Colonial mindset stumbling block for Speed of Business

Colonial mindset stumbling block for Speed of Business
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Highlights

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of Ease of Business. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister speaks of Speed of Business.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of Ease of Business. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister speaks of Speed of Business. To achieve the goal, they have created a network consisting of senior officers to facilitate those who want to invest and set up various companies in the country in general and in Andhra Pradesh in Particular.

But it appears that while there is a change in the outlook of the political executive, the bureaucracy refuses to come up with its old style of functioning. Imagine who is expressing concern over this? It was the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu himself. At a recent meeting a very senior officer of Cyber Security from Delhi raised the issue saying that he had sent an email to the official mail id of the state government giving a proposal which can attract about 100 IT companies to the state but there has been no reply from the government. He regretted that the dynamism shown by the Chief Minister does not seem to have percolated to the level of babudom.

Taken aback, Naidu admitted that the officials are in the habit of creating iron gates and many times certain issues do not come to his notice. While assuring full cooperation with the officer, he directed Secretary in CMO Pradyuman a senior IAS officer to sit with the official and discuss the proposals and urged the official to be part of the team of advisors on cyber security.

Well, if this is the fate of an e-mail from a senior officer from the Government of India to the official mail id of the state government, one can understand what the fate of e-mails would be sent by a citizen. Unless the Central and State governments focus on giving a deep and thorough refresher program and make them open minded, the claims of Naidu or anyone of switching over to deep technology would not help.

Unless steps are not taken to bring immediate change in the mindset of these officials, the concept of speed of business and ease will remain as fancy names on the paper and the government will not be able to achieve its targets.

It is 75 years since India had attained Independence and it is time the cream of the officials involved in the administration of state governments and Union Government come out colonial mindset and become more pragmatic, proactive and dynamic. They should try to convert crisis into opportunity. A phrase frequently used by the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. They should not create crisis and miss opportunities.

The Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index is a ranking system that measures how easy it is to do business in a country.It’s important because it can help countries: A higher ranking can signal a good business environment, which can attract foreign direct investment. The EODB index can help governments identify areas for regulatory reform. A higher ranking can help a state or country showcase improvements in business regulations and facilitate economic growth. They should understand that where there is a will there would be a way.

In the last five years of governance, AP has seen how things were done though they were not as per rules. Now when things have changed and an atmosphere of ease of governance has been put in place, why should the bureaucracy create iron gates and block even interesting information from reaching the Chief Minister? Its time the political executive takes up this issue seriously and finds solution and see that the iron gates are removed once and for ever.

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