Policy in India sometimes seems to be a marketing exercise, done with the aim to maximize shock and awe. This has been the case with RTE earlier, and demonetisation now. Today’s needull points out how – in the case of RTE – this meant the first encounter with reality being worse than it needed to be:
The RTE law is a beauteous example of a law that evolved after its promulgation and continues to do so even today. The law has, predictably, not done well on contact with reality and its first reform is quite overdue.
Much is due to a system that is trained in post-facto design and iteration, aka adjust. Witness the annual budgeting exercise for the nation. Admittedly it had much more significance in the licence raj, but even today the industry lobbies thrum with activity in January and February as they pitch for lower taxes or other concessions in the budgets.
Needull in a haystack 