In his latest piece for The New Indian Express, Shankkar Aiyar looks at the state of governance in the country, as revealed by responses to questions from members in the Parliament. Excerpts:

"News of the losses of Air India always captures headlines. How are the other PSUs doing? Sadhashiv Lokhande of Shiv Sena and Ranjeeta Koli of the BJP asked the pertinent question. Not too well, as per the government. For three years running, 52 public enterprises have been earning less than their expenditure — that is clocking losses. Cumulatively, between 2015 and 2018, these 52 enterprises have lost Rs 75,932 crore — that is, nearly Rs 3 crore an hour across three years.

The severe slowdown in the economy has naturally triggered many questions about the rising level of unemployment and employment opportunities. Given that private-sector job creation is asymmetric across India, government jobs are critical. Shardaben Patel, BJP MP, asked about the number of vacancies in the Central government. The answer is shocking: of the 38.02 lakh sanctioned posts, over 6.83 lakh posts are vacant."

Read the full article here.