Something tremendous is happening in India. Even one of my favourite columnists, Gurcharan Das, with his keen eye and often elegant prose, has his finger firmly on the pulse of the transformation…All those who love reading his column in TOI on Sundays know how his stories enliven what could easily have been a dull piece of economic history. How I wish we had more economists making you believe in India, its might and what we are capable of. How our rich country became poor and how it will be rich again.
Here, excerpts from his column on NH-8...
I was driving down from Jaipur to Ajmer. But I could have been anywhere. The six lane highway was a smooth beauty and the pot-holed India of the PWD was a hazy memory.
Then the wondrous colours of Rajasthan appeared and for an instant I thought I had entered a certain paradise, which seemed to unite modernity with tradition, world-class infrastructure with the ineffable loveliness of old India.
What makes the Jaipur-Kishangarh section of the golden quadrilateral special is that it is a true public-private partnership based on transparent legal contracts that might be a model for the world.
Such contracts have created a new level of trust and are enabling India to access funds, skills and technologies from the best companies in the world, who will build and operate our roads, ports, bridges, airports, and container trains, and transfer them to the state in 15 to 30 years.
Gajendra Haldea, an unusual economist-lawyer of integrity and conviction, drew up these model contracts at the Planning Commission. As a result, he is the most hated man in Delhi's infrastructure ministries. He has demolished opportunities for corruption.
Soon we shall have 20,000 km of highways, hundreds of private container trains, and many private ports and airports _ all in public-private partnership. These quiet steps teach us that reforms are not about the 'what' but the 'how'. They are less about economics and more about law...
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