A non-event

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, (PBD) held for the first time in Chennai, proved to be a non-event. Typical of Tamil Nadu, there was subdued interest on the part of the leadership, both political and business with few business leaders (except those listed to speak)turning up (despite CII's involvement). Union minister for overseas affairs, Vayalar Ravi, and his team did try to present a rich fare, ensuring the participation of the prime minister, the minister of external affairs, a few chief ministers and ministers from other states and some celebrities. But most of the faculty appeared to have been selected not much for their brilliance.

The interest, obviously, was most pronounced from states enthusiastic about foreign investments such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh placed a lot of importance on the event and fielded their chief ministers. The presentations made by Narendra Modi and Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, listing the several favourable factors in their respective states that will merit investments by overseas Indians, evoked a lot of interest.
Gujaratis constitute the largest component of NRIs (except in the Gulf region). Gujarat also accounts for the largest quantum of foreign direct investments in recent years. A Gujarat government publication estimated FDIs received by the state through 2007-08 forming 22 per cent of total such investments. Thus the enthusiasm of Gujarat was understandable. The biannual Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors meet scheduled for 12 and 13 January was so near the PBD; yet Modi, accompanied by his minister and a strong team of bureaucrats, spent a day at Chennai.

A judicial revolution in Gujarat…

Among the impressive features presented by Modi at the plenary and the parallel session on states (the Gujarat Hall attracted the most delegates which included a senior politician Sami Velu from Malaysia) that stressed the attractiveness of the state, the one that did not get the deserved attention relates to judicial reforms.

Post -1991, the country has witnessed a lot of favourable changes in regard to fiscal and monetary policies, liberalisation of investment policies and opening up the economy for competition. But there has been little focus on judicial reforms. The cases getting piled up in the different courts, from the district to the state to the national levels, are humungous. The delays caused by lengthy judicial procedures and avoidable adjournments contribute to long delays and humungous costs in the dispensation of justice. Very few courts seem to work with determination to clear the backlog, simultaneously setting up time limits for disposal.

Modi's claim in this regard appeared unbelievable. He said that Gujarat, which witnessed piling up of cases of over 110 lakh, has succeeded in bringing the numbers down to around 25 lakh during the current year. He promised clearing the backlog completely by next year, when Gujarat will celebrate 50 years of its formation.

Modi explained this arising out of three simple, elegant means: one, by persuading courts to work an extra shift in the evening from 6 pm; two, requesting judges to sit an extra 30 minutes in each session; and three, cutting down the number of holidays taken by the judges by 10 days. And the judiciary extended its cooperation by acceding to these suggestions!

In 2000, IE along with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, organised a seminar in Chennai on WTO. Dr. N L Mitra, then Director of the University, made precisely these recommendations to reduce the backlog of cases in courts. He also suggested courts working on Saturdays apart from extended hours. The then chief justice of Madras High Court was inclined to accept this suggestion. But the highly politicised lawyers of Tamil Nadu shot the proposal down; sadly their consciousness on larger issues like the clearance of backlog was poor.

Apart from his winning laurels for achievements in economic and social sectors, like taking power and water to all 18,000 odd villages, improving the quantity and quality of education, particularly, for girls, and making agriculture record double digit growth, the success in judicial reforms, I felt, was equally impressive.

A golden opportunity missed
I was disappointed over the opportunity missed by the Tamil Nadu government at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The leadership of both the DMK and the AIADMK has not been enthusiastic over participating in national and international conferences of this type. For one thing, an ageing Karunanidhi of the DMK and the late M G Ramachandran of AIADMK, outstanding orators in Tamil, are not fluent in English. J Jayalalithaa has been known for her command over both English and Tamil, but keeps aloof from such conferences, particularly outside Chennai. Significantly in 42 years of rule by the Dravidian Parties, Karunanidhi had gone to the western capital just once; Annadurai and MGR visited USA for medical treatment and Jayalalithaa has not been enthusiastic to move out of the country.

There has thus been no great interaction of the political leadership of the state with non-resident Tamils (NRTs) who are settled in sizable numbers in the US, European and Asian countries and are prosperous. There is a distinct disconnect between the leadership and the NRTs. Just contrast this with the passion with which a Narendra Modi, a Chandrababu Naidu and a S M Krishna cultivate the NRIs from their respective states!

The PBD 2009 attracted very few Tamils of Indian origin from the US or UK; bulk of Tamil NRIs came largely from Malaysia, Singapore and other nearby countries.

Chief minister Karunanidhi made a short speech at the inaugural session at which the prime minister was the chief guest. The eight-minute speech did not provide much scope for his marketing Tamil Nadu. One expected a strong presentation by Tamil Nadu in the session for states presided over by the deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, M S Ahluwalia. Narendra Modi and Rajasekhara Reddy made the most of it. Bihar's deputy chief minister, Sushi Kumar Modi and junior ministers from Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra made impressive presentations. Disappointingly, TN minister of electricity, Arcot Veerasami, who was given the opportunity to present the attractions of Tamil Nadu, graciously handed his time to other states!

In the parallel session for states, bureaucrats of Tamil Nadu made elaborate presentations on the attractions of the state for investments, especially in the automobile and ICT sectors. The CEO of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, pointed to the spectacular strides made by the state in the IT sector with software exports growing more than six 'fold from $1161 million in 2001-02 to $7122 million in 2007-08. With CII and other industry associations, the state has also been outlining plans to catch up and even overtake Karnataka, the leader. But quite stunningly, minister Veerasami advised NRIs against investments in the IT sector. The Times of India headlined this report on page 1 the following day: TN does not need IT investments, says state minister.

The absence of a strategy to make the best use of the PBD was so glaring. Thus a golden opportunity seems to have been totally missed.

Focus should be on speedy implementation

DMK supremo M Karunanidhi (MK) used to have a reputation as a good administrator. He used to take legitimate pride for quick disposal of files. Improving upon his skills in successive terms as chief minister, MK seems to value the importance of efficiency in administration. This, unfortunately, is not witnessed today except in areas designed to impact on the masses, particularly through freebies or measures designed to impact on vote banks.

Look at the speed of implementation of distribution of colour TVs, the rupee-a-kg rice scheme, the subsidised Pongal pack (rice, green dhal, jaggery, cashewnut and ghee… this scheme involved a subsidy of Rs.140 crore), or in adapting the sixth pay commission increases to the state government's employees (with around 13 lakh employee plus pensioners, these together account for nearly a sixth of the state's population and a large vote bank).

One witnessed some speed of clearances of large projects involving foreign direct investment. For a few of these, quick decisions were made with corresponding photo ops. Large areas of land were allotted at low or modest prices and hefty sales tax concessions were given. Modest tariff was provided for power which also included assured, uninterrupted supplies.
However, there was not much transparency or uniformity in such deals. There was also the grouse on the part of large Indian corporates and smaller ones on the absence of such favourable considerations for their proposals.

I cite an instance where a prestigeous project has suffered as a consequence – the titanium project of the Tatas. Initiated in 2002 during the AIADMK rule, this project involving an outlay of around Rs.2500 crore, is still a non-starter. It was intended to be a major manufacturing project of the house of Tatas in this state and its quick success could have paved the way for more such large investments from this group.

The AIADMK government stalled this to favour a local entrepreneur engaged in some modest mining activities much of which was not even properly licensed. After much labour, the DMK government showed some interest but left the task of procurement of land to the company. With so much publicity on the project, land prices in remote Tuticorin zoomed to such astronomical levels (from around Rs.5000 per acre in 2002, when the project was initially cleared, to over Rs.5 lakh per acre now) that the viability of the project appears lost. At these levels, the expenditure just on land needed of around 10,000 acres would exceed Rs.500 crore!

RV is no more

Former President of India and architect of industrialisation of Tamil Nadu, R. Venkataraman breathed his last on 27 January at the age of 99. Lawyer, trade union leader, freedom fighter and a staunch Congressman, RV held important positions in the cabinets of Tamil Nadu and the Centre. In 1980, RV shifted to New Delhi and held the portfolios of finance and defence before becoming the Vice President and President. RV represented India at the ILO for long number of years.

IE expresses its deepest condolences to bereaved family.