Path-breaking ideas? Try reading these books, Mr Modi!

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi might find it fruitful to spare some time to look for ideas in the world of books, suggests TN Ninan

The prime minister has spent New Year's Eve asking his senior-most bureaucrats for new ideas.

We will know soon enough whether this delivers path-breaking thoughts, but don't bet on it.

Bureaucrats are trained to follow rules and precedents; most of them are administrators, not problem-solving managers.

That is why new ideas usually come from politicians, technocrats and civil society activists -- like Annadurai's subsidised rice scheme, MGR's mid-day meals, Rajiv Gandhi's technology missions, Nandan Nilekani's 'Aadhaar' programme, and Aruna Roy's right to information campaign.

Also, senior bureaucrats are usually very overworked people, and therefore, unable to sit back and think of new ideas.

But eight groups have been constituted, and they have been tasked with suggesting new ideas.

So, for all one knows, the government's departmental secretaries might surprise the sceptics.

Nevertheless, Mr Modi might find it fruitful to spare some time to look for ideas in the world of books.

A well-wisher could, therefore, do worse than to send the prime minister a New Year gift of half a dozen books that he could read, and even re-read.

By far the most important book to include in such a gift parcel would be Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson.

This well-known work underlines the fundamental point that the difference between successful and not-so-successful countries is the quality of their institutions.

Traditionally, the Bharatiya Janata Party has tended to focus on selecting its favourite sons (and to some extent daughters) for key posts, giving less, if any, attention to the business of strengthening institutions.

The Modi government has followed this pattern.

All the more reason why it is important for the prime minister to internalise the fundamental importance of well-functioning institutions for shaping our future.

The next most important book that Mr Modi could be offered is Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo