Report card: Two years later, here's how much Modi has delivered on his promises
How has the BJP has performed during its first two years of governance?
Two years ago, the Modi government came riding high on the issues of spiralling prices, mounting corruption, pervasive black money, slow infrastructural and industrial growth and accruing non-performing assets (NPAs).
To catch the attention of general masses before 2014 elections, the BJP, in its vision document or election manifesto, promised reining in inflation, bringing back black money, eliminating obsolete laws, increase public spending on education to 6% and ushering in economic revival by rationalising and simplifying tax regime etc.
How the BJP has performed during its first two years of governance, here is a reality check done by dna.
Eliminating obsolete laws, regulations and administrative structures:
The Modi regime has broken records of past governments by repealing 1,159 obsolete laws in two years. Earlier governments had done away with 1,301 such laws over 64 years. In the recently concluded session 1,053 Acts were repealed. Obsolete laws had become hurdles in projects proposed by various ministries.
Centre-state relations: We will place Centre-State relations on an even keel through the process of consultation and strive for harmonious Centre-state relations. Our government will be an enabler and facilitator in the rapid progress of states.
The Modi government faced the Opposition ire for imposing President's rule in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While in Arunachal Pradesh BJP managed to wrest control of the government, in Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat managed to win the trust vote on the floor of the state assembly leaving the BJP red-faced. It also puts a question mark on the promise of harmonious centre-state relations.
Price rise: Our immediate task will be to rein in inflation by several steps, such as put in place strict measures and special courts to stop hoarding black marketing, setting up price stabilisation fund
The Modi government seems to be grappling with how to arrest price rise and inflation. Time series data on CPI inflation collected by the ministry of statistics shows that education costs have risen 13%, housing 10%, healthcare 14% and electricity 8% since Modi took charge in May 2014. The year-on-year, cost of food and beverages rose 6.21%, cost of clothing and footwear went up 5.56%; fuel and light rose 3.03%; and housing prices increased 5.37%.
The government in March last year approved the creation of a price stabilization fund (PSF) with a corpus of Rs.500 crore as a Central Sector Scheme, to support market interventions for price control of perishable agri-horticultural commodities during 2014-15 to 2016-17.
Smart cities: We will initiate building 100 new cities; enabled with the latest in technology and infrastructure - adhering to concepts like sustainability, walk to work etc, and focused on specialised domains
One full year was spent in drafting and finalising the guidelines. It was only in January this year that the government announced the name of 20 cities to be developed into smart cities. Another 13 cities were announced just this week. The UD ministry hopes to announce a total of 40 smart cities by the end of this year.
However, till date, no work under the smart cities has started in any of the cities. The cities selected, have been asked to set up their Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to steer the project. Only Jaipur and Vizag have set up their SVP. The ministry so far has not received a detailed project report from any of these cities. The Centre is to provide Rs 500 crore to each city. However, no funds have been awarded to any of the cities till date.
Education: Public spending on education to be raised to 6% of GDP. NDA's flagship programme 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' to remove illiteracy.
Only 3.9% of the GDP spending goes to education sector against the promised 6%. In the 14th finance commission, the Centre has recommended that the state will spend 10% of the grant received from the centre towards social section, of which education forms a major component. Technically it is an attempt by the centre to pass the education funding load to the states.
In the last UPA-2 budget, Rs 27,000 crore was marked for the education sector. Soon after coming to power, the BJP slashed this budget to 22,000 crore. A marginal increase of 500 crores has been made in the 2015-16 budget for setting up 62 navodaya schools and digitization of education.
Right to Education (RTE), which is the tool for implementing SSA has so far been implemented in less than 10 per cent of schools.
Women's welfare and development will be accorded a high priority at all levels within the government, and BJP is committed to 33% reservation in parliamentary and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment. Launch a national campaign for saving the girl child and educating her - Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.
The BJP government could not ensure 33% reservation of women in state and parliamentary ministries. Union minister Maneka Gandhi recently said that ensuring 33% was a decision that has to be taken by the Parliament. "I have put forward recommendations and requests, and unless the Parliament does not decide to do it, we cannot have reservation," she said. The ministry, however, launched the Beti-Bachao, Beto Padhao - Beti Bachao scheme to ensure the better implementation of the PCNPDT Act and better education opportunities got the girl child. It adopted the 100 worst districts in terms of sex ratio and vowed to bring up the ratio. In February this year, the ministry expanded the scheme to 61 more districts in 11 states after "the overwhelming response of the stakeholders" in the first phase of 100 districts.
Railways: Will launch Diamond Quadrilateral project - of High Speed Train network (bullet train), strategic rail networks to connect hinterland to ports and agri rail network.
The Railways is gaining speed towards implementing its high-speed corridors. The Railways has granted approval to Spanish firm Talgo to undertake trial runs at speeds between 160 and 200 kmph on the Delhi-Mumbai route. Depending on the results of the trial runs, the Railways will consider introduction of high speed trains on other routes too.
The Rs 2 lakh crore diamond quadrilateral project aims to drastically reduce the travelling time between the metro cities with the introduction of the high-speed trains running at a maximum speed of about 300-kmph.
The ministry over last year removed constraints over issues of raising funds, pinpointing hurdles and finding probable solutions for them. According to railway minister Suresh Prabhu, the Railways is ready with projects worth Rs 5.6 lakh crore and expects to spend more than the budgeted Rs 1.21 lakh crore in next year. The ministry expects to spend about Rs 3 lakh crore to procure raw materials in next three years. The ministry's ambitious bullet trains project will see light in 2023.
Decision-making on environment clearances will be made transparent as well as time-bound.
Soon after taking charge of his ministry, minister of environment Prakash Javadekar unveiled the online environmental clearance system. The foundation for the online submission for clearances was laid by his predecessors, Javadekar merely inaugurated the system. According to Javadekar, the average period for enviromental approval has come down to 190 days from 600 days. The ministry is now aiming to process clearances in 100 days.
Economic Revival: Rationalise and simplify the tax regime. It also said that it will bring on board all state governments in adopting GST, addressing all their concerns.
Modi is struggling to realise India dream as GDP growth figures disguise decline in industrial production. RBI economists say India's potential growth rate is sliding. RBI's economist Barendra Kumar Bhoi and Harendra Kumar Behera estimate says that if the country's potential growth rate is only 6.7%, then its present expansion of around 7.5% may be due to start slowing soon – or risk sparking rapid inflation.
Modi government has missed own deadline for goods and services tax (GST) of April 1, 2016. Govt has been unable to pass the biggest Indirect tax reforms in Rajya Sabha.
Accord high priority to the growth of manufacturing, so that we can create enough jobs in the country. This sector must grow fast to ensure employment and asset creation
The growth in our core sectors have fallen from the very respectable 6.5% in 2013 to a mere 2.7% last year. Make in India, aimed at transforming the country into a manufacturing hub on the lines of China, has so far failed to bring any dividends.
Manufacturing sector activity dropped to a four-month low in April as new orders stagnated during the month following a robust increase in March, a latest business survey shows. Exports have fallen steadily during the last 17 months. The spending in infrastructure projects has dropped. FICCI's latest quarterly survey on Indian manufacturing also gives a gloomy picture.
Black Money: Will ensure minimization of the generation of black money. Will initiate the process of tracking down and bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks and offshore accounts. We will set up a Task Force for this purpose and to recommend amendments to existing laws or enact new laws. We will also proactively engage with foreign Governments to facilitate information sharing on black money.
In order to check the menace of black money stashed outside the country, the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 has been enacted. The Act provides a one-time compliance opportunity for a limited period to persons to disclose foreign assets. The scheme has not proved very successful and only Rs 4,164 crore have been disclosed.
Modi government declared that those caught with black money within the country would have to pay 90 per cent tax penalty and also face up to 7 years jail if they fail to declare it during the four-month compliance window.