One needn’t have to be a mathematicalgenius to solve the equation to project the economic affairs of this State whichpresently is dependent on tourism, off-shore casinos, other taxes and fees.Burdening the common man with an adverse structure of increased taxationpolicies by way of abnormal hike in challan-fines for traffic rules violation, entrytax, bringing online purchases which are not for resale under the ambit oflocal VAT and justifying all this revenue collection as a forced alternative dueto mining ban is certainly unjust and has only resulted at the cost of loweringthe standard of living. There is a prevalent confusion inunderstanding of infrastructural and economical development. Infrastructuredevelopment mainly helps in providing basic amenities and facilitatinglinkages. It is of tangible existence and can be easily exploited to gainpolitical mileage. Whereas, in the case of economic development it is by naturean activity introduced to promote commerce and trade which facilitates the Stateto increase their revenue earnings and improve the standard of living to provideus a better quality of life. Every State needs a vision statement,which stirs the imagination and motivates all segments of society to greatereffort. It is an essential step in building the role and responsibility ofdifferent agents in the economy, such as the private corporate sector, thesmall and tiny sector, people’s organizations etc. It is clear, therefore, thatto meet these objectives, a vision statement has to operate several levels ofgenerality and specificity. The former CM Manohar Parrikar has carved a nichefor himself and the BJP in Goa as he was focused and had a vision with which hepursued his objectives relentlessly. I was fortunate to meet the formerEconomic Advisor of Govt. of India; a fatherly figure in economics ofIndia. Dr V A Pai Panandikar was theguest of Honour during the felicitation programme organised by the Goa IITAlumni chapter for all rankers from Goa who passed the Indian Institute ofTechnology junior entrance examination IITjee at a function held in the city onJune 14, 2008. I learnt that he was born in Margao; was Special Advisor to theDeputy Prime Minister Mr. Morarji Desai - (1967-69) in the Department ofEconomic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. He had held a number of criticalgovernment positions and also been advisor to a number of top corporate housesand academic institutions. The opportunity to interact with him atlength gave me deep insight and earned me maturity in understanding State AdministrativePolicies and Politics apart. I recollected my teacher Sr. Journalist Gurudas R.Singbal who once remarked in class while teaching “The art of expressing bywriting in simple words the complex thoughts voiced by great minds for thebenefit of society and also ensuring to keep the readers’ interest captured isnothing else but journalism”. As such I undertake to project with utmosthumility those views which have mattered worthy. Economic development needs tobe planned and executed in a phased manner. Experts from different fields needto prepare background papers from valuable inputs of the different sectors. Establishing Consulates of othercountries for Trade Representations, Export Promotion Councils in differentparticular fields and Bi-National Chambers of commerce & Industry andInter-State Chambers of commerce & Industry would help in promoting themuch needed economic development in Goa at a faster pace. The need of the houris to put to proper optimum use the existing infrastructure, Mormugao PortTrust and Dabolim Airport. Presently exports have declined and are mostlypertaining only to pharmaceuticals after ban on mining. The Laxmikant Parsekar led governmentcan do well by establishing in Goa a World Trade Centre, Export Council, and TradeCommissions for enhancement of trade between individual countries and India.Ideally it would be better to primarily project Goa as an InternationalMarketing Hub and secondarily as a Tourism Marketplace. The local youth too canget a platform to explore business opportunities in international trade thuslessening the burden of the government to provide them with employmentopportunities in future. The newly created ministry ‘Aayush’under Union Minister Shripad Naik can also be fully exploited for economicdevelopment in the State by projecting Goa as a rejuvenating Ayurveda Tourist Centrewith branches managed by local bodies at serene locations promoting healthtourism. Popular schemes such as Ladli Laxmi,Grihar Aadhar DSSS etc. go a long way in providing social support which areavailed under Social Welfare Schemes and are meant for economic sustenance. Insteadyoung women need to be encouraged to exploit their entrepreneurial skills byproviding them with free registration in departments of Sales Tax, Service Tax,etc. to promote economic growth. Infrastructure development such asroads, bridges, hospitals, airports, etc. is required but does not help much inlong term revenue generation for the State. It does help in gaining politicalmileage and vote bank politics for appeasement of minorities. All our past governments’have lacked to seize the initiative of implementation of proper economicdevelopment policies. The gross domestic product (GDP) is one ofthe primary indicators used to gauge the health of a State's economy. GDP is themonetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a Statein a specific time period. The government has to inform the House the revenuegained and lost during the last financial year. The State needs to invest adequately ineducation, health care, transportation, and workforce development. To do that, it needs to make decisions abouthow to raise and spend revenues with an eye toward the future. The per capita income of Goa has been ona higher platform simply because of mining and foreign exchange due to largenumber of NRIs. None of the previous governments had any vision for economicdevelopment. Land is scarce as such agricultural activities cannot flourishlike in other Indian States. The ratio of earned revenue from tourismindustry will not be able to match with expenditure on increasing populationand to meet the demands for employment opportunities from the youngergeneration. Therefore in the years to come it is obvious and expected that thestandard of living will decline drastically and increase in crime rate can besafely predicted if proper measures for economic growth reforms are notimplemented at the right moment.
