<p>After my column last month about the laggards of Indian democracy, I was asked how things could be speeded up. What I propose may sound excessive, but they are all doable. They only need political leadership, consensus, and courage.<br /><br />The electoral and legislative systems must be modified to bar convicted offenders, ensure transparent elections within political parties, punish attendance below a minimum level by legislators, open up meetings of committees of the legislatures, disqualify candidates who falsify electoral expenses or do not submit them. Disruption of legislative work should automatically result in expelling the concerned legislator.<br /><br />The administrative system inherited from the British is unsuited for vast development and social spending. We must have fewer generalists and more specialists in government. Accountability must be of individuals and not departments. For this, each individual must have clear job descriptions, objectives, milestones and tasks. Non-performance must be punished; good performance rewarded. Promotions must be on merit and transfers must be in the hands of a separate agency, not ministers. Officers must enjoy minimum tenures of at least 3 years in one position.<br /><br /> Independent regulatory assignments may be open to all bureaucrats but candidates from media, academia, business and others must be considered by a selection committee not dominated by current or retired bureaucrats.. A serving bureaucrat who is selected must leave the service. All regulators must be accountable to the higher judiciary for administrative matters and meet the legislature once a year.<br /><br />Multiple ministries and departments must be replaced by focused ones; for example, one health ministry that includes immunisation, nutrition, maternal and child health, pharmaceuticals, public health (drinking water, sanitation), medical standards, medical education; or one energy ministry that includes electricity, atomic energy, renewables, petroleum, gas and coal.<br /><br /> This must be at central and state levels. Along with this, the size of cabinets must be restricted, with a limit also on the number of junior ministers.<br /><br />Institutions and agencies to detect, prosecute and speedily punish must be established, that are outside government interference. Ill-gotten gains must be confiscated. Corruption at any level must lead to removal from office and terms in jail. Private sector corruption must be subject to similar treatment.<br /><br />Methods to reach support to the poor (foodgrains, kerosene, health and education services, others) must learn from experience and plug leakages while ensuring that the deserving receive benefits. The UID or other identification can be delivered in a similar way to counting of all at a census. Officials at any level, who deny benefits to the deserving or steal all or part of the benefits, should be severely punished. The schemes might be integrated, so that the same beneficiary card is good for all of them.<br /><br />Mandatory cap<br />There must be a mandatory cap on government deficits and debt. The RBI must statutorily be empowered not to allow the cap to be crossed. All new government spending schemes must indicate the monthly programme of expenditure. Independent external auditors must audit projects during and not merely after execution so that proper and foolproof procedures are adopted that avoids waste, delays, cost overruns, and also ensures quality. After all, the private sector does this in executing large projects. <br /><br />State governments must not be permitted to divert central funds given for one purpose, to another. Funds must be earmarked and their use audited in use. Officially sanctioned havala routes like participatory notes or the treaties with Mauritius and other countries that exempt investments from there from Indian capital gains tax must be revoked. RBI and Income-tax authorities must be empowered to demand details of all sums held by Indian citizens in foreign banks and they must be tracked for tax evasion. <br /><br />Massive accretions to wealth especially of politicians and serving bureaucrats and their families must be investigated for corruption. Returns of election expenses must be cross-checked by field surveys of actual spending and sources of funds investigated.<br /><br />Political parties, charitable societies, other nongovernmental organisations must be made to file tax returns and their sources of funds and expenditures must be examined. Cumbersome and time-consuming government procedures must be slashed. At the same time the use of construction and other projects to siphon off large funds in both public and private sectors must be kept under watch.<br /><br />Agriculture and manufacturing must rise in GDP from the present below 40 per cent to over 50 per cent. To achieve this, bottlenecks like lack of rural roads, adequate storage, exploitative middlemen, interfering factory inspectors and other such, must be eliminated quickly. <br /><br />Media must not be allowed to use their power to make money out of ‘paid news’. Multiple ownership and control over different media channels must be stopped. An independent Media Content Authority must ensure that media content is neither obscene nor false.<br /><br />Judiciary must be made accountable and a separate body established for the appointment of judges and scrutiny. Numbers of judges at all levels must be increased so as to better reflect the need. Compensation to judiciary and police must be increased. <br /><br />Police should be made less liable to interference by politicians. Numbers of police must be increased manifold. Their training must get the best attention. Many other suggestions are possible. These are enough to begin with.<br /></p>
<p>After my column last month about the laggards of Indian democracy, I was asked how things could be speeded up. What I propose may sound excessive, but they are all doable. They only need political leadership, consensus, and courage.<br /><br />The electoral and legislative systems must be modified to bar convicted offenders, ensure transparent elections within political parties, punish attendance below a minimum level by legislators, open up meetings of committees of the legislatures, disqualify candidates who falsify electoral expenses or do not submit them. Disruption of legislative work should automatically result in expelling the concerned legislator.<br /><br />The administrative system inherited from the British is unsuited for vast development and social spending. We must have fewer generalists and more specialists in government. Accountability must be of individuals and not departments. For this, each individual must have clear job descriptions, objectives, milestones and tasks. Non-performance must be punished; good performance rewarded. Promotions must be on merit and transfers must be in the hands of a separate agency, not ministers. Officers must enjoy minimum tenures of at least 3 years in one position.<br /><br /> Independent regulatory assignments may be open to all bureaucrats but candidates from media, academia, business and others must be considered by a selection committee not dominated by current or retired bureaucrats.. A serving bureaucrat who is selected must leave the service. All regulators must be accountable to the higher judiciary for administrative matters and meet the legislature once a year.<br /><br />Multiple ministries and departments must be replaced by focused ones; for example, one health ministry that includes immunisation, nutrition, maternal and child health, pharmaceuticals, public health (drinking water, sanitation), medical standards, medical education; or one energy ministry that includes electricity, atomic energy, renewables, petroleum, gas and coal.<br /><br /> This must be at central and state levels. Along with this, the size of cabinets must be restricted, with a limit also on the number of junior ministers.<br /><br />Institutions and agencies to detect, prosecute and speedily punish must be established, that are outside government interference. Ill-gotten gains must be confiscated. Corruption at any level must lead to removal from office and terms in jail. Private sector corruption must be subject to similar treatment.<br /><br />Methods to reach support to the poor (foodgrains, kerosene, health and education services, others) must learn from experience and plug leakages while ensuring that the deserving receive benefits. The UID or other identification can be delivered in a similar way to counting of all at a census. Officials at any level, who deny benefits to the deserving or steal all or part of the benefits, should be severely punished. The schemes might be integrated, so that the same beneficiary card is good for all of them.<br /><br />Mandatory cap<br />There must be a mandatory cap on government deficits and debt. The RBI must statutorily be empowered not to allow the cap to be crossed. All new government spending schemes must indicate the monthly programme of expenditure. Independent external auditors must audit projects during and not merely after execution so that proper and foolproof procedures are adopted that avoids waste, delays, cost overruns, and also ensures quality. After all, the private sector does this in executing large projects. <br /><br />State governments must not be permitted to divert central funds given for one purpose, to another. Funds must be earmarked and their use audited in use. Officially sanctioned havala routes like participatory notes or the treaties with Mauritius and other countries that exempt investments from there from Indian capital gains tax must be revoked. RBI and Income-tax authorities must be empowered to demand details of all sums held by Indian citizens in foreign banks and they must be tracked for tax evasion. <br /><br />Massive accretions to wealth especially of politicians and serving bureaucrats and their families must be investigated for corruption. Returns of election expenses must be cross-checked by field surveys of actual spending and sources of funds investigated.<br /><br />Political parties, charitable societies, other nongovernmental organisations must be made to file tax returns and their sources of funds and expenditures must be examined. Cumbersome and time-consuming government procedures must be slashed. At the same time the use of construction and other projects to siphon off large funds in both public and private sectors must be kept under watch.<br /><br />Agriculture and manufacturing must rise in GDP from the present below 40 per cent to over 50 per cent. To achieve this, bottlenecks like lack of rural roads, adequate storage, exploitative middlemen, interfering factory inspectors and other such, must be eliminated quickly. <br /><br />Media must not be allowed to use their power to make money out of ‘paid news’. Multiple ownership and control over different media channels must be stopped. An independent Media Content Authority must ensure that media content is neither obscene nor false.<br /><br />Judiciary must be made accountable and a separate body established for the appointment of judges and scrutiny. Numbers of judges at all levels must be increased so as to better reflect the need. Compensation to judiciary and police must be increased. <br /><br />Police should be made less liable to interference by politicians. Numbers of police must be increased manifold. Their training must get the best attention. Many other suggestions are possible. These are enough to begin with.<br /></p>
