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Friday, May 30, 2014

Improving Business Environment

I have an op-ed in Indian Express today on an agenda for the new government to improve business environment, especially for small businesses (covered in BBC here).

The simple message is that the cutting edge of Indian state, at the districts, should spend more time reviewing parameters that contribute to improving the business environment. Currently, their focus is on wealth re-distribution policies - rural development and implementation of welfare programs.

Instead, district officials, headed by the District Collectors, should focus equally on growth creation. More specifically, they need to focus on attracting entrepreneurs, enabling them to start businesses, and facilitating the linkages that would help these businesses expand and create more jobs. In fact, instead of being reviewed for the generation of unproductive rural employment, they should be held accountable for the creation of productive non-farm jobs in both rural and urban areas. District governments should become the economic growth (and job creation) catalyzing agents.  

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