India - Maharashtra : Reorienting Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty, Volume 1. Executive Summary and Main Report

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ANTI-CORRUPTION;    AUTHORITY;    BORROWING;    BUDGET FORMULATION;    BUDGET MANAGEMENT;   

RP-ID  :  25053

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Maharashtra's leadership positionin India is under threat. The State is facing severalbottlenecks to development: the private sector is no longerembracing Maharashtra and the public sector banks areincreasingly reluctant to assist Maharashtra in itsoff-budget endeavors. Thus, the status quo is not an option.Regaining its leadership position is well withinMaharashtra's reach. Among its many strengths are: thelarge pool of literate and skilled labor force, awell-developed financial system, a talented bureaucracy, andwillingness to break with the ways of the past. If the Statecan successfully implement its reform agenda, it can quicklyrebound and be back on the path of growth and prosperity.The lessons of the past decade suggest two guidingprinciples: First, the Government needs to articulate themessage that its reforms are not to hurt, but to help thefarmers. If reforms are to succeed, they have to bepro-farmer and pro-poor. Maharashtra's fiscal stress,be it due to power and irrigation subsidies or due to thelosses in cotton and sugar interventions, has a closeconnection with the rural sector. However, as analyzed inChapter 4, the current rural interventions are imposing ahuge and unsustainable fiscal cost on the state, and moreimportantly, the bulk of the benefits are accruing to therural rich. the challenge for the government, therefore, isto provide more efficient, equitable, and sustainableassistance to the rural poor. Second, the government'sreform program needs to be designed and implemented with amedium- to long-term perspective. Piecemeal, short-termreforms can only bring short-term gains. The Government ofMaharashtra faces a simple choice: to try to succeed in adifficult reform endeavor, or, since the policies of thepast no longer work, to give up without trying and condemnitself to developmental and fiscal failure. Through its2002-03 Budget Speech, the Government has indicated that ithas chosen the former path. The quicker it moves along it,the greater the chances of success.