Who will bell the cat?
Book Review published in New Sunday Express

I love Fabindia clothes; but it is expensive…….

In nutshell, Making India Work by William Nanda Bissell is a vision about India and how to accomplish that vision through constitutional means. The author is better known as the Managing Director of the Fabindia chain that works with 40,000 craft people and rural artisans.

The author’s premise is that India is not a poor country but a “poorly managed country.” And accordingly, the administration contributes to the poverty and vulnerability further. Add to this, the ‘reckless consumption driven economy’ which he stresses is not a solution but a problem itself. This is where even the west had failed. Excluding environmental and social assets from the market system is destroying the world leaving billions in poverty. Hence, an outline for a new system — economically viable and environmentally sustainable — with appropriately scaled institutions is suggested by the author.

The ultimate aim is to guarantee to each citizen a basic quality of life where sustainable growth, environmental regeneration and alleviation of poverty work together. The author, who advocates a radical paradigm shift for sustainable development, explains that his ideas are not utopian but a practical guide. His concept of “Standard Authority” is very interesting. In the proposed system, this will play the important role of codifying assets such as ‘air quality, water purity and bio-diversity into measurable and therefore tradable products; these are hitherto un-tradable.

For instance, a city dweller who cannot afford to keep the green space, will have to pay for the green space and biodiversity that is protected by the village community. This biosphere credit value will encourage the villagers to protect and enhance the natural resources further. The author also proposes a new tax system as the current one “penalises the productive activities” and hence arrest the growth. The individual professional taxes and taxes on productive activities must go for good in his scheme of things. The proposed tax system, on the contrary, relies on increased taxes on property, inheritance and tax on economic transactions. Large scale revenue can be generated through this and this, according to him, will result in multiplying the present revenue generation.

The introduction of Target Catalysts (TCs) will take care of the empowerment and mainstreaming of the poor. The author finds the existing system of poverty alleviation as “too expensive and ineffective” while public money evaporates in the name of development which is inimical to the interests of the poor. He discusses how the TCs work and facilitate the poor to access better services.

The author also outlines how to reach “power to the people” genuinely. The active participation and representation of the local community is imperative in order to avoid “over-centralised and over-extended” power. He advocates the downsizing of the Central government and refurbishing the administrative system with the citizen at the bottom; the community, area, region and national units must constitute the next hierarchical units in his vision.
Suggestions are also made about a ‘fast track and corruption free’ legal system as he feels the present legal system is ‘Byzantine’ and ‘riven with corruption, blindingly complex and excruciatingly slow.’ He stands for a uniform civil code and also advocates the reduction of the number of existing laws to avoid complexities which affect the productive activities. The book has all the details on how the new system would work.

The importance of the General Performance Parameters is emphasised to make the administration effective and efficient. Instead of cabinet, there will be POBs (Parliamentary Oversight Boards with 5 MPs each), to oversee the activities of various departments.

The book also talks about the corporations and civil society organisations and suggests a single structure and governing standards (to be known as associations) to these bodies with shareholders and stakeholders respectively. In the chapter ‘Sustainable Living’, the author recommends a series of reforms that will ‘transform the way we live.’ In the beginning, he takes three case studies to illustrate his ideas to reach India an ideal nation — Panchasheel, the city, Mussorie, the town, Sewari (Rajasthan), the village. And at the end of the book he picturises these three places where his hypothesis is proved right. He strongly believes that another India is possible. The book reads well and his blue print for reform is excellent. But one may not be able to share the optimism of Bissell particularly in the milieu in which we live and where corruption rules over every aspect of our life. The point is who will bell the cat?