www.indiatoday.in
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Ashish Bagga
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa
EDITORS: Kaveree Bamzai (Special Projects), Ajit Kumar Jha (Research)
GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh
MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha
EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Damayanti Datta, S. Sahaya Ranjit,
Sandeep Unnithan
DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop
M umbai : M.G. Arun H yderabad : Amarnath K. Menon C handigarh : Asit Jolly
SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, J aipur : Rohit Parihar
SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee
M umbai : Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; p atna : Amitabh Srivastava
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha
K olkata : Romita Sengupta; B hopal : Rahul Noronha;
T hiruvananthapuram : Jeemon Jacob; B eiJing : Ananth Krishnan
ASSISTANT EDITOR: p une : Aditi S. Pai
CHIEF COPY EDITOR: Aditya Mohan Wig
PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor),
Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer),
Kekhriezhazo Miachie-O (Senior Photographer), Chandra Deep
Kumar (Photographer); M umbai : Mandar Suresh Deodhar
(Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer);
a hmedabad : Shailesh B Raval (Principal Photographer);
K olkata : Subir Halder (Principal Photographer);
C hennai : N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer)
PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher),
Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher),
Shubhrojit Brahma (Assistant Photo Researcher)
CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty
ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director);
Jyoti K. Singh, Anirban Ghosh (Art Director),
Vikas Verma, Rahul Sharma, Vipin Gupta (Associate Art Director);
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer)
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production),
Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator),
Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator)
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact)
IMPACT TEAM
Senior General Manager: Jitender Lad (West)
General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North),
Upendra Singh (Bangalore), Velu Subramaniam (Chennai),
Kaushiky Chakraborty (East)
GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra
Assistant General Manager: Garima Prashar (Marketing)
SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager
Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales)
Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations)
Manish Kumar Srivastava, Regional Sales Manager (North)
Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (West)
Arokia Raj L., Regional Sales Manager (South)
Volume XLII Number 22; For the week
May 23-29, 2017, published on every Friday
Editorial Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex,
FC-8, Sector-16A, Film City, Noida - 201301; Phone: 0120-4807100
For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, B-45,
Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (from
BSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900
from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: (0120) 4078080;
Mumbai: 022-66063411/3412, Kolkata: 033-40525327, Chennai: 044-24303200;
e-mail: [email protected]
l Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media India
Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP)
l Regd. Office: K-9 Con naught Circus, New Delhi-110001
l Impact Offices: 1201, 12th Floor, Tower 2 A, One Indiabulls Centre, (Jupiter
Mills), S.B. Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai-400013; Phone: 66063355;
Fax: 66063226 l E-1, Ground Floor, Videocon Towers, Jhandewalan Extn,
New Delhi l Guna Complex, 5th Floor, Main Building, No.443, Anna Salai,
Chennai-600018; Phone: 2847 8525 l 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor,
12, Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037,
22218343; Fax: 22218335; l 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor,
Kolkata-700071; Phones: 22825398; Fax: 22827254; l 6-3-885/7/B, Somajiguda,
Hyderabad-500082; Phone: 23401657, 23400479, 23410100, 23402481,
23410982, 23411498; Fax: 23403484 l 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016;
Phones: 2377057, 2377058 ; Fax: 2377059 l 2/C, “Suryarath Bldg”, 2nd Floor,
Behind White House, Panchwati, Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone:
26560393, 26560929; Fax: 26565293 l Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All
rights reserved through out the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited.
l
l Sub scriptions:
Printed and published by Manoj Sharma on behalf of Living Media
India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited,
18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana)
and at A-9, In dustrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District
Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught
Circus, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Aroon Purie.
l in dia today does not take the re sponsibility for returning unsolicited
publication material.
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of
competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only
FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
N
obody can fault this government
for not trying. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is a fount of ideas
and with his reformist zeal is trying to
mould India into ‘ModiBharat’. This is
the hardest-working government I’ve
seen in the 42 years of the existence of
the magazine and the most honest at
the top. There has been such a flurry of
initiatives launched by this government
that it is difficult to keep track of their
success. They are all in the right direc-
tion but there seem to be more grand
announcements than successful imple-
mentation. One of the consequences of
such an approach is that expectations are
raised to an unattainable level. The 2014
election slogan of ‘achhe din’ continues
to haunt this government. India is a vast
and complex country, coupled with being
a vibrant democracy. Change is inevita-
bly slow, which is difficult to digest for a
young, aspiring and impatient elector-
ate. Three years on, this government has
taken advantage of low-hanging fruit
and taken the country out of the perva-
sive gloom of the previously paralysed
and scam-ridden regime. No longer can
it blame them for the mess it inherited.
As part of the magazine’s annual
exer cise, we examine in depth the work-
ing of the government across major
sectors. In this, india today editors
have kept in mind three major para-
meters. How has the government done
in institutional reform, which includes
far-reaching economic legislation,
federal cooperation and public-private
participation? Has the government’s
operational efficiency improved—is
there an improvement in physical, social
and digital infrastructure? And last,
what is the overall national sentiment?
The results show that there is progress,
tardy perhaps, but definitely perceptible.
Game-changing economic legis lation
such as the GST Bill and the Banking
Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance,
2017, have taken off. The audacious act
of demonetisation to continue their sus-
tained attack on black money will greatly
benefit the economy in the long run.
Quite significant achievements.
At a macro level, India looks good.
The nation is growing at 7.1 per cent
compared to 6.5 per cent in 2013-2014;
inflation is at 3.7 per cent compared to
7.7 per cent in 2014; current and fiscal
account deficits are in control and India
is attracting record FDI, up by 48 per
cent since the NDA came to power.
But the biggest problem remains the
government’s inability to generate suf-
ficient jobs, which is connected to falling
private investment. Only 135,000 jobs
were created across eight key sectors in
2015-16, according to the Labour Bur-
eau, comparing poorly with the promise
of 10 million jobs every year.
The government seems to have done
well in creating physical infrastructure,
whether it is railways, roads or ports.
Social infrastructure, unfortunately, has
suffered from neglect, whether it is edu-
cation or healthcare, two key sectors this
government has inexplicably ignored.
Digital infrastructure is on the upswing,
with Aadhaar ensuring India moves
towards greater transparency, cheaper
service delivery and less corruption.
But the government has truly exc-
elled in the management of national
sentiment, whether it was demonetisa-
tion or the surgical strike, the respon-
siveness of ministers on social media
or the absence of corruption. When the
prime minister speaks of New India, it
is a project that strikes a chord, regard-
less of cow vigilantes and anti-Romeo
squads. It’s the politics of possi bility, and
India, the land of a million promises,
has always responded well to potential.
My lament with this government is a
familiar one on this page. Where is the
promised minimum government and
maximum governance? Was ‘the govern-
ment has no business being in business’
merely an election slogan? This govern-
ment has only expanded the public sector
and the power of the bureaucracy. Unless
it harnesses the energy of our industrious
workforce by making structural changes,
India will be neither new nor renewed.
(Aroon Purie)
M AY 2 9, 2 017
INDIA TODAY
1