India is flying, and how! That's true both literally and figuratively. The country's three top full service domestic airlines, Jet Airways, Indian Airlines and Air Sahara, recently announced that they were scrapping their respective Apex schemes, which allowed passengers to buy tickets at discounted rates, and replacing them with Bucket Fares, which enables them to fly at even cheaper rates. This is probably the first time in India's history that a Y-class seat on an aircraft is available at a price lower than the cost of an ac II-tier train berth. The exact contours of the schemes aren't important. The point is: air travel today is accessible to many more people than was the case even a decade ago. And more and more Indians are using this opportunity to log air miles. This is a direct result of competition from low-cost carriers, which offer such fares.

It's an axiom. Lower prices, acceptable quality and easy availability always increases the market size. Everyone gains in the process-the consumer, the seller and the government. This story is repeated across sectors. The government's pathetic attempts to take telephony to the masses failed spectacularly under socialism. In the first 45 years of Independence, the country achieved a tele-density of a miserable 0.6 per cent. Those who lived through those times will remember how it took months, and sometimes even years, to get a connection and how difficult it was then to connect with anyone. Contrast this with the situation now: tele-density has jumped 16-fold to 9.6 per cent in the 12 years since the sector was opened up to competition. Just look around: even the neighbourhood chai-wala probably has a mobile phone. Driving this boom is the fact that Indian call rates are among the lowest in the world-again the direct result of the competition that economic reforms have ushered in. The country's housing sector, too, is booming; as is the automobile sector. Rising income levels, as a result of greater economic opportunities, is just one part of the story. The other part involves the availability of easy bank loans, once again a result of the liberalisation of the financial services sector. Thanks to the boom in these two sectors, the government's social goal of providing every Indian with a roof over his head is no longer in the realms of the impossible.

Wait a minute. Are we trying to replicate the much-maligned and highly plutocratic "India Shining" argument? Yes and no. Yes, because India is really shining for a large minority of its citizens. No, because if India is not shining for others, it's because they have not yet been touched by economic reforms. The only way to put some shine into their India is reach the benefits of economic reforms to them ASAO. That means we need labour reforms, pension reforms, power reforms, agricultural reforms and personal law reforms. And one direct consequence of more reforms will be less government. As India's success in the information technology sector-which boomed without a dedicated government department to oversee its affairs-shows, that's not such a bad thing. In fact, the Indian model of governance has led not to the empowerment of the people, but to the rise of statism and crony capitalism, with all their attendant ills. Several reports have forecast the emergence of India (and China) as the two new powerhouses on the global scene. To realise that potential, the country has to empower its masses. That can only happen if the government rolls back the heavy hand of the state. As the examples at the beginning of this edit show, Indians can work wonders if given a free hand. And more reforms will give him just the space he needs.