Just junk the udan international scheme

Just junk the udan international scheme

The civil aviation ministry’s scheme to subsidise Indian flyers to Singapore, Bangkok and other places must be junked. State governments have better use for their money. The economic returns from investing in better schooling, healthcare and sanitation would outweigh, by far, whatever gain is to be had by letting a few thousand more to fly abroad. Subsidising air travel to some of the most popular tourist destinations abroad would merely divert domestic economic activity, apart from enriching the already well-heeled.

The initial UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme for regional air connectivity for short-haul, no-frills travel might have had some merit. India is a large country and even intrastate cities can be hundreds of kilometres apart. And the subsidy came from other air travellers, not from state government budgets. But the proposed international UDAN scheme is quite different. Instead of subsidising air travel abroad, the states really must step-up allocation for such heads as health, sanitation and education to proactively boost the development delivery mechanism. And better social indicators and infrastructure would boost tourism. Note that Bali, Indonesia, alone gets about half the number of international tourists as the whole of India.

There is certainly a valid reason to expand and upgrade capacity at regional airports. The ministry of civil aviation has reportedly gone ahead and worked-out the precise amount of subsidy per seat: ₹7,880 for Guwahati-Singapore and ₹7,350 for Guwahati-Kuala Lumpur. Reports add that select Indian carriers would thrive on exclusivity in subsidy support on particular routes. If the civil aviation ministry wanted to furnish proof that this is a government of the suited and booted, it could not have hit upon a better scheme.