Former Plan panel member Arun Maira blames mistrust among key stakeholders for India's ills

MUMBAI: Lack of co-operation and trust among various government departments, private sector and the civil society is one the key reasons for the slower growth of the economy, says former Planning Commission member Arun Maira.

Planning Commission has now been dissolved and replaced by NITI Aayog.

"The conclusion (of the book) was as we found in the Planning Commission, is that we don't work very well with each other," Maira said while releasing his book 'An Upstart in Government: Journey of Change and Learning'.

He said various government departments work in silos instead of working together.

"The private sector mistrusts the government and vice-a-versa. The civil society mistrusts both the government and private sector. So, when we talk about partnerships -- public-private partnerships or I would say people-public-private partnerships, we are very poor at it," Maira said, adding that everything gets stuck here as stakeholders can't come to agreements.

"Whether it is about the progress of the projects, whether use of the lands or its about purpose of a policy, or a framework of the policy, we can't agree and these bottlenecks are causing delays in progress that is needed," he added.

"So, the book is about how to prevent the bottlenecks arising or when they have risen how to quickly dissolve them by coming to agreements together. It's a book about converting contentions into co-operations," he added.

Maira said he wrote the book when his friends asked him about his experience and learning in the five-year tenure at the Planning Commission.

"I wrote the book because many friends asked me after my five years in the Planning Commission, and those five years were very unusual for me as I have never been in the government and also those were tumultuous times for the country which led to a big change.

"So, people wanted to know what was it like working with the Planning Commission and the government at that time. They wanted to know what I had learnt," he recalled.

Maira had held several senior positions in the Tata Group and abroad for 25 years until 1989. He was also chairman of The Boston Consulting Group India until April 2008.