Power sector reforms: The recent success of the bidding process for the licence to set up the ultra mega power plants notwithstanding, the state of the sector is far from satisfactory.
Forget about the ideal of a fully integrated national market for power, even individual states are reluctant to "marketize" their systems by implementing open access to the state-owned grids. The irony is that this measure will provide immediate relief, particularly in the more industrialised states in which a lot of captive generation capacity exists.
We don't need to wait for large new plants to come up to realise the benefits of open access. More so, without the unrestricted use of the grid, new plants will have to tie themselves into contracts with a small number of buyers, which is the essential weakness of the current regime.
Business risks will increase as result of this restriction, making investments costlier and, therefore, less attractive. It's all very well for the power ministry to talk about electricity on demand by 2012; the conditions required to fulfil this promise need to be initiated as soon as possible because they are not going to take effect overnight.
If we are looking to sustain a 9 per cent growth rate over the next few years, this will require a significant and sustained contribution from the manufacturing sector, which will obviously be most vulnerable to power supply constraints. The initial steps towards closing the supply gap are well-known - genuine open access to the entire grid across the country. But, what is it going to take to get it done?
Airports: On this, I have to admit to selfish motives, given that I spend a fair amount of time in the Delhi and Mumbai airports, which have both been under private operation for the last several months.
Although signs of change are visible, they have so far been largely confined to the cosmetic aspects. A more convenient and satisfying customer experience is a long, long way away and the private operators appear to be getting completely swamped by the surge in traffic with all the constraints they are expected to operate within.
As in other sectors, including power distribution, an initial negative customer experience is a huge setback to a completely legitimate and desirable process. At one level, it is inconceivable that a private consortium, which includes an airport operator from another country, cannot visibly improve the quality of service in a short period of time.
That it hasn't been able to do so may reflect on the weaknesses in the whole consortium agreement, but more likely, it is a consequence of limitations and inflexibilities imposed upon them by the concession agreement.
At some point, we have to take a step back and reflect on why we want to allow private operators into these various services in the first place. If customer satisfaction at reasonable cost is not the primary objective, then what is? If this is indeed the objective, then the agreements need to be structured in full alignment with it, particularly with respect to giving the concessionaire maximum freedom to pursue the objective.
Fiscal control: Macroeconomic circumstances, combined with an expanding base and improving compliance, have put the central government in a relatively comfortable financial situation. Given the expectations of sustained growth, adequate revenue collections should no longer be a challenge.
The finance ministry now needs to put priority on improving the efficiency of government expenditure. The "outcomes budget", initiated in 2005, is an important instrument in the pursuit of this objective.
It needs substantial improvement, but even as that is being done, it is critical that the finance ministry begin to justify budgetary allocations to different ministries, programmes and projects on the basis of accomplishments or lack of them revealed by the outcomes budget.
Government salaries: Most people who have expressed a view on the issue think that the Sixth Pay Commission will set back the process of fiscal consolidation. It will, indeed, do so if it follows the convention of raising government pay scales across the board.
But, if it were to adopt an approach that is more in tune with the current economic scenario, in particular, with the pattern of demand-supply imbalances in the markets for several kinds of specialised skills, it could stem what appears to me to be an impending crisis.
The gap between market and government compensation structures for specialised skills is so wide now that the government will have increasing difficulty retaining its existing professional cadres, let alone attracting new entrants.
At the same time, the government pays way above market wages for a whole range of completely obsolete skills. Pro-rata adjustments will only exacerbate the problem.
So, will the Sixth Pay Commission take the bull by the horns and structure pay scales in a way that is more reflective of market conditions? I am not arguing for an equalisation across private and public sectors, merely for consistency, which is necessary to retain and attract absolutely critical talent and skills.
We must do everything we can to avoid a situation in which government employees are either totally incompetent or totally corrupt or, worse, both.
World Cup: At this point, anybody who believes that India will win the World Cup in 2007 is either stupid or cynical. Since I have, on occasion, been accused of both, I shall absolve myself of that aspiration and merely wish for a watchable tournament without all the politics and commercial battles that accompanied the 2003 version.
What I would like to see, however, is India beat Australia at least once in the tournament, given that this was the only team they lost to, and rather humiliatingly at that, in the 2003 Cup.
The other thing that really irritated me about the commercials the last time around was the tendency to air ads featuring a player who had just got out to a really bad shot and was walking back to the pavilion.
Can self-respecting sponsors be expected to put a stop to this by asking broadcasters to exercise a little discretion and judgement themselves?
The author is chief economist, Crisil. The views here are personal
