False Equivalence Between Fiscal Stimulus & Higher Govt Expenditure
But I am equally convinced that our State has displayed an extremely poor capacity to execute economic plans. The Government of India has not been able to:
- Sell an airline for nearly half a decade now
- Build second airports at Mumbai and NCR (national capital region) for over a decade
- Get its first bullet train on track
- Achieve critical size for the Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor over decades
- Make Ahmedabad’s GIFT look like London’s Canary Wharf, except in brochures
- Even sell scrips, forget about building physical assets – in 10 out of the last 12 years, it’s fallen way short of its disinvestment target, with the current year recording the most abysmal miss, despite the private sector picking up a record Rs 1.7 trillion from a roaring stock market
So, when a fiscal stimulus — which I unreservedly support — is equated “whole-ly and sole-ly” with “stepped up government expenditure”, I turn truant. In my…
