Weeks earlier we argued for that fighting the crises required quick initiatives, and not calling it a cyclical blur. Speed is important, but, even so, better now than never. So now we are all Keynesians and Krugmanites, not, like we were, targeting fiscal deficits by cutting public investment and borrowing and turning up our nose on long term strategies. What are needed at this time of crisis, we are told, is infrastructure and domestic initiatives. Possibly, but the important thing is to start walking the talk.

In electricity the last decade has been the worst in our history with capacity expansion halving every decade since the ‘90s. The Plan writes a good story when it talks about large projects, but, given the credit crunch, we need help with financing. The companies doing it have lost half their wealth; having negotiated the so called ‘prudence  regulations’ — like not lending more than a certain preordained percentage to a company with finance — when I was power minister, we do need comfort, not of words, but financing. I remember once, when I had painfully negotiated “relaxation” because one power project can be more than all of a large company’s borrowings, I was horrified that the “relaxation” was reversed as soon as I returned to Ahmedabad. It is also extremely likely that the foreign counterparts of our power corporations will shy away now.

In irrigation, the Plan repeats our lament: why change grants into loans on the completion of large projects, as soon as we left after designing them? They blissfully changed it but then, when no pick-up was seen, they want a “professional examination”. I said something similar once, when we were reviewing the Seventh Plan; Montek might remember that our then boss, a former airline pilot said briskly: “well, you have ten weeks, because the sowing season starts then.” Get along my friends, we need more energy there.

... contd.