Budget pragmatic, time for ‘coherence’ in governance now: Rishad Premji

By Rishad Premji

I think the Union Budget of 2015 is a pragmatic and growth-oriented one. It is fiscally prudent and yet, importantly, takes into consideration matters of social inclusion.

This budget, as it should, lays the groundwork for possible action on multiple policy and administrative fronts. I think for many of the actions outlined to have their desired impact they will need to be deeply integrated with other policy instruments and available institutional structures. For this to happen, it will require deep and sustained coherence which can only happen through a combination of political will and administrative acumen. I am counting on and hopeful that the government will be able to drive this.

The most important example of this coherence that has been visible in the past weeks is across the report of the 14th Finance Commission, the Railway Budget, the Economic Survey and the Union Budget announced on Saturday. To take two examples: the greater empowerment of states and accompanying expectations from them have been a common theme, as has been the focussed non-political approach on pragmatic investment in the railway budget and also in today’s union budget. An area where this coherence will be most important to make an impact will be education. In his speech today, Arun Jaitley said “We will ensure that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds.”

With this he announced the intention of building loan and scholarship programmes that would support all students who want to pursue higher education. While there were no details available on this matter, if this intent is converted into a good programme, with adequate funding, then over time this may turn out to be one of the most significant long-term actions from this budget.

In addition to this potentially crucial announcement, the budget stated that a few more IIMs, IITs and other higher education institutions will be opened. It has also reaffirmed the intent to strengthen secondary schooling by upgrading 80,000 existing secondary schools and by investing in 75,000 existing middle schools. Outside of this, there was not anything significant in the budget for education. However this is not disappointing.

The reason that I say that is because what needs to be done to have the desired impact is not a matter of increased budgets but the right education policy and its execution. I am hoping that this will be dealt with comprehensively by the New Education Policy that the government has stated it is formulating.

I have tried to use education as an example to emphasize the need for this coherence. I am hopeful about this happening as the government seems to be demonstrating an ability to build required coherence in its various policy and structural mechanisms.



Rishad Premji is Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro