The blame for the debacle in the sugar Industry is being placed at the governments steps for its flip flop attitude in first banning Exports and then rushing to provide subsidy for exports all in a manner of 12 to 16 months. Similarly on the Cement front where the government invited with open mind (and quite correctly too) foreign multinationals to invest in Indian cement plants and create additional capacity, is now crying wolf saying that they are profiteering. Of course they have to profit and not for a social cause. It brought in a additional levy and now it is thinking of lifting it.
Iron ore, Wheat are other stories and so is the pulses story as your correspondent Mr. Chandrashekar eloquently highlights the failings of the government machinery. We are thinking of banning forward trade while RBI encourages hedging in international exchanges!
All this points to very serious systemic maladies which need surgical intervention, followed by long term rehabilitation (read Long term sustained policies). The maladies are the near absence of trained professionals involved in the decision making when world over, people who take similar decisions are trained specifically for the job and have equipped themselves with a strong data base and modelling systems powered by technology. It is time we transparently appointed experts or hired through medium term contracts who can bring in far reaching impact on the decision making. There is need to establish a better system of collection of agricultural production and other consumption, data, and make it available on a technology platform for manipulation to prepare what if scenarios.
The government and the powers that be should be advised not to look for quick fix solution for issues concerning globalised commodities in this post WTO era. Local issues, such as an State election can bring in political pressure on decision making but the decision makers should desist from yielding to such pressures and refrain from tinkering with policy on the Export - Import front.
Otherwise they will be inflicting far more damage than good to the vote bank.
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