Public Policy and Governance Reforms for Post-COVID-19 Recovery and Sustainable growth and Development in Punjab

Punjab economy has shown both weaknesses and strengths during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most important weakness has been the dysfunctional fiscal policy and its consequences manifest in weak public health system. The fiscal indiscipline has led to Punjab under-spending on health and various other critical areas on per capita basis and the gap being as high as 45% which is only lower than Goa during the recent years. The other major issue has been poor governance of various sectors and programmes besides the absence of policy, especially for the agricultural sector which has been and is the mainstay of the state’s livelihoods. This concluding chapter highlights major dimensions of the public policy and the governance failure of the state’s economy and its consequences. It then goes on to provide a way forward not only on the macro fiscal policy front, but also sector specific policy and action mechanisms to rebuild the resilience of the enterprises and the livelihoods to move the state towards more sustainable and inclusive growth and development path. This is attempted in the context of the state appointed Committee to suggest COVID-19 impact-related recovery mechanism and its recommendations including their critical assessment. This chapter brings together various policy perspectives and suggestions on major sectors of the state economy i.e. agriculture, industry, services, health, education and governance of the state economy. It weaves into the discussion the existing policy documents of the state such as draft agricultural policy, 2018, industrial and business policy, 2017 and the Ahluwalia Committee (2020) report recommendations as available and critically examines their goodness and weaknesses from the perspective of people centred livelihood based growth and development policy framework. It makes sector specific as well as general growth and development inducing and promoting policy suggestions based on the findings of the various chapters in the book as well as other sources of such insights. It specifically dwells upon and recommends policy and stakeholder action on major burning policy issues like groundwater depletion, free power for irrigation, stubble burning, cropping pattern, land leasing issues, agricultural market reforms, agro-industrialisation strategy, innovations in various sectors, and the pro-poor programmes like MGNREGS and small producer livelihood focussed policy mechanisms.