s textile and garment industry can do without. States should suitably reform labour and land laws. The focus should be to strengthen economy-wide competencies, build robust infrastructure, and ensure functional and speedy administration across states.

Date:20-11-17

Here’s tangible proof of minimum govt, maximum governance

Gurcharan Das

In this winter of our discontent — as we try and cope with a toxic smog enveloping the northwest, declining growth, job losses and a cumbersome GST — there is finally some good news that should lift our spirits. India has risen 30 places in the World Bank’s global ranking in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). More significantly, it has improved on all 10 criteria — no other country has achieved this.Reading this report alongside the study by IDFC/Niti Aayog based on an enterprise survey of over 3,200 companies, gives tangible grounds to believe institutional reforms on the ground have finally begun. This is the first tangible proof of Narendra Modi’s promise of ‘minimum government, maximum governance,’ and in upgrading India’s rating, Moody’s has also underlined that only through institutional reforms will India realise its potential.

India is a bottom-up success; China is a top-down success. A purposive Chinese state has built the most amazing infrastructure at breakneck pace and converted China into a middle-class nation within a generation. India’s is a story of private success and public failure–its rise is due to its enterprising people rather than the state. Our red tape and bureaucracy breaks the spirit of small and medium enterprises that create the most jobs. The World Bank has been pointing this out for 15 years but every Indian government till now has ignored the EoDB, preferring instead to pick holes in its methodology.

This is the first government that has taken EoDB seriously, according to the World Bank. When Modi set a target to reach rank 50 from 142, everyone thought it was a pipedream; it now appears achievable. Our success is due mainly to the gradual shifting of state-citizen interface online; the second reason is the competitive spirit engendered between states. Once glitches in the GST and the insolvency law are overcome India’s ranking should improve further.In the states assessment, Andhra/Telangana share first place, followed by Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh. The five worst performers are Delhi, Kerala, Assam, Himachal and Tamil Nadu. The IDFC report confirms that states with improved EoDB have been rewarded with higher growth.

The greatest indictment is of the Indian judiciary. India still ranks among the lowest in the world in the time taken to enforce contracts. Business depends critically on settling disputes between buyers and sellers but India still lacks district commercial courts manned by judges with commercial training; nor, do we employ e-courts, allowing judges to read documents on-line prior to hearings and thus speeding judgements. Contract enforcement in China takes less than one-tenth of the time as India.

EoDB is a great corruption fighter. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal were so obsessed with the Lokpal Bill that they did not realise that EoDB would do far more to eliminate corruption. Corruption is like malaria — you need to clear the swamps to prevent it. Lokpal is like quinine — you take it after you have fallen sick. It is better to prevent corruption than to catch crooks. Not surprisingly, the top ten EoDB countries have little or no corruption, but they also have a lokpal-type ombudsman to make high officials accountable.

EoDB can improve the aam aadmi’s life. The same process change that reduced the time to issue a construction permit by Delhi’s municipality (MCD) has also resulted in reducing the number of days to get a birth certificate. Renewing your driver’s licence in Delhi now requires half an hour without a pay-off and you receive the new licence by post within a few days.

At rank 100, India still has a long way to go. The IDFC report has highlighted many gaps between intent and reality. Most enterprises are still not aware that their states offer single-window clearance. Employment-intensive sectors still have to put up with corrupt labour inspectors. Land acquisition is mired in red tape. It is a reminder to the government to pass the pending labour and land acquisition bills as soon as it has majority in the Rajya Sabha.But imagine if we had implemented the EoDB reforms in 1991! India would be twice as prosperous today with far less corruption.The cost of this delay is a tragedy, reminding us that India’s socialist era which claimed to deliver growth with social justice, delivered neither. When Shakespeare said in Richard III, ‘Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York’, he was suggesting that the time of unhappiness is past. I wish we could say that about our country. Only when our economy’s growth rate crosses 8% and jobs come in droves will ‘achhe din’ truly arrive. Meanwhile, this is a great step forward.

Date:20-11-17

अधिकरणों की सीमित भूमिका से बढ़ेगी उच्च न्यायालयों की ताकत

एम जे एंटनी

पिछले कुछ दशकों में न्याय मिलने में होने वाले विलंब और लंबित मामलों की बढ़ती संख्या ने न्यायाधिकरणों की अवधारणा को काफी मजबूती दी है। विभिन्न विधि आयोगों की रिपोर्ट में इस मसले का जिक्र आता रहा है। इस बीच न्यायाधिकरणों की संख्या बढ़ती रही और 30 के भी पार जा पहुंची। हालांकि सरकार ने हाल ही में इनमें से आठ न्यायाधिकरणों का वजूद समाप्त कर दिया है। प्रतिस्पद्र्धा अपीलीय न्यायाधिकरण के राष्ट्रीय कंपनी कानून अपीलीय न्यायाधिकरण में विलय, साइबर अपीलीय न्यायाधिकरण के दूरसंचार विवाद निपटान अधिकरण और कॉपीराइट बोर्ड के बौद्धिक संपदा अपीलीय बोर्ड में विलय जैसे कदमों से ऐसा हो पाया है। सरकार कुछ अन्य अधिकरणों के विलय की दिशा में भी काम कर रही है ताकि कुल न्यायाधिकरणों की संख्या को घटाकर 18 पर लाया जा सके।