World is slipping, but India is growing, says the PM. India is slipping, but Odisha is growing, says the State’s CM. At the “Make in India” meeting in Mumbai, Odisha did not project setting up of industries in the mineral and power sectors. There was interest in other sectors, viz., food processing, chemicals and electronics. The experiences of major minerals-based ventures like Posco, Mittal and Vedanta appear to have taught us a few lessons.
There continues to be a long gap between the visions and the realities. We cannot afford to be dream merchants any more. Facilitations continue to be limited to lip service. Delegations representing industrial houses continue to project rosy pictures of industrial growth. The so-called incentives very often stand denied on one pretext or the other. We could not take advantage of the mineral book in the international market. Posco is in a messed up state, unlikely to be proceeded with in the manner originally projected. Mittals had to leave as they were unsure of getting suitable land and mineral linkage. Vedanta is limping with shortage of the essential raw material. These are noted international industrial houses. If they had acute difficulty leading to their changing investment plans, others are bound to be discouraged from jumping into the scenario.
While we build the mirages of visions, the loan burden of Odisha would reach Rs65,000 crore during 2016-17. More than 40 per cent of the loans availed is spent on servicing past loans and in meeting the employees’ wage bill. The Budget of Odisha would be in the range of Rs94,000 crore, and the revenue income would be more than Rs30,000 crore. The loan burdens are increasing over the last few years.
Farmers are in distress driven to kill themselves. The ago and the allied sectors are in a state of disarray. The education sector is facing serious upheavals. Teachers of all types have taken to the streets under compulsion of circumstances. Healthcare is crying out for help. Doctors are in a disturbed state. Services vital to basic healthcare continue to be neglected. There is a shift from State-sponsored educational and health services to privately-managed ones, which are bound to be dominantly influenced by motives of profiteering. Elementary public health units at the grassroots level do not have adequate manpower and minimal infrastructural facilities. Overall, the social sector affecting the economically weaker and vulnerable sections is grossly inadequate and inefficient. These vital activities would not be influenced in any remarkable way by the proposals of investments in aluminum industries, in petrochemical industries, in food processing and in electronics manufactures.
The imbalances in base-level infrastructural development have inhibited real and meaningful growth. Political stability, though available over the last few years, has not yielded the requisite positive results. Management of non-renewable natural resources has lacked elementary elements of sustainable growth. We are attempting to fly high without adequately restructuring our fundamentals. All this results in fissures and fractures in our social fabric. These cannot be cured through the existing measures, which are essentially populist and propaganda-oriented.
The rate of infant mortality has continued to be high in Odisha. Productivity has continued to remain low in most of the vital spheres. Rural infrastructure has not received adequate attention. We have been swayed by catchy slogans and have ignored the basic and fundamental requirements of structural changes. Social disorientation and distortions have continued to divert our attention without adequate corrective and remedial measures. We seem to be aimlessly moving from one set of crossroad to more baffling ones.
Through propaganda and publicity, we have put ourselves at the centre of a make-believe world. The buying power at the command of the common man has declined. Demonstrative and conspicuous consumption has immensely increased. The middleclass is disoriented and confused, while continuing to be driven by material needs and wants. The cost of basic shelter and living has turned excessively expensive. Ends and means are of pen in a state of mismatch. Value content in our daily life has drastically declined, making ends justify the means. In this distorted kaleidoscope of life, we try to acquire an unwanted image, maybe involuntarily and unknowingly.
We are the youngest nation with the youth being the dominant section of the society. When the aspirations of the massive youth power remain unfulfilled, there is bound to be restlessness and distortion in the social structure. Promising milk and honey to be flowing down our drains is an adventurous step that adds to the social maladies and imbalances. This is where the elders are now facing the final scrutiny. They have to pave the path for a better future by laying new foundations to strengthen the social superstructure. We have to join hands with reformist resolutions as our goals. This calls for universal involvement. And this concerns all of us!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha.
jayantdas@hotmail.com)