Unlock India (Part 5)

The world after Coronavirus will look very different. Just like wars change nations, so too the virus will change India. It will be very difficult for us to go back to the nation we had before the virus did the damage. People will have been displaced, jobs would have disappeared, companies will look different, behaviour of consumers will have changed. Many industries will be transformed beyond recognition – for example, in travel and tourism, what will many months of zero revenue do? These are questions no business plan ever factors in. Whatever fiscal stimulus the government provides, it will never have the knowledge to restore India to the pre-virus state. A glass once broken cannot be made the same given. This is not something anyone could have planned for. The impact of the virus is likely to last for some time.

I have always believed that every crisis is an opportunity in disguise – if one is willing to look at it the right way. For India, we can make this the turning point in our economic history. No amount of handouts will be enough given the constraints we face. This is a moment in time to throw out the old rules that have governed India and create a new India – truly.

Here is a 7-point action plan that can get “The Indian Revolution” underway – a transformation that will put the people on an irreversible course of freedom and prosperity:

  1. Start by returning every Indian family Rs 1 lakh every year for the next 10 years. No distinction is to be made between rich and poor – the cost and time of figuring that is simply not worth it. As they spend, we will see jobs getting created and industries humming.
  2. This will require about $4 trillion dollars. Here is the calculation. 26 lakh crore a year equals $350 billion a year. Factor in some population growth, and that comes to $4 trillion. Where does this come from? From the people’s assets that are controlled by the government – land, minerals, PSUs, whose total value we had estimated at $20 trillion. Since these are new assets being brought into circulation, there will be no inflation.
  3. Commit to spending an additional $1 trillion dollars for the right infrastructure in India – hard (roads, railways, ports, airports) and soft (defence, police, judiciary).
  4. Cut all taxes to sub-10%, to leave money in people’s hands and make India an attractive investment destination in the world.
  5. Focus on the core things that a limited government should do – ensuring rule of law, protect economic freedom, property rights, free markets, free trade, decentralisation, and so on. All one has to do is to look at why some countries became rich – and replicate the ideas. Embed these ideals in a brief, new Constitution of India.
  6. Government should get out of the way of people. Let trade and voluntary exchange flourish. Let the entrepreneurs take over the task of creating wealth. They will find ways to solve problems.
  7. And finally, for all of us: for 10 years, forget about everything that divides us, and let us all unite for a single mission – to rebuild India from the ruins of the virus, to make India the nation it was once destined to be, to make every Indian free and rich in our lifetime.

These are ideas I have discussed at length in my earlier writings, and I will do so again on this blog. We need to start thinking of the future – one which is not riddled with fear, but filled with hope. We need to imagine a new India – the way a sculptor sees a rock and imagines a finished sculpture, the way an architect sees an empty tract of land and envisions a completed building.

Are we willing to think different to “Unlock India” not just once, but forever?

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Rajesh Jain

An Entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India.