The UPA-2 government has been branded as left-leaning despite the absence of left parties in the alliance. Dr. Manmohan Singh has been a man of great foresight and vision but maintained a stony silence in addressing urgent reform issues like retail and subsidies. The ideal case would be if Dr. Singh takes things in this stride and announces some hard nosed and urgently needed policy decisions. There are a host of sectors in which reforms are essential and some of them are labor sector, Multi-Brand Retail sector,Fertilizer subsides, Decontrol of Administered prices of petroleum products and decontrol of Sugar sector.
India has restrictive policies on hiring of labor. Industry experiences cycles of boom and bust. It is difficult to sack employees due to down turn in the industry. This has held back companies from hiring larger number of workers. Such rules which restrict companies from firing employees have to be relaxed.
Fertilizer prices in India are controlled by a strange set of rules which effectively restricts fertilizer supplies. It has been ages ago that a new fertilizer plant has been started and the existing ones are making losses. The government should allow differential pricing of fertilizers and allow two categories of fertilizer sales. One subsidized and sold only to poor farmers and other category of Non-Subsidized or commercial sold to larger farmers and in the open market. Also the government should allow imports of fertilizers and sale at market determined rates. Fertilizer is an essential ingredient of agriculture and adequate quantities of them have to be used in order to achieve higher productivity.
There have been discussions on opening up multi-Brand retail to foreign players.The government should go-ahead and open up the sector to large retailers so that the ensuing competition leads to lowering of prices. Presently the retailers profiteer when prices of some vegetables goes up. This is because there is little competition in retailing. Consumers are at the receiving end of all this. Kirana store owners are already so rich that they can support themselves without any earnings in the future. Opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals will not harm them much and consumers who are being taken for a ride will get relief.
Reforms in petroleum pricing is currently under way and petroleum companies who have been burdened with subsidies have to be provided relief by rolling-back subsidies completely. Simultaneously taxes on petroleum products should be reduced both by central and state governments to reduce price rise for the end consumer.
Finally farmers producing products such as rice, wheat and sugar cane should not be forced to sell their produce to government agencies, such as FCI and crushing factories, and the minimum support price should be just that, a recourse to be taken by farmers when market prices of farm produce is too low.
These are some of the sectors in which urgent reforms are essential to set right the wrongs that have been committed in the past.
India has restrictive policies on hiring of labor. Industry experiences cycles of boom and bust. It is difficult to sack employees due to down turn in the industry. This has held back companies from hiring larger number of workers. Such rules which restrict companies from firing employees have to be relaxed.
Fertilizer prices in India are controlled by a strange set of rules which effectively restricts fertilizer supplies. It has been ages ago that a new fertilizer plant has been started and the existing ones are making losses. The government should allow differential pricing of fertilizers and allow two categories of fertilizer sales. One subsidized and sold only to poor farmers and other category of Non-Subsidized or commercial sold to larger farmers and in the open market. Also the government should allow imports of fertilizers and sale at market determined rates. Fertilizer is an essential ingredient of agriculture and adequate quantities of them have to be used in order to achieve higher productivity.
There have been discussions on opening up multi-Brand retail to foreign players.The government should go-ahead and open up the sector to large retailers so that the ensuing competition leads to lowering of prices. Presently the retailers profiteer when prices of some vegetables goes up. This is because there is little competition in retailing. Consumers are at the receiving end of all this. Kirana store owners are already so rich that they can support themselves without any earnings in the future. Opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals will not harm them much and consumers who are being taken for a ride will get relief.
Reforms in petroleum pricing is currently under way and petroleum companies who have been burdened with subsidies have to be provided relief by rolling-back subsidies completely. Simultaneously taxes on petroleum products should be reduced both by central and state governments to reduce price rise for the end consumer.
Finally farmers producing products such as rice, wheat and sugar cane should not be forced to sell their produce to government agencies, such as FCI and crushing factories, and the minimum support price should be just that, a recourse to be taken by farmers when market prices of farm produce is too low.
These are some of the sectors in which urgent reforms are essential to set right the wrongs that have been committed in the past.
