📰 Survey details ‘catastrophic’ impact of school closures across India
37% of rural children have dropped out, says report of study on 15 States
•The prolonged closure of primary and upper primary schools during the pandemic months has led to “catastrophic consequences” for school students, particularly in rural India, says an emergency report.
•Based on the School Children’s Online and Offline Learning (SCHOOL) survey conducted by researchers, who worked in coordination with eminent economist Jean Dreze, the ‘Emergency Report on School Education’ says that only 8% of school students in rural India have been able to access online education, while at least 37% have stopped studying altogether.
Online limitations
•“The SCHOOL survey makes it clear that the reach of online education is very limited: the proportion of school children who were studying online “regularly” was just 24% and 8% in urban and rural areas respectively. One reason for this is that many sample households (about half in rural areas) have no smartphone,” found the survey that was conducted by around 100 volunteers across India.
•The report covered 1,362 sample households spread across 15 States including Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
•The survey also found that the Dalit and Adivasi children were at a greater disadvantage as a mere 5% of the children from these groups had access to online classes.
•According to the findings, access to online education among students in those houses with smartphones is also handicapped by the fact that the smartphones are mainly used by the working adults who are not always able to share the gadgets with the school going children at home.
No access to teachers
•Another casualty of the prolonged closure of schools has been the relation between the teachers and students in both urban and rural sectors with 51% of the respondents in the urban areas and 58% in rural India saying that they had not met teachers during the month preceding the survey. Researchers also found that there have been many teachers who went out of their comfort zones to help students during the 17 month closure of schools.
•In addition to education, the closure most importantly affected the level of nutrition among the children in rural schools where the mid day meals have been stopped.
•“Midday meals have been discontinued in all the sample States with the closure of schools. Among parents with a child enrolled in a government school, about 80% reported receiving some food (mainly rice or wheat) during the preceding 3 months as a substitute for their child’s midday meals,” stated the report about the condition of midday meals in the surveyed States.
Parents for resumption
•Most parents surveyed have supported reopening of the schools at the earliest. Ten percent of the parents in urban areas had some hesitation in sending their children to school but overall 97% of parents supported reopening of schools. The report said the prolonged school lockdown, one of the longest in the world, has led to a “colossal disaster”.
•“It will take years of patient work to repair this damage. Reopening schools is just the first step, still being debated. In fact, even preparations for that first step (such as repairing school buildings, issuing safety guidelines, training teachers, enrolment drives) are virtually invisible in many States,” said the researchers.
A law to regulate app store operators is key to check Big Tech’s monopolising nature
•South Korea’s newest legislation, dubbed the ‘anti-Google’ law, is something that Indian lawmakers should consider emulating. Last week, its Parliament passed an amendment to its Telecommunications Business Act with the aim of preventing app store operators, such as Google and Apple, from forcing app developers to use their in-store payment systems, for which they charge exorbitantly. The new law is also a check on the unfair use of market position. With digital commerce becoming ubiquitous, and with the Googles and the Apples controlling this experience through their platforms, it has become imperative for government laws to regulate them. South Korea happens to be the first off the block. But a lot of other jurisdictions are not far behind. Australia, which only recently brought in a law to make Internet platforms pay media companies for displaying their content, is now reportedly thinking of bringing digital payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and WeChat Pay under its regulatory ambit. The European Union’s draft law seeks to make these large platform companies, “gatekeepers” as it refers to them, comply with a set of dos and don’ts that gives the smaller companies a fair chance. The EU proposal is also centred around customers having more choice.
•But that is not all. In the U.S., last month, three Senators brought in a Bill much along the same lines. Introduced by Democrats Richard Blumenthal, Amy Klobuchar, and Republican Marsha Blackburn, it aims “To promote competition and reduce gatekeeper power in the app economy, increase choice, improve quality, and reduce costs for consumers.” All this is happening in the backdrop of the pending verdict in the well-known case in which Epic Games, the company behind ‘Fortnite’, sued Apple on this very issue. The legal move was triggered after Apple ousted Epic from its platform for putting up its own payment system, bypassing Apple’s. The app store operators are clearly on the back foot the world over. In India too, the angst of app developers has been evident in recent times. According to a report, Apple is facing an antitrust challenge in India from a Rajasthan-based non-profit called ‘Together We Fight Society’ on this issue. It remains to be seen if the regulator, the Competition Commission of India, orders an investigation. Last year, it started investigations into similar allegations against Google. A law to regulate app store operators is not a drastic departure from this government’s thinking on such issues. Only recently, it promoted the setting up of the Open Network for Digital Commerce to “democratise e-commerce” and “to provide alternatives to proprietary e-commerce sites”. The challenge, however, is to protect the smaller sellers and developers without undermining the ecosystem for technological innovation.
📰 Nipah amidst a pandemic
Quick development of vaccines for tropical infections is a success of the coronavirus era
•India is far from being anywhere near the finish line with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, even as fears of a Nipah virus outbreak have surfaced in Kerala with one confirmed death in Kozhikode. While confirmed cases of the viral infection have been reported several times since 2001 in West Bengal and Kerala, it was the outbreak in 2018, in Kozhikode, that made headlines after 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases, underlining the high infection-associated fatality. Outbreaks fanned by exotic viruses are not foreign to India: a glance at the weekly reports compiled by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme shows the diversity of viral or bacterial outbreaks that flash by with barely a mention, unless they threaten India’s metropolises as outbreaks of dengue, H1N1, chikungunya or malaria sometimes do. However, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic also draws attention to significant outbreaks that preceded it. Nipah in Kozhikode and Malappuram was the first outbreak where terms such as ‘contact tracing’, ‘RT PCR’, ‘antigen test’, and ‘PPE kits’ became part of the ordinary discourse in Kerala. The State’s public health system, earlier commended only for quality primary health care, earned appreciation for its ability to establish links between the infected and their contacts and to isolate them to prevent further spread.
•There are now established protocols — at the national level — for the three key aspects of a potential pandemic: infection control, treatment and vaccination. When a contagion hits, the world now understands what can and cannot be controlled within each geographic region’s context. It is these lessons from the coronavirus pandemic that must inform future outbreaks. It had become routine for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, at intervals, to report outbreaks of ‘mystery fevers’, when they were often easily diagnosable infections that were just a competent, accessible laboratory test away. Thus, while there is no knowing if the latest Nipah outbreak in India will peter out like in 2019 or be worse than in 2018, India must be heartened that the potential of an outbreak evokes national concern and an anticipatory response unlike the earlier and purely reactive approach. A standardised treatment for Nipah continues to be elusive and a spike in cases could spell disaster given the high mortality rate. However, some studies suggest that vaccines developed for the coronavirus, if adequately tweaked, may prove effective against the Nipah virus too. Another potential candidate vaccine is in early human trials. Because vaccination continues to be the best bet against the disease, the very fact that global attention and capital no longer need to be coaxed to developing vaccines for tropical infections is itself a key difference in how the world approaches outbreaks in the coronavirus era.
📰 Needed: A tribunal for CAPF
It would ensure speedy delivery of justice and reduce the burden of the High Courts
•Over the years, there have been numerous cases of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers overstaying leave. This prompted the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to issue orders to the CRPF headquarters on August 23, 2021, to “include the provisions of Security Force Court (SFC) as available in the Acts and Rules of other CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces), for initiating disciplinary action against the delinquent officers, so that such cases are finalised within minimum time.”
Delays in enquiries
•CRPF rules lay down the procedure for the conduct of departmental enquiries against non-gazetted ranks, and the officers are generally well versed with the procedure. As a result, most of the cases that are challenged in the High Courts are upheld. In normal circumstances, the departmental enquiries are completed within three to six months. But when gazetted officers are charge-sheeted, the time taken to order the enquiries is longer as other institutions like the Union Public Service Commission, the Central Vigilance Commission, the Department of Personnel and Training, and the MHA are also roped in for their views and legal opinion.
•When personnel overstay their leave for long durations, the delinquent officers must be directed to appear before the inquiring authority along with the presenting officer and the defence assistant of the charged official. Even if one of them fails to appear for the hearing, the conduct of enquiry must be postponed. Often, the enquiry is conducted ex parte (without the presence of the charged official). In such cases, the recorded statements and other documents must be sent to the charged official. Postal delays further aggravate the matter. Since most officers are busy in operational matters, which gain priority over everything else, the enquiries take a backseat.
•It is not just the inquiring authority who has to take time off his busy schedule to conduct the enquiry, but also the charged official and the presenting officer and defence assistant, if any. Quite often, delays occur in providing certain prosecution documents to the charged official who may demand them for preparing his own defence. There can be no gainsaying that such delays occur in all ministries and departments. While in the case of non-gazetted ranks, the enquiries are completed within a matter of few months, there can be no reason for undue delay in the case of officers. The monitoring system must be very stringent. Since most serving officers who are appointed as inquiring authorities are tasked to conduct enquiries in addition to their usual responsibilities, the enquiries are not given due priority.
The solution
•The solution lies in appointing retired officers as inquiring authorities, who can afford to devote their time to the conduct of enquiries as is being done in most departments of the government. The difference between the SFC and the departmental enquiry is that while the former is a purely judicial process where the guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt and the charged official is at liberty to engage a legal practitioner to defend him, the latter is a quasi-judicial proceeding where the mere element of preponderance of probability is enough to determine guilt. Though the Central Reserve Police Force Act of 1949 provides for conducting judicial trial by a Commandant in his capacity as a Magistrate, seldom is it exercised as it gets into the realm of judicial process. Hence, the conduct of a departmental enquiry is the better option.
•With increasing cases being filed in the High Courts across the country in service matters, it is high time the government considered the setting up of tribunals for the CAPFs on the lines of the Armed Forces Tribunal for defence services. Retired officers of the rank of Inspectors General and Additional Directors General from the CAPFs could be part of these tribunals along with retired judges of High Courts. This would ensure speedy delivery of justice.
📰 Refining the reservation policy
Political parties should consider making substantive changes to the way reservation is implemented
•In February, just before the Election Commission announced the schedule of the State election, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a Bill to provide 10.5% reservation for the Vanniyakula Kshatriyas within the quota of Most Backward Classes (MBCs) and Denotified Communities (DNCs). In May, relying on the 102nd Constitution Amendment, the Supreme Court reiterated the constitutional position that States did not have the power to identify “socially and educationally backward” classes (SEBCs) . This evoked a strong reaction from political parties, forcing the Centre to pass in August the 105th Amendment which again empowers States or Union Territories to prepare their own lists of SEBCs. From this year onwards, 27% of the all-India quota for admissions for medical and dental courses will be reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10% for economically weaker sections (EWS). This was an outcome of the judicial intervention and legal battles of parties such as the AIADMK and the DMK.
Breaching the cap
•All these developments have given a fillip to the demand for a caste-based census and removal of the 50% cap on reservation. Those advocating for this argue that only a caste-based census can bring to the fore the composition and numerical strength of various castes. Using this as the basis, the 50% cap on reservation can be breached.
•There have been a few attempts in the last 10 years at caste enumeration, but they did not yield the desired results. The 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census’s report was made public five years ago but without the data on caste. In Karnataka, a similar exercise was launched in 2015. The report is still not out. In Tamil Nadu, a one-man commission was constituted in December 2020 to collect data on castes. But six months later, the commission was wound up.
•It is natural that political parties will not agree with the findings of a caste-based census — however well it may have been conducted — if they think that their perceptions of the strength of certain castes do not tally with the findings of the census. Besides, any such data alone, particularly those concerning OBCs, cannot be used as the basis for breaching the 50% cap on reservation. This is because there is no provision in the Constitution to link the quantum of reservation to the population of the OBCs.
•A reading of clauses (4) and (5) of Article 15 and clause (4) of Article 16 of the Constitution reveals that the scheme of reservation for the SEBCs is permissible but meant only for those OBCs which are “not adequately represented” in the services in the State. As laid down in the Indra Sawhney case (1992), there must be extraordinary circumstances to justify the quantum to exceed the cap. Tamil Nadu is a classic case where the 50% ceiling was breached early. The State provides 69% quota for Backward Classes, MBCs, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). But the scheme of quota even in Tamil Nadu was not framed keeping in mind the population of the reserved communities. According to the Second Backward Classes Commission, the population of the Backward Classes, MBCs and the DNCs in the State was about 67%, a figure that the State government still uses. In addition, SCs and STs account for 21.11%, as per the 2011 Census. Several other States have breached the cap. They have adopted the 10% quota for EWS too. However, while highlighting the cause of the Backward Classes, political parties should keep in mind the rationale behind the cap. The Supreme Court, in the Maratha case of May 2021, said: “The 50 per cent ceiling limit for reservation laid down by [the] Indra Sawhney case is on the basis of principle of equality as enshrined in Article 16 of the Constitution.”
Need for sub-classification
•At the same time, it is well known that the scheme of reservation suffers from anomalies. It needs to be refined. Primarily, if the benefits of reservation are equitably distributed among the OBCs, sub-categorisation is a prerequisite. While suggesting the creation of three sub-categories — extremely backward classes, more backward classes and backward classes — the National Commission for Backward Classes emphasised in 2015 more on the need for “classification of OBCs” than on streamlining the provisions on creamy layer to ensure fair implementation of the reservation policy. It is hoped that the Rohini Commission, constituted by the Centre in October 2017 for the purpose of sub-categorisation of communities in the Central list of OBCs, completes its work in three or four months. Some States and Puducherry have already completed the task of sub-categorisation.
•The parties should also take a dispassionate look at the concept of creamy layer. Fifty years ago, Tamil Nadu’s First Backward Classes Commission recommended that the “affluent sections” in the backward classes should be “precluded from reservation” for the reason of equity. The annual income limit is one of the parameters that determine the creamy layer. Since September 1993, this was revised only five times against the norm of revision every three years. In addition to frequently revising the income limit, the Central government should consider, while revising the limit, many factors such as the trend of rise in GDP, inflation, per capita income and rise in the cost of living. Even as there is a strong case for increasing the present limit of ₹8 lakh per annum for determining the creamy layer, the definition of income needs to change. At present, income from salary and agriculture are not considered but “income from other sources” is taken into account. This stipulation on the nature of source of income not only complicates the situation but is also unfair to candidates of those whose parents may earn marginally higher income “through other sources” than the ceiling. This has been amply illustrated in a communication sent in July by the Tamil Nadu government’s BC, MBC and Minorities Welfare Department’s Secretary to the Commissioner of Revenue Administration. According to the communication, for the purpose of issuing OBC certificates, District Collectors should take into account how the parents of candidates earn their annual income, apart from considering other parameters. If the parental income is ₹25 lakh through salary or ₹50 lakh through agriculture, such candidates will be given OBC certificates. But if the parents earn ₹8.1 lakh through “other sources,” their son or daughter will not get the certificate.
•Besides, the vacancies in the posts of OBCs have to be filled expeditiously. The parliamentary committee had said that as on January 1, 2016, OBC employees in 78 ministries and departments of the Central government constituted only 21.57% against the quota of 27%. In respect of Groups A and B services, the share of OBCs was much lower. This only underscores the need for the Centre to conduct special drives frequently to fill the vacancies. Such an approach will take care of concerns in certain sections that the enforcement of “stringent norms” of the creamy layer might not serve the objective of the 27% quota scheme.
•Instead of fighting over abstract issues, political parties should channel their energies to make substantive and qualitative changes in the way the reservation is implemented, if they are really concerned about social justice, inclusion of all and the plight of the underprivileged among the OBCs.
📰 The economic reforms — looking back to look ahead
The fundamentals need to be set right with a focus on human capital, technology readiness and productivity
•The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country and at global level has led to a debate about fresh thinking and new approaches to manage the economy and the future of humanity. Globally, it has underscored the need for policies to enable resilience in the economy and ensure a robust health system, together with research and development. In India, various efforts are under way to enhance economic growth.
A critical reading of reforms
•History matters in the complex economic system. So, it is important to briefly look at the economic reforms of the last 30 years. Evidence shows that the economic reforms which were launched in a major way in 1991 — and from time to time, subsequent interjections for liberalisation of economy and trade — have enabled some credible gains for the country. Over a period of 30 years, burgeoning foreign exchange reserves, sustained manufacturing contribution in GDP, increased share in global exports (from a mere 0.6% in the early 1990s to 1.8%), robust information and communication technology software exports, and sustained economic growth in the range of 6%-8% are clear hallmarks of success.
•The economic reforms, so far, have been more focussed on the technical nature of the economy than the system, process and people. As a result, quite a few primary drivers of the economy — human capital, technology readiness, labour productivity, disposable income, capital expenditure, process innovation in setting up businesses, and institutional capacity — have not got enough recognition. In the context of a global competitive environment, some basic issues deserve close examination.
•The human resource capital (HRC) formation, a good determinant of labour productivity, has been found wanting over the entire period of reforms. The lack of quality education, low skilled manpower and inadequacies in basic health care have resulted in low HRC. The HRC rank for India stands at 103; Sri Lanka is at 70, China at 34, and South Korea at 27, as brought out by the Global Human Capital Report, 2017.
•As indicated in the World Bank database on GDP for 2019, the low per capita GDP in India, at $2,104 (at $6,997 in PPP terms, ranked 125th globally) against the world average of $11,429 (at $17,678 in PPP terms) has direct links to low per capita family income. Closely linked, the report by Deloitte (Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index in 2016) reflects that the hourly wages in India have been $1.7; they are $38, $24, $20.7 and $3.3 for the United States, Japan, South Korea, and China, respectively. Low wages have a direct bearing on the disposable income of families and leave little room for the majority of households to have enough disposable income to purchase consumer durables or industrial products, affecting demand.
•Low research and development expenditure at 0.8% of GDP, vis-à-vis higher value for other fast emerging economies such as South Korea (4.5%), China (2.1%) and Taiwan (3.3%), is resulting in lower capacity for innovation in technologies and reduced ‘technology readiness’, especially for manufacturing.
Labour productivity
•The lack of HRC and low technology readiness have impacted labour productivity adversely. In India, labour productivity in manufacturing is less than 10% of the advanced economies including Germany and South Korea, and is about 40% of China, as reflected in a World Bank publication of 2018, The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development. Low productivity has unfavourable consequences for competitiveness, manufacturing growth, exports and economic growth.
•In addition, due to a lack of capital expenditure and institutional capacity, and inefficiency in business service processes, there are difficulties in acquiring land for businesses, in efficient utilisation of economic infrastructure, and in providing business services, leading to a long time and more cost in setting up enterprises, resulting in a loss of creative energy of entrepreneurs.
•The fundamental deficiencies, as highlighted above, are at the heart of the problem. For years, the economy has been hit internally due to low consumer demand as a result of low household incomes as well as externally on account of lesser competitiveness and inadequacies in integration with global supply chains for trade. A Business as Usual (BAU) approach is resulting in diminishing returns.
Paradigm shift
•In order to drive the economy, there needs to be fresh thinking to address the underlying issues comprehensively in an integrated manner. The new reforms will require a distinct departure. The approach should be systemic and address structural issues — HRC, skills, research and development (R&D), land management and institutional capacity. The focus should be on quality of business services, technology readiness, labour productivity and per capita income.
•First, to attract large investment in manufacturing and advanced services, at a basic level, investment in human capital and technology is a prerequisite. Raising HRC by way of enhanced public sector outlay to 8% of GDP, from current about 5%, for education, skill development (including for advanced technologies) and public health, is another first step. The reports (by McKinsey and the World Economic Forum) on advanced manufacturing suggest that Industry 4.0 will be defined by new technologies such as robotics, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), etc., which could usher in rapid changes of a higher order up to 10X or more in speed, scale and scope; technology obsolescence will be much faster than ever before. Consequently, efforts for technology readiness are very essential to stay competitive. It demands enhancing public research and development expenditure to 2% of GDP over the next three years.
•There is a need to work on strategies to enhance per capita income by more wages for workers through higher skills and enhancing minimum wages, besides improving the social security net. This calls for a concerted calibrated approach through collaborative efforts of government, industry and workers’ unions. On the issue of increased cost of labour, it can be compensated by higher productivity, some tax-benefits in the initial period of wage reforms especially for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, besides reducing transaction costs in business and improving infrastructure utilisation efficiency.
Systemic approach
•Using insights from the work of Nobel laureate (1993) Douglass C. North on the role of institutions in advancing the economy in a country, it is necessary to build the capacity of public institutions to create a good environment for business and industry. The process of reforms is as important as the content. Policy reforms should lay an emphasis on process innovation and promote a business-centric approach to implementing pre-determined service quality levels (SQLs), to create a friendly ecosystem by having a state-of-the-art plug-and-play model for new enterprises, and for efficient internal supply chain management to integrate with the global supply chain.
•Finally, largely absent in the 1990s, apart from rapid globalisation and rising aspirations, the future of the economy should be particularly viewed in the backdrop of a significant and irreversible shift in terms of a reliance on the global supply chain as a result of the knowledge-intensive nature of businesses and exponential effects caused by advanced technologies under Industry 4.0, since the 2010s. Therefore, the strategies adopted since the 1990s till now may not ensure adequate returns, and call for innovative approaches in public policymaking.
•In sum, it necessitates a systemic approach — encompassing inter-connected basic factors of the economic system — for policy reforms for setting the economic fundamentals right, in order to unlock creativity and innovation in the economic system, raise the total factor productivity (TFP), or a measure of productive efficiency, and to achieve higher growth.
📰 Decoding asset monetisation
The NMP is a bold initiative but its success is not assured
•The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) is a bold initiative. But let us first understand what the NMP is and what it is not. The NMP is not about the sale of government-owned assets. It is not about privatisation or disinvestment. The proposal is to offer infrastructure assets that will continue to be owned by the government under a long-term concession agreement to interested private bidders.
Comparison with PPP model
•The NMP is also very different from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-I’s ill-fated public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure development of the mid-2000s. That programme was about attracting private parties to build, operate and then transfer ‘greenfield’ or new infrastructure projects under build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession agreements. These enjoined the winning private bidder to take not only the operating risk, but also the development and construction risk of the project, such as a toll road, from scratch. This was a complex and messy process. It involved the acquisition of land. This process became controversial and was subject to delay. It involved securing environmental and other regulatory approvals. These proved challenging to obtain. It involved meeting construction and design standards. Compliance with these became a source of friction between the concessioning authority and the concessionaire. All this undermined trust between the public and private parties and led to a huge volume of disputes for which there was no readily available resolution mechanism.
•In contrast, the NMP is about leasing out ‘brownfield’ infrastructure assets (such as an already operating inter-State toll highway) under a toll-operate-transfer (TOT) concession agreement. In such an arrangement no acquisition of land is involved. Nor does the concessionaire need to take any of the construction risk. The process promises to be much simpler and cleaner than what was required in the PPP programme. It is also certain to attract a different class of private capital. To be successful in the BOT bids required a proven ability to navigate and manage the system. It thus attracted battle-hardened domestic entrepreneurs adept at finding creative ways of extracting value, including through ‘gold plating’ of project costs or through ‘negotiated settlements’ with demanding government inspectors or friendly bankers. On the other hand, for success under the bidding process of the NMP, what will be required is operational experience in running a particular class of infrastructure assets and a strong understanding of the potential cash flows generated over the life of the concession. This is certain to attract the largest global pension funds.
Contract design and implementation
•That said, the success of the NMP is by no means assured. Bidding out and designing long-term concessions for assets that are already operating requires considerable skill. Given the long tenure of these concession agreements, they must be designed to allow for some flexibility so that each party has the opportunity to deal with unforeseen circumstances (such as climate-related disasters) and to prevent needless litigation. Contracts must also incorporate clear key performance indicators expected of the private party and clear benchmarks for assets as they are handed over by the government the start of the concession. This is key to avoiding disputes about potential additional capital expenditures that might be required to keep the asset operational. Two, no matter how well a contract is crafted, it still needs to be implemented effectively. Experience shows that there is a tendency for government departments to inject opacity into the implementation of concession agreements so that they have more power over the concessionaire. To avoid this, it would be useful if the responsibility for administering the concession agreements did not lie directly with the line ministries and/or their agencies. Three, it is vital to put in place a robust dispute resolution mechanism. For all these reasons there is a strong case to set up a centralised institution with the skills and responsibility to oversee contract design, bidding and implementation, separate from, but with appropriate assistance of, the concerned line ministries. An institution such as ‘3 PPP India’, first mooted in the 2014 Budget, is needed. It would also be advisable to set up an Infrastructure PPP Adjudication Tribunal along the lines of what was recommended by the Kelkar Committee (2015) to create suitably specialised dispute resolution capacity.
•Finally, it is always wise to under-promise and over-deliver. The government could start with sectors that offer greatest cash flow predictability and the least regulatory uncertainty before expanding the experiment. It could also ensure that resources raised from the NMP are used to fund new asset creation under the National Infrastructure Pipeline. This will ensure credibility.
