THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 28, 2017- Topic 2

Paved with big words: on govt's strategy to rescue economy

The Central government is betting on a two-pronged strategy, revealed this week, to rescue the economy from the slowdown. Along with recapitalisation of public sector banks, it announced a huge roads project, which will help scale up public spending on infrastructure and boost job creation and growth. The plan is to spend almost Rs.7 lakh crore to build 83,677 km of highways, traversing mostly the northern and eastern parts of the country, by March 2022. 

The government estimates that the Bharatmala Pariyojana, which constitutes a major component of this plan, could itself create as many as 14.2 crore man-days of work directly, in addition to permanent jobs after completion. The benefits to the economy are likely to be significant if the programme, as envisaged, manages to successfully connect 550 districts as well as coastal ports to national highways, among other things. While it is hard to quantify the likely economic benefits from the project, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari expects the contribution to GDP to be significant. With money flowing in from the government and market borrowings, funding is unlikely to be an issue. The same, however, cannot be said about the other familiar challenges in the infrastructure space.

With this massive roads project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be banking on replicating, or even bettering, the National Highways Development Project of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However, its success will depend largely on how the government tackles problems that have held back the implementation of infrastructure projects over the last couple of decades. While Rs.2.09 lakh crore of the Rs.5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala investment will be funded by market borrowings, over ₹1 lakh crore is expected to come in the form of private investments. Private infrastructure companies already reeling in the aftermath of aggressive past bids and leveraged balance sheets will need more clarity to be genuinely interested in such projects. This is an opportune time for the government to bring out of cold storage the blueprint for reviving public-private partnerships — prepared about two years ago by a panel headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar. Just as it isn’t clear why the government waited three years to unleash the full gamut of reforms needed to fix the banking sector’s bad loan mess, it is difficult to understand why little has moved on the PPP framework after the Kelkar report came in late-2015. The NDA government’s very first Budget allocated Rs.500 crore to create a new body called 3P India to reboot the earlier PPP route that had left several projects stranded, with developers fleeing in the face of execution issues. That institution is still to see the light of day, while land acquisition reforms attempted in the NDA’s first year have also been abandoned. More attention is needed on these fronts to ensure this infrastructure ramp-up delivers, and on time.

Vocabulary

Reveal: make previously unknown or secret information known to others.

Example: Brenda was forced to reveal Robbie's whereabouts

Synonyms: divulge, disclose, tell, let slip, let drop, give away, give out

Traverse: travel across or through.

Example: He traversed the forest

Synonyms: travel over/across, cross, journey over/across, pass over

Significant: sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy.

Example: A significant increase in sales

Synonyms: notable, noteworthy, worthy of attention, remarkable

Envisage: contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event.

Example: The Rome Treaty envisaged free movement across frontiers

Synonyms: imagine, contemplate, visualize, envision, picture

Significant: sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy.

Example: A significant increase in sales

Synonyms: notable, noteworthy, worthy of attention, remarkable

Massive: large and heavy or solid.

Example: A massive rampart of stone

Synonyms: huge, enormous, vast, immense, large, big, mighty

Reeling: lose one's balance and stagger or lurch violently.

Example: He punched Connolly in the ear, sending him reeling

Synonyms: stagger, lurch, sway, rock, stumble, totter, wobble

Aftermath: the consequences or aftereffects of a significant unpleasant event.

Example: Food prices soared in the aftermath of the drought

Synonyms: repercussions, aftereffects, consequences, effects

Leverage: the exertion of force by means of a lever or an object used in the manner of a lever.

Example: My spade hit something solid that wouldn't respond to leverage

Synonyms: grip, purchase, hold, support, anchorage, force, strength

Revive: restore to life or consciousness.

Example: Both men collapsed, but were revived

Synonyms: resuscitate, bring around, bring back to consciousness

Unleash: release from a leash or restraint.

Example: We unleashed the dog and carried it down to our car

Synonyms: let loose, release, (set) free, unloose, untie, unchain

Gamut: the complete range or scope of something.

Example: The whole gamut of human emotion

Synonyms: range, spectrum, span, scope, sweep, compass, area

Flee: run away from a place or situation of danger.

Example: A man was shot twice as he fled from five masked youths

Synonyms: run away/off, run for it, make a run for it, dash, take flight

Abandoned: having been deserted or cast off.

Example: An abandoned car

Synonyms: deserted, forsaken, cast aside/off, jilted, stranded