Gujarat under Chief Minister Narendra Modi presents a ‘model’ for the rest of the country in terms of effective decentralising of power, implementation of Panchayati Raj and that of e-governance at district and village levels.
This is the dominant theme of a book titled ModiNomics, authored by Sameer Kochchar, Chairman Skoch Group, which was released on Saturday by leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. The book maintains that the leadership provided “the cutting edge” in Gujarat with a clarity on adopting policies and ways of their implementation that lacked under the UPA leadership. Modi, who was to release the book at a function here in India Habitat Centre, could not attend the function due to his “preoccupations at Gandhinagar”.
The book compliments Modi for his “out-of-the-box thinking” and bridging the gap between economic theory and practice through “innovative” development models. To substantiate his argument on what he called quick-footed policy implementation of his policies rather than reeling of high sounding economic theories, Kochchar said Mani Shankar Aiyar, a Panchayati Raj Minister in the Congress regime appreciated my ideas on devolution of powers and sought a report “that has till now not seen the light of day”.
As against this, the author said while visiting Gujarat in 2005 he discovered that Modi had already implemented e-governance in the State way back in 2003. In his book, Kochchar cites example of solar panels covering Gujarat irrigation canals, serving duel purpose of “preventing water evaporation” and generating solar energy simultaneously. Similarly, he says that patients in hospitals in Gujarat are not seen carrying their “fat medical files” as they are already stored in computers and transferred to the relevant destinations.
The book claims how e-governance in the State “has cut short the red-tape” and made delivery of birth certificate, land, property and IT documents etc in “the shortest possible time” at all levels, including that in rural areas.