Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by calling a meeting of secretaries to the Government of India and asking them for "big ideas", has rekindled hopes of transformative change and reform. In the 19 months of his administration so far, many steps forward have been taken. But, it is also unfortunately true that none of them quite counts as big or transformational reform. In fact, some energy was spent over the past year in particular, explaining why such reform was neither needed nor desirable in India. One of the consequences of this strategy was that concerns of policy drift, and of unfocused administration, began to be aired. By asking for big ideas - even if from secretaries in Union ministries, who may not be the most obvious sources for creative transformational ideas - Mr Modi may have signalled an important change in course as he heads into 2016. It is to be hoped that some of this new thinking seeps also into the process of preparing the Budget. The government's third Budget, to be presented a few weeks from now, will not exactly be its last chance to present impressive reform, but it is among the few remaining realistic opportunities to seize the full advantages provided by the historic mandate of May, 2014.
In seeking to reverse the impression of incremental policy making that had become current, Mr Modi seems to have wisely heard the voices of dissent from voters, investors and business. An opinion poll of top Indian CEOs conducted by this newspaper last month discovered that about half of them were unhappy about the pace of economic reform. Demand has been slow to recover, and the Centre for Monitoring of the Indian Economy's report on the last quarter suggested that an initial spurt in new projects and investment has tapered off. If Mr Modi has indeed heeded these warning signs, then it is a welcome indication of a willingness to change political direction that was first signalled in his abandonment of the bill to amend the land acquisition law last year.
Indeed, it is to be hoped that a new-found willingness to listen to criticism is visible in other areas, too. It has been reported, for example, that fewer high-profile foreign trips are planned for the PM in 2016 - these had caused some criticism of late. The restrained response to the attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot suggests that a new consistency has been brought to the government's Pakistan policy, previously questioned as being excessively changeable. Mr Modi's unexpected trip to Lahore on Christmas Day hopefully emerged from a mature analysis of the limited value flowing from abandoning India's long-held and bipartisan policy of engagement with Pakistan. The PM's speech recently to the Indian Science Congress eschewed paeans to ancient Indian achievements for a more sober suggestion that modern scientific methods investigate the validity of traditional knowledge. Even the committee set up to suggest changes to the Central Board of Film Certification - condemned as a holding area for political appointees of dubious quality - can be cited as evidence of this new change of heart. If Mr Modi's New Year resolution is to act on some of the criticism that came his way over 2016, it should be whole-heartedly welcomed.
