Land, Labour and Legal reforms critical to retain India euphoria

Need to place national interest ahead of self

India is known for sacrifice (and compromise) for national interest. Indians have sacrificed wealth (and self) for national well-being, since pre-independence years. Then, why such stiff resistance to reforms that would take India forward to greater heights? Is the Indian politics happy with where India is today? It is high time, India needs political reforms (and maturity) to put the nation ahead of the interests of self and party; post the elections, it is sensible for all parties to come together with the common agenda of nation building. When we open up India to the developed world, why not import political maturity from them?

Land reforms critical for infrastructure build

India needs land to build international standard roads, rail, ports, power, telecom, water, SEZs etc to build robust infrastructure to spur growth in manufacturing and agriculture sectors. India also needs labour reforms for building India growth story at sustainable 10% year-on-year. The top-up is the legal reforms to provide comfort to investors (and lenders) to put more monies to work for productive investments, which is critical to generate employment and wealth. All these will lead to significant upgrade in social well-being and prosperity.

Need to have fair play in acquisition

Any acquisition is based on fair value, acceptable both to the giver and acquirer. And, anything is available for a price based on the need (and urgency) of the buyer or seller. In the current context, India (not the Government) is the buyer with urgent need, and the seller (who owns the land) gets double benefit, from sale value and direct benefits from India well-being. Many countries (developed and emerging) have demonstrated this for the ultimate benefits for the people. The belief now is that Land is acquired for the benefit of corporate business houses, and not for India. The Government has the duty to kill this myth in the bud to bring all political parties in loop for this common objective.

Infrastructure need is huge; Land reforms is only a beginning

India plans to build 30KMs of road per day across 2/4/6/8 lanes to build connectivity across India for smooth movement of goods, services and people. It is long term cost (and time) efficient. This vision can not be realised without availability of land, not held by the Government. If more than adequate compensation is put on the table ensuring that livelihood is not put at risk, land owners will be more than willing to support the Government. Extend this to other economic and social infrastructure, the need is huge and so is the opportunity for monetisation of land which may not be remunerative for the holder. Compensation can also be in the form of cash and structured equity to provide monthly or yearly dividend. Land acquisition process can be smooth with this combination, and will be win-win for both.

Euphoria build over political stability to push reforms is at danger

Stake-holders built re-rating of India (and its financial markets) based on hope (from domestic optimism) and luck (from external factors, over which "powers that be" has no control). The beneficial impact from external luck factors is now behind, and lot is expected from realisation of hope from domestic actions, measures and execution. There is lot at stake for India; reforms across land, labour and legal can pull-in Trillions of investments to spur consumption. The beneficial impact from combination of investment and consumption "push" will bring in significant capacity expansion for job and wealth creation, not only to make India the best place to do business but also to upgrade standard of living for peaceful coexistence. All sounds very good, but the trigger is with the political parties to have common agenda of "nation building"; will they? It is now or never!

Let good sense prevail!

Moses Harding