Science and Technology Shape Economic Future

The new government will have to act swiftly in course correcting the stalled Indian economy. To begin with, they will have to focus on a number of regulatory reforms that will address the ease of doing business, reduce transaction costs and expedite approval timelines. The lack of rules and guidelines in taxation and business matters have deterred investment and introduced delays in project approvals. These measures alone can add a per cent or two to GDP growth through increased FDI and project implementation.
The new government will also have to bring greater investment into healthcare and education.  Private sector must have a role in these sectors. Other areas include power and natural resources, especially water. We are in urgent need of management of perennial sources of water where there is a staggering loss.

 A sector of strategic importance is science & technology.  We must step up investment in this area. Innovation is key to value-added growth. We have barely leveraged technology to address a number of grand challenges the country faces starting with e-governance. Aadhar has been sub-optimal in its application. This is a powerful platform that should have served as the basis for e-governance and e-healthcare, but unfortunately this has not happened. The next government has the opportunity to build on the 600 million Aadhar cards and create a unique e-delivery model. Science & technology have a crucial role to play in shaping economic future and the new government must enable innovation through scientific research and development. We must identify key areas in which to build world class scientific and technological excellence eg. genomics, nanoscience, synthetic biology, IT, space technology etc. The ban on clinical trials and GM crops must be lifted. To quote Narendra Modi, “I am all for technology.  We should not discard technology that helps farmers; we must have faith in science. We must put technology and science to use with regulations and add value to produce.”

Finally, it is time we put in place rules and regulations that are unambiguous and transparent and prevent any impediments that often arise due to ambiguity and opaque norms. We must now rely more on deemed and automatic approvals and not inordinately lengthy approval timelines that have denied us infrastructure project implementation which has perhaps knocked off 1-2% off GDP growth.

The Congress manifesto has made a plethora of promises to deliver 8% GDP growth most of which relate to regulatory and fiscal reforms. Let us hope the new government is effective in acting and not be wrapped up in mere rhetoric.

After all, the underlying economy is still strong and capable of delivering robust growth.

The original article appeared in The New Indian Express on the 30^th of March, 2014 and can be viewed here