Aiming for the high road

Government's policies can either enable or limit our prosperity

There are very divergent views about India’s economic prospects.  Some perceive great promise, while others see big government and unclear strategy.
 

The upbeat take is that investors who put substantial capital into China in its early growth phase are finding patterns mirrored in India that encourage their investment (An updated perspective on India, Business Standard, April 17, 2023). These investors are looking to limit or reduce new investments in China, and, among emerging markets, India is promising with the capacity to absorb large investments. Factors such as Apple’s exports of $5 billion in its first year support this, as does recent enthusiasm about India’s building logistics and effecting a digital transformation. The expectation is that annual growth will be over 6 per cent, and that gross domestic product/capita may grow from $2,500 to $5,000 in six to seven years.
 

A more downbeat view is that India has lost opportunities and made misplaced choices with growth coming from government spending and seat-of-the-pants strategies (Rolling the dice on growth, Business Standard, May 3, 2023). This has led to a constrained, uncompetitive private sector hobbled by disabling regulations, inadequate and unreliable infrastructure (notwithstanding high investment, on which more later), limited capital access, tariff barriers, an inappropriate and ineffective educational approach for employability and improving skills, and impoverishment through electoral handouts to much of the population. Instead of structural changes to provide lower cost infrastructure and efficient governance, the government chose corporate tax cuts to spur growth.
 

The fact is that while India is still in a sweet spot because of its economic resilience, momentum, favourable demographics (although largely unutilised), and improving productivity (1), growth in this decade is likely to average under 6 per cent annually. (See chart)
 

Some data support this view, such as skewed consumer demand and delayed projects. Consumer demand is stronger at the high end, but weak at the lower end. Infrastructure project delays in March 2023 were reportedly the highest since 2004. These include nearly 57 per cent of projects over Rs 150 crore, resulting in cost escalation of over 20 per cent, amounting to half this year’s capital expenditure budget.
 

Presumably this problem is reflected in the Gati Shakti National Master Plan. When public access is permitted, it will be interesting to know about the project management and coordination processes for timely execution, given its roots in a Project Management Institute report.

Higher growth of 8 per cent or above requires more structural change. These begin with policies that (a) provide reliable infrastructure that is affordable, (b) improve capital access, and (c) eliminate “tax terrorism”. Facilitating productivity through infrastructure everywhere would enable more people, including more women and young people, to participate and contribute. 

The next level of productivity improvement requires much deeper change. These extend to assuring a sense of security with law and order, access to meaningful education and skill building, deep changes away from “extensive” agriculture to an intensive, informed approach that is productive and sustainable. A critical prerequisite is cohesive, unifying leadership that inspires cooperation and inclusion.  Regarding better infrastructure, the following observations indicate possible ways to improve: 
 

Road construction: New roads are being built at a furious pace.  However, two problems hamper our logistics despite the enormous sums spent. One is project delays. The other, more serious issue is the rapid deterioration of roads. While heavy rains do aggravate the problem, the underlying reasons are the quality of construction and lack of timely maintenance, made worse by undue emphasis on the value of contracts and quick implementation. Countries with equally severe weather variations build and maintain better roads. An expert with experience in America and India asserts that the reason is not enforcing requisite standards, quoting John F Kennedy that it is the roads that built America’s wealth. (2) This need for adherence to standards extends to many areas, and would transform our quality and competitiveness. It does not, however, lend itself to big targets and bragging rights for electoral purposes.
 

Communications – 4G, 5G and beyond: If there were fast, reliable 4G-level connectivity countrywide, and if most people got access to these services, there would likely be a productivity revolution.  It would take much more than just connectivity: Development of content, technology choices and organisation are required to increase beneficial use exponentially. For example, content is needed for agricultural transformation to intensive cultivation, workplace skills and manuals, or K-12 education.
 

For the middle-mile and second-last mile, until the current blitz for BSNL 4G wireless, our policies emphasised fibre.  Widespread fibre-to-the-home is unrealistic because of the cost. The way out is high-speed wireless for middle-mile and second-last mile (backhaul), and for last-mile (Wi-Fi and cellular). We need enabling policies for these.
 

Another technology issue is 4G and 5G.  South Korea, leading in 5G, is the exemplar of the “5G fallacy” of getting five-fold speeds after $20 billion in network upgrades, instead of the desired 20 times speeds.  South Korea has nine cities of more than a million people, 42 between 100,000 to 1 million, and 77 between 10,000 to 100,000. They have 215,000 base stations of which only 2 per cent are 28 GHz, covering 45 per cent of their population. India has 48 cities of over 1 million, 405 with 100,000 to 1 million people, and 2,500 with 10,000 to 100,000 people.  We have 102,000 base stations compared to South Korea’s 215,000, and would need many more at unaffordable cost for blanket coverage. What we need instead is high-speed 4G or Wi-Fi, using wireless 60 GHz and 70-80 GHz for the middle-mile, with 6 GHz Wi-Fi for the last mile (in addition to existing Wi-Fi at 2.4 and 5 GHz).
 

One more requirement is technology organisation: Shared networks versus single-operator networks.  Shared neutral host networks (NHNs) are the most efficient, while active sharing by operators costs 70 per cent less per user in an Indian case study. (3) 

It is the government’s choice of policies that can help us on the high road.

shyamponappa@gmail.com

(1): https://shorturl.at/rGHOV; https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files (2): https://www.nbmcw.com/article-report/infrastructure-construction/roads-and-pavements/why-do-many-roads-constructed-in-india-fail-prematurely.html  (3). https://www.researchgate.net/publication