India’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are in an identical position today; every large industry group has rushed in with plans for small, medium and large SEZ. But barring Rahul Bajaj, who has publicly opposed the policy on SEZs (even while he has planned one of his own, on land already owned by his Group), industry has remained silent. The real economic arguments against SEZs have come from US-based economists Raghuram Rajan and Jagdish Bhagwati, not Indian industry associations.

Two of India’s hottest investment destinations—Bangalore and Pune—are also among the worst in terms of infrastructure. Pune’s bad roads must be seen to be believed, and despite the strides in construction technology, its flyovers on the busiest roads are being constructed forever. While the industry in Bangalore has dared to incur the Gowda government’s wrath by speaking out against crumbling facilities, the degeneration of Pune remains a mystery because it is a city of public-spirited citizens and has large concentration of Right to Information activists; yet, they have had no impact on local municipal administration.

Mumbai’s taxis are a similar eye sore and tale of embarrassment. We are the only country in the world which has pretensions of global leadership with beat up old Fiats and Ambassadors comprising the taxi fleet of its commercial capital. Everybody else in Mumbai has moved on to more efficient cars. While air travel has increased phenomenally, but what Murthy and CII’s industrialists do not face is the daily cheating of passengers at the Mumbai airport. We have allowed the creation of such a tight cartel of unions, permits, licenses, dubious ownership and haftas that a small bunch of people can hold the city to ransom. The official argument against change is the livelihood of drivers, but this is patently false. Most drivers are migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and are exploited by ‘taxi owners’ who are usually petty bureaucrats or police officials employing un accounted money.

... contd.