Twiddling their thumbs?

This year's wheat harvest is likely to yield a bumper crop, following increased acreage, but Indian agriculture remains in crisis""foodgrain production at 208.3 million tonnes in 2005-06 was lower than the 209.8 million tonnes in 1999-2000; oilseeds production at 113.6 million tonnes was below the 1990-91 output of 122.9 million tonnes; and at 278.4 million tonnes, sugarcane production was below the 299.3 million tonnes achieved six years earlier. These output drops have taken place at a time when rural credit has increased manifold, and when the government has tried very hard to pay attention to the rural areas, and point therefore to the multi-faceted problems facing the farm sector.

The education sector does not present a much better picture, either, with the spread of school education and the provision of quality university education so limited that the anticipated "demographic dividend" (as more people come into the working age) will end up being a demographic discount. One manifestation of the failure on this front is the country's leading infotech firms saying that they will have to scale back their export targets as there isn't enough skilled manpower available.

The health sector's problems are equally obvious, with India faring even worse than Bangladesh on basic parameters like the proportion of children who are immunised, pregnant women who have tetanus shots, maternal mortality and infant mortality.

Against this backdrop, it is instructive to see what the ministers in charge of these crucial sectors have been doing with themselves. For you would expect Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh and Dr Ramadoss to be among the busiest ministers in the Cabinet, focused on addressing fundamental issues with the same zeal that Mani Shankar Aiyar brings to panchayati raj, for instance. But if that is what you expected, wait for the disappointment. The agriculture minister, for instance, is busy with the problems confronting India's cricket; no one has yet seen pictures of him visiting either agricultural research farms, or talking to agricultural experts. The education minister, similarly, is focused on reserving seats for the other backward classes, especially in the leading educational institutions""so much so that their admissions for the new academic year are now held up. Indeed, each time the Prime Minister has sought to be cautious on the subject, the education minister has made a public statement to force the PM's hand. And the health minister seems to believe that the solution to the country's health crisis lies in removing the head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the capital.

To be sure, some things are beyond the control of individual ministers. Until the government decides that it is all right to charge consumers remunerative prices for electricity, there is little the power minister can do to encourage the creation of fresh power capacity. Similarly, if the Cabinet is in favour of job or seat reservation for OBCs, it is but natural to expect the minister in charge of education to spend time ensuring that this somewhat radical move is implemented. But it should be obvious that the problem goes beyond the limitations of collective responsibility; if a minister wanted to set about addressing long-pending issues in his ministry, nothing would come in the way. Time then for the Prime Minister to take a fresh look at who should be manning these key ministries?