Can Dr Manmohan Singh do the magic again?

Who doesn't know the growth story India achieved during early nineties when Dr Manmohan Singh joined the cabinet as finance minister? Scenarios then were different. The foreign currency reserve was in a complete disarray (a mere $1 billion), balance of payment was a huge problem, fiscal deficit was nearly 8.5 % of GDP, current account deficit was close to 3.5% of GDP, and the license raj was at its peak. India was just dolloped with crisis and more economic crisis. Dr Singh along with then PM Narsimha Rao focused on a major agenda – economic liberalization. Despite immense opposition from political and bureaucratic circles Dr Singh paved the path for privatization. From a socialistic economy to a capitalist one, India has achieved a lot in these two decades of transformation, but this transformation is not complete yet.

What Dr Singh achieved in those five years as finance minister has overshadowed his role as prime minister. As a prime minister, his achievements are not worth mentioning except civil nuclear deal. In the last eight years he had hardly intervened in the financial matters and the results are thrown on the face. Both P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee have failed to influence the sentiments of FIIs. The reason: coalition politics. This has just propelled huge corruptions in the system.

With Pranab Mukherjee leaving the MoF and racing for presidential poll, what's more pertinent now for Dr. Singh is to first keep him insulate from the effects of coalition politics. And literally he should behave like a superman and forget politics for sometimes. Instead he should first move FDI bill for the retail and insurance sectors. Similarly, FDI in agriculture, infrastructure, telecom, civil aviation, and media should be opened up. At least the foreign investors can come forward to invest hugely in these sectors. And of course there in an inherent problem in our system – the bureaucratic hurdles. To transform India to the next economic superpower, we must do away with absurd business procedures. That could be possible only when PM will act in tandem with other ministries. Let's see how our PM is playing his magic wand.