Prof Saras D Sarasvathy — the celebrated expert on “effectuation theory of entrepreneurship” — taught us how an entrepreneur uses four key principles: bird in hand (start with whatever means one has on hand), affordable loss (be aware of downside), crazy quilt (focusing on co-creation and partnerships), and lemonade (leverage contingencies). These four principles are based on the world-view of “pilot in the plane” — that is, the best way to predict the future is to create it. And, the effectual cycle (continue the virtuous cycle based on the aforesaid principles) will take the entrepreneurial initiative to the next level much more effectively.
A country’s policy-making is no less entrepreneurial than the individual entrepreneurial ventures that one sees around. And it is here one can extrapolate to see how policy-making in the last nine years of Modi Government has been “effectual”.
The pilot’s world-view, as a starter, was clear in the minds of policymakers. They believed India can set a course of action for itself, to become a developed nation by 2047. So followed the goals — $5 trillion economy milestone by 2024 (likely to get delayed by a couple of years, thanks to Covid) or a $10 trillion economy by 2030. Other milestones were also set — get the under-5 gender disparity rectified (that showed behavioural change in the immediate time-frame) and doubling of farmers’ income by 2022 (achieved to a large extent). Other social welfare measures such as provision of toilets, water, electricity, bank accounts and health insurance have all been done with scale, speed and sensitivity.
Key principles
A bird in the hand approach meant a strong belief in the existing resources India had — be it financial, human, or technology. And how would one leverage to create opportunities is seen in the exemplary case of the JAM — Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile — trinity that transformed the way government engaged with beneficiaries via Direct Benefit Transfer mode.
The crazy quilt principle is exemplified in multiple partnerships within the country and outside. GST, for instance, is an excellent example of bringing the nation under a single tax umbrella. And formation of QUAD, speaks of how partnerships were created to further secure the country’s security interests. The lemonade principle has been implemented to perfection. Making use of the anti-China sentiment due to Covid, India put forth a massive PLI scheme that encouraged more investment and, therefore, jobs. The incentives to be given would be from the very income these PLIs investments generated.
All these achievements roll back to the “philosophical viewpoint” that Prof Sarasvathy speaks of — that of creating the future as the only way to predict it.
The writer heads the Economic Cell of BJP (Karnataka)