Policy & Governance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 jan 2015

According to report 'Aarogya Bharat 2025' by NATHEALTH and Bain & Company, for sustainable growth India requires investments of US$ 3 trillion for the next 10 years. India's healthcare system is both under-served and under-consumed, threatening the continued economic progress. Shivinder Mohan Singh, President of NATHEALTH, says, 'At 1.3% of the GDP, public spending on healthcare in India is among the lowest across the developing countries and affects the poor and inaccessible rural areas the most.' Bain & Company's Karan Singh points out the need for healthcare spending to go to 6% of the GDP and suggests a required paradigm shift from curative to prevention and wellness. According to NATHEALTH's Founder Chairman, Prathap C. Reddy, to built a healthier India government cannot be the sole provider of health services but private sector has to play an important role to bridge the demand-supply gap. Read on...

Business Standard: Healthcare sector needs USD 3 trillion in 10 years
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 jan 2015

India requires substantial finance to fulfill the challenges of providing clean, affordable and reliable supplies of water and energy to its 1.3 billion citizens, and invest in enterprises that will provide livelihoods for an extra 10 million jobseekers every year. Moreover there is also need for level playing field of sustainability standards within the financial system. According to Naina Lal Kidwai, country head for HSBC India, 'For too long, a view has been allowed to take root in India that sustainability and finance are at odds; that taking account of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors raises costs, reduces returns and impedes development.' To scale up sustainable finance, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the UNEP Inquiry have formed an advisory committee of leading financiers, policymakers and civil society representatives to generate practical policy options. Financial innovation is the essential need with mobilization of debt and equity capital markets. Investments in sustainable agriculture, clean energy, efficient buildings, mass transit, smart cities, clean water and waste provides the foundations for a thriving green bonds market. On India's equity markets, the new Infrastructure Investment Trust model offers another vehicle for investors to put money into sustainable infrastructure. Read on...

the guardian: Investing in India requires sustainable, reliable finance
Author: Nick Robins

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 dec 2014

According to World Bank data for 2012, manufacturing as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for India is only 14.07%, while some of its neighbours like China (31.83%-2011 data), Sri Lanka (17.88%), Bangladesh (17.56%) and even Pakistan (14.47%), are ahead of it. On the other hand, two of its BRICS friends, China and Russian Federation (14.85%) are above, and two others, Brazil (12.95%) and South Africa (12.09%) are below it in their manufacturing activities. Although PM Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign helps in providing focus and direction but a lot is desired and to be done on the ground by both the government and the private sector to uplift the lagging manufacturing sector. If the specific state-level data for current manufacturing activity is considered there is a clear disparity, with top 5 states accounting to 56% of the national manufacturing - Maharashtra (18.3%), Gujarat (12.8%), Tamil Nadu (9.9%), Uttar Pradesh (8.3%), Andhra Pradesh (6.4%). Barring a few exceptions like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha, the relative importance of manufacturing has been stagnant or have declined over time. Read on...

Livemint: The Make in India dream
Authors: Pramit Bhattacharya, Dipti Jain

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 oct 2014

The newly appointed Chief Economic Adviser to Government of India, Arvind Subramanian, in an interview to IMF (International Monetary Fund) said, 'The Indian economy needs a couple of big things, better governance, a stronger state delivering security of contract, protecting property rights, providing infrastructure. You need a bigger role for the private sector, means getting rid of the lots of regulations that stifled the private sector, that stifled employment creation, that stifled the ability of the private sector to grow, to become big. These are the kind of broad twin challenges that India faces.' He further mentions scarcity of coal and electricity as reasons for stalled private sector projects. He explains that growth has to be brought back to 7.5-8% consistently for about 10-25 years to address these various challenges including jobs for the expanding labor force. Read on...

The Financial Express: Arvind Subramanian: Bottlenecks must be cleared to woo private investment
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 sep 2014

India can take advantage of its demographic dividend only when its younger population is provided right direction and opportunities. It is one of the countries with an acute talent crisis with even the educated youth having insufficient skills to be effectively absorbed in the job market. India lacks behind in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) investment, with only 0.88% of its GDP in science research while US (7-8%) & South Korea (3-4%) are way ahead. Former Director General of DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organization), Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, last year mentioned that only 4 out of 1000 young students opt for science & technology or research as their future career as compared to 8 in China, 55 in the USA, 76 in Israel, 76 in Germany, 46 in Korea and 110 in Japan. According to a survey, by 2020 India is estimated to have a shortfall of 1.5 to 2.2 million engineers. To be a successful developed nation, India has to focus on a comprehensive program for STEM education. Moreover it has to encourage the spirit of creativity & innovation and promote students to also pursue true research. Intel Corporation is pursuing a program in a public-private partnership, Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS), with Department of Science & Technology and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) to popularize science and the spirit of innovation among students of Class 5-12. The program selects innovative students through project-based competition and then these students are mentored to represent India at a global platform, Intel ISEF, and showcase their projects to win awards and scholarships. India has to develop a mechanism where students who have shown creative and innovative abilities are nurtured within the current education system and encouraged & supported to build upon their ideas. More involvement of private sector is also required to promote STEM proficiency. Debjani Ghosh of Intel, the author of article, further mentions, 'We need to encourage project based learning and inquiry based interdisciplinary approaches in the classroom. Without the change happening at the basic level, STEM will remain a periphery for our students.' Read on...

DNA: India needs a literacy movement for science, technology, engineering and maths
Author: Debjani Ghosh

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 jul 2014

In the recent ranking of 143 countries on the 2014 Global Innovation Index (GII), India slipped from 66 to 76. Three experts debate the reasons for this fall. Professor Deepa Mani of ISB identifies three issues - (1) Lack of proper measurement of different innovations that happen in Indian companies (2) Traditional organizations lack autonomy, flexibility and customer or business-oriented thinking (3) Access to risk capital, mentorship and linkages between academia, industry and government are required. According to Prof. Mani, 'For things to change, the government, academia and India Inc. all need to work together to encourage people to try new things and provide the risk capital and mentorship for such efforts.' Richard Rekhy, CEO of KPMG India, says, 'Only 1% or less of gross domestic product is being invested in innovation in India. Innovation has to be nurtured. A majority of India's weaknesses arise from the absence of an encouraging ecosystem that fuels innovation.' Moreover he suggests that for emerging market like India, disruptive innovations will be important to propel growth. According to Adil Malia, Head of HR at Essar Group, India as a society is very pattern-driven and slow in adopting new norms and this is the root cause of lack of innovation. He mentions three critical things that are responsible for the level of innovation in India today - (1) Lack of research in universities and institutions (2) Service nature of India's economy results in students getting focused on career-based and structured learning to get better jobs. They lack knowledge seeking approach to learning (3) Most companies, with the exception of pharma and life sciences don't spend much on innovation. He suggests that to foster innovation it has to begin at the student level. Read on...

Livemint: Indian companies' missing innovation DNA
Authors: Zahra Khan, P. R. Sanjai, Arundhati Ramanathan

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 may 2014

Harvard School of Public Health estimates the financial burden of NCD's (Non-communicable Diseases like cancer, cardiac ailments and diabetes) in India at US$ 6.2 trillion from 2012 to 2030. The current state of India's urban healthcare system is insufficient to effectively handle this challenge. But this also provides an opportunity to create and develop India specific healthcare models to fill this gap. Focus should be on urban mass market that is estimated to be 450 million with healthcare spending of Rs 200,000 crore by 2020. Karan Singh and Parijat Ghosh of Bain & Company suggest 4A's for private healthcare companies to effectively tap this market - (1) Awareness: Government and private players should create awareness by focusing on prevention as its most cost effective. (2) Access: Private sector should create a large network of facilities to provide standardized care at low cost that should include diagnostic centers, hospitals and nursing homes. (3) Affordability: Expansion of health insurance is required, particularly in middle class as currently it is below 10%. Lack of coverage hinders many urban Indians to get regular check-ups or early treatment thus increasing the healthcare costs in long-term. (4) Acceptable quality: Minimum acceptable healthcare standards have to be evolved to scale up quickly. Certification for facilities should be less onerous. Read on...

The Economic Times: Urban India's healthcare requires holistic, disruptive and collaborative solutions
Authors: Parijat Ghosh, Karan Singh

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 apr 2014

There are different levels of adopting technology in learning and education. In case of primary and secondary education the purpose of technology is to assist students not only to get acquainted with latest technologies but also to provide them with interactive and innovative medium for enhanced and effective learning. According to Elementary Education in India report 2011-12, 48% of 1.4 million schools in India now have computers. Moreover the market for information and communication technologies in education is growing with industry reports expecting it to grow to Rs. 57,000 crore in 2014 from Rs. 285,000 crore in 2012. In India various methods of introducing technology in school curriculum are being experimented - elearning and smart classroom; computer labs in schools; laptops & tablets to individual students. But experts differ in their opinion regarding the overall utility of devices like tablets to students. According to some, considering India's socio-economic disparities and the vast primary & secondary school setup, it would be difficult to effectively enforce mandatory buying of tablets by every student. The issue of choice is also a problem when a school promotes a particular brand while enforcing this policy. Some elite schools although are experimenting with owning a device policy for students but other private and public schools are providing computer and technology infrastructure within the school premises to all students and not enforcing individual buying of devices. Government itself has been in headlines regarding its efforts to provide subsidized low-cost Aakash tablets to school students but the program seems to have got delayed. Most experts do agree with the value of technology in education and learning considering its continuously increasing involvement in everyday human life, the overall pace of technological advancements and the need to timely equip students with 21st century knowledge and skills for their better future. Read on...

SmartPlanet: Indian schools adopt tablets. Will they improve education?
Author: Betwa Sharma

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 01 mar 2014

'Taylor Rule', developed by Stanford University economist John B. Taylor, is an interest rate feedback rule of how central banks should set short-term interest rates as economic conditions change to meet the goals of economic stability together with desired inflation rate. The rule states that short-term interest rates should be determined by two factors - inflation and output gaps. In the article Professor Tulsi Jayakumar of S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, explores the dynamics of India's policy rates, how they relate to global policy trends and their comparison with rates prescribed by the Taylor Rule. He mentions the findings of recent RBI study that was based on the quarterly estimates for the period 2000-01 to 2012-13. According to the study, proxy policy rate (average overnight call money rate) shows greater divergence from standard Taylor Rule interest rate in the post-crisis period (after the third quarter of 2007-08) than the pre-crisis period. For most of the crisis-period the policy rate has been above the Taylor Rule rate. Also the gap has narrowed in 2012-13. Another significant finding is that the higher the deviation of the policy rate from that implied by the standard Taylor Rule (interest rate gap), higher is the deviation of the inflation from its desired level (inflation gap). Read on...

Live Mint: The Taylor Rule and interest rates in India
Author: Tulsi Jayakumar

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 feb 2014

In the article, Udit Misra interviews Amartya Sen on his recently published book with Jean Dreze, 'An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions'. Amartya Sen mentions his views on the evolution of the democratic response to various issues, like corruption, crime against women etc. According to him, people by participating in protests demonstrated their concerns for fellow human beings while government's show of urgency in initiating the procedures to bring criminals to justice in response to the protests and agitation is a significant positive development. But there is a lot more that is to be done to protect the vulnerable and the poor in the Indian society. The other points he brought to notice include - his opposition to the Licence Raj; Left vs Right in the Indian politics while most people are neither of the two; importance of human capital with emphasis on education and healthcare; secularism and secular leadership mentioning the successful example of Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore; short-term approach of the government while dealing with economic growth and providing concession to businesses; insists on need for developing an educated and healthy workforce for sustainable economic development; different opinion on NREGA as compared to Jean Dreze and suggests more expenditure on education and skills development then expenditure on employment; favors Kerala's model of human development with substantial spending on education and healthcare over the years and as a result becoming one of the richest Indian state. Read on...

Forbes: Amartya Sen: 'You need an educated, healthy workforce to sustain economic development'
Author: Udit Misra

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