Public Policy. Author. Diverse interests. Views personal.
Dec 11, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
PM @narendramodi launched 11 key development initiatives in MH today. Big infra projects propel the economy and naturally got a lot of visibility and focus today.
But there's a very interesting project in the list: the National Institute for One Health. A 🧵with @surajbrf /1
After a devastating 2020 - the first year of pandemic, lockdowns and human, social, economic losses, Fin Min @nsitharaman announced a PM AtmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana in FY 2021-22 budget at an outlay of about Rs. 64,180 crores over 6
years.
A thread on how our discourse prioritizes “here and now” over structural solutions like industrialization and associated reforms, with an example of oxygen production. (1/n)
We recently got a 4,00,000 litre oxygen plant in foreign aid from Germany. There has been a lot of talk about this plant. India of course remain grateful to all the friendly countries standing with us now. This thread is about local reaction to foreign aid vs own solutions. (2/n)
May 3, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
The urban centers of Madhya Pradesh were quite badly hit by in the second wave of the pandemic. Several Twitter SOS calls originated from the state till just a week ago. Things seem to be settling now in MP. (1/4)
Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur - three key urban centers seem to be stable in the last 4-5 days. Given that much of the economic activity is focused in these cities, they also remain origin points for pandemic. So this is especially good news. (2/4)
Apr 18, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Don't understand fascination w/ this "states being allowed to import vaccines". The second wave is nastier precisely because the state ie governance capacity of states has been found wanting. Most states are struggling with medical infrastructure despite a year's lead time. (1/n)
Look at the situation for Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. States are struggling to tie in supplies and looking to the Centre to impose restrictions or even ensuring availability. States could have worked with manufacturers in Feb rather than Apr but they didn't. (2/n)
Apr 4, 2021 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
There are two new themes being talked about in media these days
Firstly, Aatmanirbhar Bharat is protectionist. Secondly, jobs are something which seem to (or should) happen in vacuum unrelated to the rest of the economy. Can't understand the fascination with either. A thread. /1
Aatmanirbhar Bharat is an attempt to produce for India and for the world. It is not to stop trade. The idea is to get global leaders in manufacturing to India, to attract capital and investments. Referencing my article from a few months ago -
Main impediments in building infrastructure in India
* Speedy construction
* Contract management
* Dispute resolution
* Right of way for projects (land availability)
* Financing
Contract management and dispute resolution are not generally appreciated as key problems. (2/n)
Mar 14, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Aspiration is critical to politics. Optimistic forward guidance also puts pressure on the system to create enabling policies. People don't hold govt hostage to math equations. Missing an ambitious target by 10-15% is much better than present, persistent negativity and doom talk.
Critics have constantly harped over how the government is only achieving "only" 70-80-90% of what it is promising on welfare. Long op-eds and graphs talk about the missing 10-20-30%. People otoh look at significant difference to their life - power, gas, toilets homes, water.
Mar 13, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
India has built a strong Aadhar based public digital infrastructure in less than a decade, covering banking, healthcare and more
This is a great export opportunity for India, to help other countries leapfrog on state capacity.
It is important to make the distinction between Made In India ie Made By Indians and Owned By Indians. Former should be the focus, not the latter. (1/n)
Made / Make In India is what the central and state governments are chasing. All the reforms taken up and planned are directed towards inviting firms to set up in India. While Indian firms will expand too, global firms are very much part of the Make In India initiative. (2/n)
Apr 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
There's been a lot of talk about FORCE- Fiscal Options and Response to Covid-19 Epidemic, a document IRS association has written for the govt to manage economic conditions.
Lot of comments on the direct tax "ideas", which are troublesome. But there's some good points too. (1/n)
These are short summaries of ideas - the document is not publicly available, so details can be checked directly.
* Delayed TDS payments for some sectors
* Advance tax payments to be backloaded
* Tax holiday / breaks for healthcare
* 50% households get basic income for 6m (2/n)
Mar 16, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The economic consequences of the #coronavirus situation are perhaps not very well appreciated. It's a pity that @RBI has missed the monster in the room.
Even if the shutdown is only a few weeks, it will have a domino impact on all sections of the society. 1/n
Indian economy with all its gig and informal nature, is not a work from home economy. Daily wagers, hired labour or contract employees do not get paid for not showing up!
As cities shut down, those at the bottom of the pyramid will bear the full brunt of it. 2/n
Nov 20, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BPCL divestment is a big deal, first such big ticket divestment since the Vajpayee government.
This announcement today has a nice back story. The government has used The Repealing and Amending Act 2016 which annulled 187 redundant laws to sell BPCL. (1/n)
In 2003, the Vajpayee government was working on the oil PSU divestment. But the Supreme Court had struck down the efforts.
Reason? The Court wanted the Parliament to first undo the nationalization of HPCL and BPCL undertaken in 1970s. (2/n)
Oct 26, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Before the Maharashtra election, several leaders had joined the BJP. A common theory is floating that these turncoats lost in a big way bringing the BJP tally down.
This is mostly BJP supporters projecting own views on the results. Details for current year imports. (1/n)
* Assembly (LS seat): Name / 2014 Margin / 2019 Margin
The most important use of social media has been to humanize the opinion makers in front of audiences who earlier took their views as some gold standard.
For old SM people, this task has been completed and it may be grating to see repetitive taunts on omniscient experts. (1/n)
India is a big country with multiple speed information flows. What was obvious to those active on Twitter in 2014 is becoming obvious to many people in 2019 (eg several pollsters suck, Bollywood is hypocritical). (2/n)
