source: http://issuu.com/efnasia/docs/link_2_2_2009/10
Amen, Bibek. He has been a friend of mine since September 2007 when I first met him here in Manila during the IPN-MG conference on innovation and public health. He was among the three speakers of high international exposure that day.
Below is a portion of his article, "Democracy vs. Socialism", published at the Economic Times, India. on September 04, 2010.
… Take the devolution agenda that any incoming coalition
is bound to support. Most stuff one wants government to spend on is in social
sectors. These are state, municipal or panchayat subjects.
Why not transfer funds directly to states, and lower
down, scrapping the central sector and centrally-sponsored schemes? At best,
there can be a menu of options the states can spend on….
Let all other devolution be formulae-based, without
indicators for deprivation. Following the same line of argument, let forest and
environmental clearances be decided by states. Let the ministry of environment
and forests become irrelevant, except for international negotiations. Let there
be decentralised identification of poor families and make the Planning
Commission irrelevant.
Let’s make oil pricing market-determined. Policy
paralysis and governance deficits, more important than current account and
fiscal deficits, have been caused by Delhi. Let’s make Delhi irrelevant, even
if the Seventh Schedule cannot immediately be amended. Friedrich Hayek
correlated socialism and dictatorship. Though we are stuck with the Preamble,
we can invoke democracy and demolish Delhi’s dictatorship….
Nor is foreign direct investment the key. If make Delhi
irrelevant is one strand, make the world irrelevant is another. Let’s fix the
domestic supplyside. Let’s reform agricultural markets and ensure inter-state
movements of agricultural produce. If we fix the domestic problems, growth and
investments will revive. So will manufacturing and exports.
This isn’t a pension, banking, insurance and Industrial
Disputes Act agenda. Idon’t see why any incoming government should refuse to
accept these two strands. All it requires is an acceptance of making itself
less important and converting Centre-state (which is not an expression in the
Constitution) to Union-state (which is one). Democracy, thus defined, is the
best antidote to the dictatorship of socialism inflicted on us."
See also:
EFN Asia 29: Speakers in Day 1, Conference 2013 in Bangkok, October 21, 2013
EFN Asia 30: Conference 2013, Day 1, October 23, 2013
EFN Asia 31. Friends in the Asian Free Market Movement, November 07, 2013
EFN Asia 32: Day 2 of Conference 2013 in Bangkok, November 09, 2013
Socialized Healthcare 3: Free Market and Better Health, Sept. 22, 2010
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