In India, Public Private Partnership (PPP) is the new ‘face of development’ where the state and private entities supposedly work in collaboration, and cooperatively work to fulfil market-driven goals.

Conceptually, PPP is still very nascent in India. Different models are being experimented across several sectors in the economy.

But the state, with its redirected policies, has been oblivious to the impact of corporatisation of the public sector on the poor.

In October 2012, India’s exports shrank 1.6 per cent due to contracting global demand. This prompted exporters operating from SEZs to demand a cap in interest rates on credit, abolition of minimum alternate tax, DDT, and enhancement of duty drawback rates to 5-6 per cent from 2-3 per cent.

However, the direct tax code (DTC) put forth in September 2012 has proposed to extend DDT to SEZ developers at the rate of 15 per cent, resulting in existing developers abandoning their SEZ status.

Provisions and exemptions for SEZs posed a threat to the intricacies of employment and labour law, right to self- empowerment and land acquisition.

At the outset, the National Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2011 seems fairly good, peppered with improvements over the 2007 bill and the archaic 1984 Land Acquisition Bill.

But, as the Bill advances, it has less to offer. Concern for trauma of displacement does not seem to be the driving force. Also, the ambiguous provision of allowing the government to acquire land on proving that it has a ‘public purpose’ is retained. The 2007 Bill had sought to reduce the extent of land acquisition by the state for a company to 30 per cent, if the company purchases 70 per cent of the land needed by negotiation.

The present Bill does away with the 70:30 formula, but provides for ‘partial' acquisition by the state for a company if a company so requests. Presumably ‘partial' acquisition could go up to near-full acquisition by the state. This seems a retrograde step.

In the case of infrastructure, the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) has granted several additional concessions to investors in the highway projects, to make it lucrative. But, these are unnecessary and unjustified given the huge costs they will impose on the taxpaying travellers.

Health economists in India have pointed out that only 15 per cent of the Rs 1,500 billion spent in the health sector comes from the government, 4 per cent from social insurance, and 1 per cent from private insurance companies. The remaining 80 per cent is spent by people using private services.

Two-thirds of healthcare users bear 100 per cent of their healthcare expenses. Seventy per cent of these healthcare users are poor. More than half of the poorest 20 per cent of Indians sold assets or borrowed to pay for healthcare ( EPW : ‘The clinical trials scenario in India’). Numbers speak for themselves here.

With socio-economic development as the agenda, the government is offering the corporate entities a well strategised bail-out with more policies like these. It thus becomes pertinent to review the policies in place and work towards a more inclusive method of development.

(Apoorva is a student of the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.)

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