The election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States — the wealthiest, most innovative and most powerful military nation worldwide — has shocked most well-educated and refined people who expect decorum, culture and character in government and society leaders. That the American people have elected him to be their executive President, is an indicator that the US — its significant highly-educated minority notwithstanding — which over the past two centuries has acquired the reputation of a coarse, swaggering nation, has become coarser. The world has to be ready to live with it. 

However, Trump is not an ill wind that blows no good. Inevitably some features on the President-Elect’s reforms agenda make eminent good sense not only for the American public, but also for the long-suffering people of India — like America, a democracy governed by the will of the people.

The most promising of the reforms on Trump’s agenda is promulgation of a Department of Government Efficiency headed by eccentric space-age billionaire Elon Musk and Indian-origin former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy . Their brief is to suggest ways and means to slash the Federal government’s annual expenditure by a humungous $2 trillion (equivalent to 57 percent of India’s annual GDP and 10 percent of America’s).   

 In India, there is a blanket of silence in media on the issue of reducing government spending classified as ‘establishment expenditure’ in the annual Union Budget. However for over a decade, EducationWorld which conterminously with the Union Budget has been presenting a schema/calculus to slash the Centre’s expenditure under various heads and free up resources for social welfare spending,  has been a voice in the wilderness. In the Union Budget 2024-25, establishment expenditure (wages, salaries, operational expenses and overheads) at Rs.7.83 lakh crore constitutes 16.29 percent of total Central government expenditure. This is the very first item under which your editors have suggested a 3 percent cut resulting in a saving of Rs.1.02 lakh crore. This would contribute 15 percent to the total Rs.7.81 lakh crore which our schema suggests can be mobilised by the Centre in 2024-25 for investment in public education and health (see https://www.educationworld.in/union-budget-2024-25-soaring-ambition-neglected-foundation/).  

Total establishment expenditure of Rs.7.83 lakh crore (2024-25) on 3.4 million government employees is much too much. Wasteful expenditure is patently visible in lavish ministerial and official bungalows, cavalcades of motor-cars, private airline and numerous class IV clerks, peons and servitors enjoyed by politicians and bureaucrats. Even if ‘drain the swamp’ is not possible, there is considerable scope for significantly slashing government expenditure to release resources desperately needed in the social sector.

That’s an early good wind that’s blown from America which is bracing for a roller-coaster ride under President Donald Trump. Let’s hope his bosom pal Prime Minister Modi takes a leaf out of his book.

Also read: Trump’s plan to dismantle the education department: What it means