Honourable New Prime Minister
of India,
I am writing this a few days before
you will take the oath of the office. You will become the representative of all
Indians whether or not one voted for you or your party during the elections.
You will receive advice from diverse groups covering complex topics of governing
the Country. However, few simple initiatives will create a more congenial
environment, increase growth by a couple of percent points and generate the
momentum for you to tackle complex issues. While this is a mixed bag of Central
and State subjects, people expect these from you as the PM.
Here is a 10-point agenda for your
consideration:
1. Three Shift for Infra Projects: Make it mandatory for all
infrastructure projects to operate in three shifts. It will reduce the completion
time and generate more jobs due to three shift operation but not change costs so much.
There will be enough projects to keep people employed for next few years.
2. Lowest Bidder in Government Tenders: Remove the restriction of
choosing only the lowest bidder in Government contracts. This menace has caused
much grief and wasted citizens’ tax money on shoddy goods and services and failed
projects.
3. Ease up payment norms of Government organizations. Small
companies and start-ups that have differentiating technologies cannot bid on
Government tenders due to backbreaking payment terms.
4. Leaf Nodes in Government Hierarchy: Take the discretion out of the
Government’s leaf nodes in Customs & Excise, VAT / Sales Tax administration
and local bodies like LBT in Maharashtra. They cause too much of disruption to
businesses wasting everyone’s time which can be used to focus on businesses.
5. Tax Incentives For Angel Investors in Start-ups: In spite of
media reports on VCs and funding, genuine startups are starved of funds, as the
Country does not have an ecosystem of early stage angel investors. Provide tax
incentives to create early stage technology angel investors.
6. Discipline Indians on road: Many times traffic snarls, accidents
and associated damages are due to one of the worst driving habits in the world.
Take it as a priority asking Indians to follow traffic laws. Its not rocket
science to wait for a light to turn green, not drive on wrong side of the road,
take proper left and right turns and park only in designated areas. Increase
fines by 10 times. Seat belt fines were set high and compliance has been good.
Make Defensive Driving Lesson compulsory to obtain a Driving License.
7. Water Tankers in Cities: Monitor the number of water tankers
plying in 20 top cities in India. It will provide you a good data point on
water management in Urban India. Tankers are mostly owned by local politicians
or their friends and families and are a menace on the road. It's a reminder of
what can be distributed through a pipe is being transported inefficiently. Collecting
this data is not at all difficult.
8. Restrict use of Central and State Police for VIP Security: Only
5% Police Force is used at any time for VIP Security. Rest is deployed for
general law and order that has the priority. If it means VIPs can’t travel so
be it. They can use technology to do
their job and reach out to people.
9. Create Election Fund of India: Let each taxpayer contribute ~Rs.
500 to 1000 per year towards this fund. If the tax base goes up, there will be enough
money to fund Central and State elections curbing corruption. You will have to campaign for Indians to accept this. They are paying anyway through other means.
10. Ethics and Morality: Finally please get on a continued campaign
to appeal to all Indians to follow the laws, pay taxes not just income tax but
also local taxes and say no to bribes. Even
if 5% of India’s population follow you, taxes can increase not by
percentages by multiples.
