Know India - Bharat Nirman Project

Key Facts: The four-year programme is aimed at achieving identified goals in six selected areas of rural infrastructure - irrigation, water supply, housing, roads, telephony and electrification

Strengths:

• Described as "most important initiative of the UPA government" - political Backing
• Entails construction of 60 lakh houses for the poor, provide drinking water to over 74,000 new habitations, reach electricity to 1,25,000 villages that still lack such facility, offer electricity connection to 2.3 crore households and give telephone connectivity to remaining 66,822 villages - Can have a huge impact on rural growth
• Driven through panchayats and by partnering with Private sector - This could be a strength if managed well
• The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which consolidates the ongoing food for work programs, is perhaps the single biggest government injection amounting to roughly Rs 11,000 crore to the ailing rural areas
• investment in rural roads has the most potent effect on poverty alleviation (shown by research studies) - in that way a very good investment

Weaknesses:

• Implementation issues, large timeframe
• Government officials in general lack a sense of urgency and dedication which is the reason why private firms in India are doing really well
• To be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,74,000 crore over four years - funding could be an issue - presently the funding is to be taken from the Government's development outlays.
• Focus on employment increase (100 days of min work for a person in a family) than growth - more welfare-oriented than providing growth impetus to agriculture and agro-industry.
• Plans are made for today, not for tomorrow, certainly not for the day after

Opportunities:

• Can convert this scheme into a key driver for India's growth since it touches the rural population more than urban
• "Growth at the Bottom of the pyramid" is most useful for a country like India
• Could be converted to an initiative wherein industries are willing to move to villages - small businesses may not be able to withstand the initial transaction costs (The cost of accessing services and that of attracting skilled staff ), but large businesses can.

Threats:

• Will the work get completed on time?
• Loss of momentum for the developmental activities
• Change of government - difference in agenda for the next set of politicians who come to power in the next four years
• There is no accountability/transparency in most of the implementing agencies.
• Problems in the Indian context as the ones listed above are deep rooted and needs major institutional reforms

Link on Infrastructure: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/cgi-bin/bl.pl?subclass=040

The four bloggers - Tapii, Chai, Nair and Giks