Economic reforms are dependent on political will.

 

Economic reforms or any change in the society can only be implemented if political leaders are committed to doing so. Political leaders should be willing to take risks for the betterment of the society and they should implement ideas that enhance the economic growth of the country and improve the standard of living of the citizens. 

 

Political party like  Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to  unveil its long term policies through India Vision 2025, which shines light on the problems that the country is facing in a number of sectors, including agriculture and manufacturing, and how it aims to tackle these issues, enhance people’s socioeconomic status, alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment rate. 

 

The BJP believes that through indigenous production of defense equipment and weapons, India’s dependency on foreign firms for defense equipment will reduce and the country will be able to increase employment in this area.

 

In addition, the party is willing to sign deals with foreign firms only if they transfer their technology to India. Such economic reforms are beneficial to India, no doubt, but they can only be implemented if political leaders are firm on their beliefs. It is difficult to get foreign firms into India under such strict rules and regulations and it is costly to train people, especially in the area of defense, but political leaders should not lose hope amidst the implementation. 

 

This is what political will refers to. Only if political leaders are ready to embrace challenges of their propositions will they be able to implement economic reforms successfully.

 

Last year, the government of India relaxed the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms in a number of sectors to increase foreign investments in the country and boost economic growth. For example, the government increased the FDI limit in the telecom sector to 100% in an attempt to attract more foreign players in this sector and increase the supply of products. 

 

This way, when the aggregate supply of goods surpasses the aggregate demand, the inflation rate in India will slowly fall. Increasing FDIs is definitely beneficial because not only does it bring in more revenue into the country but it also creates employment opportunities. However, the benefits of economic reforms are not instantaneous and along the way, the policies may need to be tweaked depending on the international economic climate.

 

The success of economic reforms and economic growth in the country are dependent on political will. Increasing FDIs, tackling the high unemployment rate, making the Indian business climate more conducive for local and foreign firms and increasing the supply of goods to keep the inflation rate down are necessary for any economy to boom and all these are possible if political leaders are committed to improving the lives of the citizens and developing the nation as a whole. 

 

As such, economic reforms are fluid in nature and need to be tweaked as per the developments in each and every sector of the economy. For India to grow as a nation we have to see the political will in our leaders and this will ultimately translate to effective economic reforms.