A Nation-wide, On-Line Digital Marketing Platform, with access to every business and with the capability to reflect the rating given to the business by its customers, will help make the market more equitable to even the small enterprises.

The scope for reduction in official regulatory procedures can be estimated from:

1. The average time taken to set up a new Business in India is 29 days as compared to two days in Singapore and in Hongkong.
2. The time taken to close a Firm on insolvency is more than 4.3 years in India as against about nine months in Singapore and in Hong Kong, though the recent Bankruptcy Act is reducing the time somewhat, yet a lot more needs to be done to make it quicker.
3. The number of Departments and Authorities (earlier about 42, since reduced to about 17) that have the power to permit, inspect, hassle and shutdown even micro, mini and small industries and enterprises is indicative of the difficulty of starting and growing an enterprise or business in India.
4. The Laws that are cumbersome and even difficult to really comply with and made with the intention to be able to find fault with and so extract money from the Businessmen.

A worldwide Gallup Poll of people living on less than 1990’s US$ 2/- a day, surprisingly found that people were not asking for handouts but for a “good job” that would then allow them to choose what they desire and to live with dignity. So, we too should move away from loan subsidies to venture capital.

Small entrepreneurial ventures are the biggest job creators and poverty reduction agents. The employment of the growing workforce in a world population that has grown from about 2.5 bn in 1950 to over 8.0 bn today, is the proof of the poverty reduction. (See- “Swadeshi- Self-sufficiency/Protectionist Policy”)

Robert Samuelson noted, in about 2010, that – ‘Every three months, seven to eight million US jobs disappear and roughly an equal or greater number are created’. The situation is similar even in India and trying to keep the old jobs alive is like trying to keep the dying leaves of a tree from falling off, a futile and wasteful effort. Unprofitable assets in the Public Sector need to be sold off and not kept on ‘life support’ for the sake of a few employees or for ideological reasons. (See- ‘Garibi Hatao!’)

It should also, be recognized that the value of all global financial assets has increased from about US$ 12 trillion in 1980, to well over US$ 200 trillion today (around 2000 AD). In 1980 the world’s financial wealth was roughly equal to the “World’s Assets”, today they are nearly 20 times the World’s Assets. It is therefore evident that positive control by a government, trying to micro manage allocation of resources over the global economy, is increasingly impossible. The global liquidity can swamp unprepared markets with disastrous consequences and the best a government can do is to try and prevent or control major in and out surges.

Learning from J M Keynes – The Interest rate is used to ensure equilibrium between Savings and Investments, finding a point low enough to encourage investors but high enough to reward savers. In as much as, enterprise needs stimulation through low interest rates, the Central Bank also, needs to maintain the value of the currency in the international system and hence may not have the flexibility to reduce the interest rates as required to stimulate enterprise. Also, though inflationary adjustments are easier to allow, deflationary adjustments through high interest rates to bring prices down is not so easy. It then becomes necessary to promote a programme of domestic investment and control consumption through taxes (a comprehensive Goods & Services Tax/GST).

Today, claims that higher interest rates cause inflation no longer holds true, there are too many other factors in the equation. Globalization with its effect on the price of Commodities, Goods and Capital flows has held down inflation. Technological advances that produce more from the same resources and reduce logistics and service costs have a deflationary / anti-inflationary effect. The flow of capital, from global savings, into countries offering lucrative opportunities for private sector investors result in greater employment which again has a deflationary effect. All this not only makes inflation statistics unreliable and makes it no longer possible for the Central Bank to control growth rates by manipulating interest rates as it did in the past. The aim of the Central Bank (RBI) should really be to keep the currency stable and encourage job creation.

Free digital connectivity for information and some non- market services that were never counted in GDP, now need to be factored in to obtain a better overall picture.

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