Subject: To pursue privatisation in India with boldness

Recent revelations about the involvement of highly ranked officials of the ruling party and the government in a fictitious weapon purchase deal is a matter of great concern to all Indians and well-wishers of the country all over the world. This along with the prolonged and recently concluded stalemate in the sale of majority stake in BALCO and the payment crisis in the stock exchanges are symbols of the formidable obstacles in the way of the nation's progress. The 'arms-purchase' scandal has substantially weakened the government's ability to carry out meaningful policy changes.

Well-meaning and well-thought budget proposals on privatisation, labour market reforms and dereservation of items meant for the small scale sector are likely to be neglected as political survival becomes the paramount concern. With the government's moral authority weakened and focus diluted, private citizens have to make up that moral shortfall and rally around for greater common good. This appeal is intended to provide shape and substance to that imperative.

The Union budget for FY 2001-2002 has ambitiously targeted privatisation receipts of Rs.12,000 crores (USD 2.6 billion approx.) for year. It is vital that this target be achieved or even exceeded if the country's infrastructure and social development are to improve. Without these bold moves to reform and modernise, there will ultimately be no salvation for the millions mired in poverty or for India to drag itself out of the humiliating label of 'developing economy'.

In this regard, the recent controversy surrounding the sale of majority stake in BALCO to Sterlite is most unfortunate. A seemingly transparent and profitable decision is hostage to the intransigence of expedient politics. The standoff exposes the claims that there is consensus on reforms across the political establishment in India. Indeed, the opposition to the sale coming from even some of the constituents of the ruling NDA only shows the total consensus on narrow self-interest among the political class. Often, one party in New Delhi practises liberal economics only for its constituent to reverse the stand at the state or federal level. The opposite is equally true. Both the ruling NDA and the Opposition Congress are guilty of this unpardonable economic offence at the cost of the nation.

By exiting commercial activities, that the private sector is better equipped and positioned to carry out, the government will be achieving several objectives in one stroke.

The bureaucracy that oversees the public sector could be redeployed for more fundamental development work or be superannuated, saving recurring wage costs. Financial resources mobilised from such sale could be used to retire government debt resulting in savings of interest expenditure, which constitute the biggest share of our annual revenue budgets. Development expenditure could then rise substantially. Government's enhanced ability to spend on the citizens' basic health and education would raise the stock of qualified and able-bodied citizens, boding well for national productivity.

The government would be freed from the obligation of providing fresh budgetary resources every year to ailing and perpetually sick public enterprises, and thus free state-run financial institutions from the burden of subscribing to this debt. Consequently, the private sector would gain access to additional investment resources. This would result in better infrastructure, better products and employment gains. As employment opportunities increase in India, it would slow the brain drain from the country and accelerate the reverse brain drain that has started to occur recently.

More importantly, the exit of government from the public sector would eradicate two diseases eating into the vitals of the nation. It would break the debilitating practice of labour appeasement with scant regard for productivity and efficiency. It would also greatly minimise, even eliminate, the immense possibilities for corruption that public sector contracts provide for politicians and bureaucrats. The less control that bureaucrats and politicians have over national assets, the better.

We urge the government to courageously and correctly pursue privatisation efforts, as it is in the national interest that the productive potential of Indians living in India is unleashed at the earliest. India deserves no less.

This appeal has focused on the 'Why' of privatisation. For a related link on 'How' privatisation can be effectively accomplished in India, please click here.

To sign this petition, please click here and follow the instructions to sign the petition.

- V. Anantha Nageswaran, Singapore.

* Initial signatories to this appeal:

1 V Anantha Nageswaran, Credit Suisse, Singapore
2 Mrs Ramya Nageswaran, Citibank, Singapore
3 Abraham George, eMedexOnline LLC, USA
4 Rakhal Dave, RiskEye AG, Zurich, Switzerland
5 Mukul Asher, National University of Singapore, Singapore
6 G Ramasubramanian, e-Brahma Technologies, India
7 V Swaminathan, Indian Additives Ltd, Chennai, India
8 Shanti Jagannathan, Delegation of European Communities, New Delhi
9 Arun Krishnaswamy, Intel Corporation, Singapore
10 Anil Chinniah, First Union Bank, USA
11 Mira Chandramouli, Thomson Financial, Maryland, USA
12 S Jayaraman, CONSOR AG, Switzerland
13 Dr R Balaji, IBA Technologies, Singapore
14 S Karumbunathan, George Fischer +GF+, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
15 V Sitaraman, Switzerland
16 Chandrasekhar, World Bank, USA
17 Rajesh Sundaresan, Credit Suisse, Hong Kong
18 N C Raghava, BNP Paribas, Singapore
19 V Balaji, BNP Paribas, Singapore
20 Vivek Parikh, Credit Suisse, Singapore
21 S Krishnan, TECH Semiconductor, Singapore
22 P N Selvaguru, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
23 B S Mohan, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
24 V Venkateswaran, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
25 K Vaithilingam, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
26 B Ramakrishnan, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
27 J Srinivasan, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
28 J Jayachandran, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
29 A Venkatramana, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
30 Eso Thomas, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
31 N S Kamath, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
32 Michael Arasu, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
33 Aspi Vania, Singapore Refining Company, Singapore
34 Ashok Raju, SCS, Singapore
35 Anirudha Dutta, IndiaInfoline.com, Mumbai
36 Murali Sethumadhavan, Rogers Corporation, United States
37 S Venugopal, Hayward, California, United States
38 Amitabh Khosla, Confederation of Indian Industry, Singapore
39 Rupal Majmudar, SOFTWIRED INC, Switzerland
40 J Srinivasan, BusinessLine, Chennai, India
41 Chandrashekhar Gupta, Abacus Capital, Singapore
42 Sanjay Guglani, Saksham Financial Services, New Delhi, India
43 Ambreesh Srivastava, FITCH, Singapore
44 R Ananthanarayanan, Crosby Advisory (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Singapore
45 R Venkatesh, L&T Information Tech GMBH, Germany
46 Rajiv D Mulye, Pfizer Limited, Mumbai
47 Venkat Iyer, University of Ulster, UK
48 Amita Puri, CRY New Delhi, India
49 Priya Nayar, CRY New Delhi, India
50 Arvind Singh, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore
51 R Ravishankar, John Crane & Co, Chennai
52 Satish Mittal, Aptech Limited, Mumbai
53 Ramesh Rao Patange, Zee Interactive Learning Systems Ltd, Bangalore, India
54 B SunderRaman, RPG Paging, Chennai
55 Suresh Lingamaneni, Infozon Systems Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India
56 R Mohan, Global Edge Software, Bangalore, India
57 Y N Kaushal, Enablers' Management Institute, New Delhi, India
58 V S Sudhkar, Fabmart Private Limited, Bangalore, India
59 T Venkateswaran, Track Resources Private Ltd, New Delhi, India
60 Ramana Tadepalli, New Jersey, USA
61 Arvind Kumar Sagar, Shippingstop Dotcom (India) Pvt Ltd
62 Mrs Leena Sagar, Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad
63 Abhijit Sanyal, UDV India Limited, Mumbai
64 Satish Kalra, Preema Resource Management, Singapore
65 K Sivakumar, ST Micro Electronics, Singapore
66 C Ganesh, Baker and Mckenzie, Singapore
67 Vineet Rai, GIAN, Ahmedabad, India
68 Ramesh Venkat, St Mary's University, Canada
69 Gopalakrishna Rajagopal, UBS, Connecticut, USA
70 P Sunder Raj, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, United Kingdom
71 J S S Murthy, Sanamex SA, Geneva, Switzerland
72 Siddharth Shetty, Genovate Solutions, Singapore
73 Atul Mistry, Hewlett Packard, Singapore
74 Ramesh Srinivasan, NCR Corporation Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Singapore
75 Easwar Iyer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
76 Subbaraman Iyer, Consultant, Singapore
77 S Yagnaraman, Castrol India Limited, Mumbai, India
78 V N Bapat, Electrical Engg Dept, Walchand College of Engg, Sangli, India
79 Balwant Rao Jain, Optimum Solutions (S) Pte Ltd, Singapore
80 Vinod Martin, Optimum Solutions (S) Pte Ltd, Singapore
81 Sumit Malik, Optimum Solutions (S) Pte Ltd, Singapore
82 Sushil Goyal , Arthur Andersen , Singapore
83 Asit Shah, Mumbai
84 P K Basu, Singapore
85 Krithivasan Ramamirtham, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India
86 Saraswathi Ramamirtham, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India
87 Sunil Kala, India
88 K Rajiv, Citadel Fine Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Chennai, India
89 Sreekanth Anantharaman, Bank of America, Singapore
90 Lakshmi Anantharaman, Singapore
91 Shirish Navlekar, New Delhi, India
92 Keyur Parekh, Cavenagh Road, Singapore
93 Hitesh Ruparelia, CapGemini Ernst & Young, Singapore
94 Raghuram, Advocate, Chennai
95 R L Narayanan, Advocate, Chennai
96 V Kuberan, Advocate, Chennai
97 K Chandrasekhar, Emirates Airline, Dubai
98 M A Siddique, Emirates Group, Dubai
99 S Kasiraman, IndusInd Bank Ltd, Chennai
100 M C Ramesh, Trilogy Software, Texas, USA
101 Sanjay Madhavan, Revasoft (Switzerland) AG, Zurich, Switzerland
102 Swami Manohar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
103 Krishnan Viswanath, IBM Global Services, Singapore
104 Sathya Rao, Telscom AG, Switzerland
105 Aditya Samant, Daiwa Securities SMBC, Hong Kong
106 Sriraman Jagannathan, Citibank, Chennai
107 Jeetendra Kumar, Arthur Andersen, Singapore
108 Srinivasan Purushothaman, Arthur Andersen, Singapore
109 Mrs Asha Ramakrishnan, Holland Road, Singapore
110 R Subramanian, Reserve Bank of India, Chennai
111 Madhukar Kaiwar, IBM, Singapore
112 Vaibhav Sanghvi, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Singapore
113 Neville Dotivala, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Singapore
114 Ami Rachh, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Singapore
115 Sunil Agarwal PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Singapore
116 Vineet Rachh, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Singapore
117 Tamal Mukherjee, Media Corp Radio, Singapore

* Important disclaimer

The above individuals have 'signed' this appeal in their individual capacities only. Organisational affiliations are purely for identification purposes and do not indicate endorsement of any or all of the above message by the organisations mentioned above.

To sign this petition, please click here and follow the instructions to sign the petition.

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