Bangalore
January 8th, 2011
The year 2011 was born just a few days back and has started to enter into its childhood from infancy stage. Looking back into the past year or so, our great country has continued the consolidation of its emerging prominence on the World Stage. There is growing realization among countries of all continents and their Global Corporations that their plans need to have key ingredient, “India”, for their plans to be effective, practical, sustainable and successful. It should fill all countrymen’s heart with great pride on such elevation of our motherland at the World Stage. At the same time our country is carrying a plethora of drags, which if not unloaded in timely manner, will create a slew of adverse situations for us and will nullify all the global advantage we have gotten so far.
Here are some positives that we need to build on.
Chalo bhai chalo Dilli (Delhi) chalo: The past year has witnessed heads of all major developed countries visiting India starting from Cameron from Britain to Obama from US to Sarkozy from France to Medvedev from Russia and Wen from China. Gone are the days when major discussions with India used to be centered on general aid to India. Now, all the major world countries see India as a vehicle to carry their own country out of the economic doldrums. It made me feel immensely proud and my eyes became moist when Head of US, Barrack Obama, during his visit to India said that agreements with India would create approximately 54,000 jobs in USA. Wow, what a big change and role reversal. Recently, Som Mittal, NASSCOM chief said that India in now net job creator in US. In earlier times, it used to be other way that so and so amount of US aid would help in implementing so and so projects in India and that in turn would create jobs for so many people in India. Now, the time has become good. But, we should be able to consolidate on this opportunity presented to us by the favorable conditions. Similar to the US slogan that says “Business of America is Business”, we should have a slogan that “Business of India is Business too”. Our political/corporate leadership needs to be conscious while making agreements with foreign state/corporation heads and should consider, both short term and long term economic benefit to our country, while keeping emotions and sentiments out of it.
Other positive is that all the heads of states of five permanent members of UNSC have recognized India as a Nuclear State. Also, all permanent UNSC countries except China have advocated for inclusion of India as a permanent member of the Security Council. With China it is/was expected and our country has to be extra careful in all dealings. China is doing our “gherabandi” in a very systematic manner and we should be extremely serious in recognizing this grave problem in order to be able to address it appropriately. With all other countries we should have policy of “Trust but then test” but with China, we should have policy of “Trust only after the test, but then test again after we trust”. The reason is that our historical experience which China has been subpar and the societies, who do not learn from history become history. With China, while we should continue to reciprocate on business collaboration. At the same time, it would also be good idea to take some tough postures. If China does not stop giving stapled Visa to people from J&K, citing reasons that J&K is disputed land, we should also start giving stapled Visa to people from Aksai Chin citing the reason that Aksai Chin is part of India per Government approved Indian map and that the land was gifted to China by Pakistan in 1947 which we do not recognize.
Brand India: The Brand India has finally come in big way and is becoming well known around the globe. People see India as a peace loving nation, and Indians in general, people with good values, systems and traditions. Our country has finally adopted a symbol for her currency “Rupee”. Over last few years the word Indo-Pak are dehyphenated. Foreign heads do not weigh India and Pakistan using same scale and do not use the Indo and Pak words together. On other hand, the new word Af-Pak is being coined by many western countries to which I have no comments to offer.
Rise in Sports Arena: The past year witnessed leap and bound rise for India as a sports country. Certainly we are number one in cricket in both formats, Test and ODI, and that is something for which each countryman should be proud of. But, we should be equally proud of our sports people’s performance in both CWG-10 in New Delhi and Asiad-10 in China. The CWG as organized was overall a blot on our nation but strictly from sportspeople’s point of view, the performance of our athletes and other sportspersons was like a Shining Gem. The breadth of sports will also help the sports to reach out to grass root level creating scores of opportunities and will ultimately translate into thousands of jobs at all levels all across country.
ISRO/DRDO’s Exemplary work: Inspite of ISRO and DRDO not having remarkable success records, their achievements whatever they are with the limited resources that they are made available with are exemplary. The Chandrayaan mission of ISRO has made every single countrymen and people of Indian origin proud all around the globe. Their launch vehicles ASLV and PSLV are great spaceships and the GSLV, in spite of recent failure, is getting ready for the big day. Similarly, the indigenous missile programs of DRDO (Prithvi, Agni, Nag, Dhanush and Akash, Brahmos) are all remarkable. The scientists at these organizations need our appreciation and pat on their back to continue their work so that they come out with flying colors. Space and missile technology is complex and requires numerous tests to reach to the state of perfection.
The PSUs and the Private Sector: Some of the public sector units of India including many public sectors banks are truly world class organizations; ONGC, IOC , BHEL, SBI etc. are to name a few. In spite of so many inherent inefficiencies in these PSUs, all things considered, their corporate governance is not bad, infact better than many US Wall Street firms who are/were supposed to be on top of corporate governance. I was reading some time back in a news paper that, today the net valuation of SBI is many many many times more than Citibank. No one could have and would have imagined this just a few years back but today, that is a fact. These PSUs continue to add value for the nation as well for their investors.
Similarly, many private companies have become household names across the globe. Infosys, Tata group etc. are to name a few.
Stock markets: Our Bourses continue to show signs of independence from rest of the world. No longer have our markets caught cold when it has snowed on New York Wall Street. Our stock valuations are becoming more based on fundaments of the companies rather than speculation and external influence. After 2008 meltdown, our Sensex has not only re-climbed to the same peak but has surpassed by significant margin, whereas the Dow still fluctuates between 7K and 11K for last nine years. The foreign institutions are findings our markets more profitable than their local markets. Our currency has remained steady against US dollar and other major currencies of industrialized nations. Slowly but steadily, our markets are entering the realm of efficient stock markets.
Then, there are more worrying factors than what we can cheer for.
Inflation: Inflation is the one of the biggest enemies of our country. It is impacting most citizens of India, more so to the people living in Bharat than people living in India. I’m sure the government of India has some standard measurement criteria to come up with inflation and growth numbers, month after month, quarter after quarter and year after year. But, at least I have difficulty digesting these numbers. Overtime, we all are losing our purchasing power. So, the inflation adjusted growth rate numbers, as provided by Government are questionable.
Also, there is no reprieve from some or other kind of crisis in critical food item all through the year. Sometimes, it is sugar, other times, it is onion or garlic. The Government is in despondent state and does not have clue as how to deal with inflation. Whatever little it is trying to do is knee jerk reaction and is like “Digging the well when thirsty”. Our country does not have a coherent and holistic agriculture policy which can take macro view of food requirement and production potential in the country and come up with the plan for crop cultivation and export. There is no point in exporting anything when same thing requires importing at much higher cost.
I don’t what others feel but, I felt embarrassed when we had to import onion from our immediate west where we used to export in large quantities. Then felt embarrassed again when they imposed onion export ban for India.
Dwindling male/female ratio: The steep fall in male/female ratio should be big concern to all of us. A male’s need for a female companion and a female’s need for a male companion is not just a biological need but also an emotional need. When we say someone is settled in life, it also implies that the person has got a job and a suitable life partner. This falling male/female ratio will create such a big social problem that it would result into large-scale crimes of all categories. Already it is late but it’s never too late. We should do all that is possible in our power/reach to prevent female feticide. I happen to go to my village in UP last year and I could see many gangs of boys, all in their late twenties, not getting an opportunity to wed because there are no females available. In entire country side of north India, the problem is wide spread. Among many causes, the dowry system is one of the key causes. The dowry system needs to be eradicated.
Loss of capital: We are not going to be a developed nation in ten, fifty or even hundred years if we continue to allow loss of capital at the current rate. We build roads which should last for 5 years at least but they do not last even for 6 months and then again we have to redo the same road. The same is true with all the civic infrastructure work such as sidewalks, road medians, bridges, railings etc etc etc . The final nail in the coffin is put by the rampant corruption across all levels.
In 1996, I was on a Tata Unisys project assignment in Austin, Texas, USA and my apartment complex Savannah Ridge was right off a major road, Fast West Blvd. On a couple of intersections, the sidewalk showed commissioning date of 1980. So even after 16 years, the sidewalk was in great condition. That is one good example which shows how capital can be preserved. Our nation needs to set high benchmark for infra work for preservation of capital.
Corruption and scams: The corruption has taken such deep roots in the institutions of our country that only a miracle can take it out of the system. Even the offices of Indian Armed Forces have not been able to stay away from it. The current UPA government probably will overshoot the corruption barometer if there exists one for measuring corruption. There have been so many instances of scams under the watch of this UPA government that one cannot even recall all of them. The silence of our Prime Minister, who otherwise is known as a person of integrity, has tarnished the “Institution of Prime Minister” for very long time to come. If he does not want to take accountability without authority, and we all know very well where the authority lies, then he should quit the high offices of Prime Minister rather than tarnishing its image along with his own clean image and character. Many from his council of ministers and chief ministers have looted the country by Crores and Crores of rupees. We will need to find a way to shore up public support and channel opinion to confront these offenders of public offices as it happens.
Copied Consumerism: As we are developing (if that’s what we call development), we are massacring the natural resources and environment. The way we are depleting the resources starting from land to water to minerals is alarming. The world is not going to end with us. We have to leave enough resources for our children and their children and their children. As Gandhi said “The world has sufficient for everyone’s need but not to everyone’s greed”. On one hand, we have shortage of water all over the places then on other hand, we have water being wasted at disproportional levels every there. We will need to be creative to achieve the desired level of hygiene using much less quantity of water. Other thing that is worrisome is indiscriminate plotting of fertile land all over the nation. If one travels by train from Kanpur to Delhi, a distance of about 450 kilometers, one cannot find a single stretch of 1km without some building, finished or unfinished on highly fertile land. This indiscriminate plotting is taking a bigger toll, making less arable land available for growing food grains and vegetables. And then we complain for food inflation. Hn..
Every year, our country witnesses flood in part of country and droughts in other parts of the country. It would be very logical for someone to ask a question why can’t we divert the water from the flood hit areas to the drought it areas. There was a plan to implement a project of interconnecting major rivers. But that seems to be catching dust like many other plans.
Demon on the road: Not sure what is the root cause of people’s demonic behavior on the road. There is no sense of traffic discipline by many Indian drivers. If we are not going to discipline our driving, no matter how many flyovers, magic boxes, underpasses and overpasses we make, we will not be able to fix traffic woos. If we all drive in a disciplined manner, the road utilization will be much higher and will enable more traffic movement in same amount of time. Bangalore e.g. is the only city in whole world where many traffic lights are green or red for one hundred eighty seconds in one stretch. This is a catch twenty two situation. Probably, the traffic controllers have set this to such a high number because they know for sure that first sixty seconds will be spent in just fixing the mess of a few frontal vehicles and then lots of time will be wasted as there will be a BMTC bus stop right after the traffic right. But, due to this high number, drivers tend to rush so as not to getting caught by the one hundred eighty second red traffic light. First we have to show signs of our disciplined driving and then give traffic regulators a chance to reduce the duration from one hundred eighty seconds to forty five seconds or so.
Most of the motor bike riders take the whole road to ransom. They just drive anywhere in any direction at very fast speed.
Dying civic sense: If we can treat our public places similar to what we treat our houses, our surroundings will be in a much better shape and condition then what they are currently in. If one goes to government offices, one can see “red colored paan spit” on every wall and stair. Why is that? What can we do about it? One can see people relieving on road side without slightest thought that the behavior is against the norms of a civic society. During this New Year eve celebration in MG road area, people dumped twenty tons of trash in small area. What kind of celebration is that? How would one feel if someone visiting his/her home creates mess of the house by littering all kinds of things? During Christmas vacation, I happened to visit some pristine nature places but there too I could see dumps of plastic bottles, cups, plates etc. We got to learn to respect our nature, environment and surroundings. We got to understand that “my right ends where someone else’s right begins”, and that someone includes trees, rivers, mountains, water bodies etc.
Pseudo Secularism: There is no denying with the fact that India as of today is a secular country. But the big question is how you define secularism. My practical definition of secularism is that people following different religions and sects can co-exist in peaceful manner while following their respective beliefs and paths. To me, secularism also means, apart from loving people of the country, also loving mountains of our country - Himalayas, Vindhya, Satpura, Aravalli, Naga, Khasi, Jaintia, Sahyadri, Nilgiris and Pir Panjal etc, also loving rivers of the country - Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Krishna, Kaveri, Godavari, Gomti, Ghaghra, Satluj, Ravi, Brahmputa etc, also loving deserts of the country - Thar , Leh etc, also loving lakes of the country - Dal, Ashtmudi, Chilka, Naini, Narayan Sarovar, Krishna Kund, Radha Kund etc, also loving monuments of the country - India gate, Gateway of India, Taj Mahal, Ajanta/ Ellora, Sanchi Stupa etc, also loving our epics - Veda, Puranas, Upnishads etc and finally, also loving country’s flora&fauna, infrastructure, trains, buses, planes, ships, bridges, roads and everything else in the country.
To me, secularism also means pledging allegiance to the National Flag “Tiranga”, National Song “Vande Mataram”, sovereignty and constitution of India. It also means feeling happy for happy moments of nation and feeling grieved for sad moments of nation. Secularism also means helping in keeping the enemies of our motherland at bay.
But, these days, it has become fashion to castigate Hindus and Hinduism in the name of secularism to appear intelligent and smart. Rahul Gandhi, who is aspiring to one day lead this country, makes statements which are detrimental to the feeling of majority of the population even though he knows very well as to what the facts are. It is well established fact that the terrorism flows from our western neighbor and we also know that there is no such word/phrase as Hindu Terrorism. History is the witness that Hindus have tolerated even the invaders/looters like Balbans, Razias, Khilzis, Temurs, Tuglaqs, Babers, Nadirshahs and even Abdali’s. Hindus have also given asylum to the people who could not find refuge elsewhere like Jews, Persians etc. Rahul should know as to what is the difference between organizations whose volunteers and members help in construction in a true selfless manner, even when everything is destroyed by natural calamities and the organizations who believe only in destructions. Rahul should be able to distinguish between organizations who believe in “Peace” and organizations who believe in “Piece”. The same is the case with many other political leaders, news anchors and columnists. We have to develop a way to confront these people as and when they misrepresent facts. We should remember that we have the biggest weapon “Ballot” and “Pen” with us and be willing to exercise vehemently when needed.
Terrorism: This is one problem that successive governments of our country have been unable to handle effectively. The smaller lull period should not be mistaken that the terrorism has been tackled. We should recognize that where the origin of terrorism lies, our immediate west. We have to fix this mess ourselves. After major incidents, our political leadership takes this up with foreign heads of governments and asks them to pressurize the terrorism sponsoring country to stop terrorism. In Hindi there is a saying “Laaton ke bhoot Baaton se nahi maante”. . There is fire under our butts and we have to fabricate a giant extinguisher with a big barrel ourselves. The other countries and their heads have their own set of problems to address/fix. We ask other governments to ban terrorist organizations. Why can’t our government first ban those in our own country? Our courts should also recognize that they are not helping the country by their snail like speed.
Separatism: As it is there are more things in our country that divide us than the things that unite us – language, dialect, region, religion, sect, colour, caste, class etc. The threat of separatist is looming large all over the country and is just not confined to J&K. In North East, the unrest prevails in almost every state. Then we have Maoist problems in eastern states. Andhra has its own problems. Then the recent Gurjar agitation is taking ugly turn and is becoming yearly phenomenon resulting into public inconvenience and loss of revenue due to its impact on movement and tourism. In Maharashtra, the MNS sings its own separatism song. The current caste based reservation system is not working. The reservation system which is as old as independent India needs to revisited, if not abolished.
The Government of India also needs to make sure that every area in the country is provided connectivity and basic amenities. Take example, the Jawaharlal tunnel commissioned by Britishers are the only way to connect Kashmir with rest of India. And, whenever there is heavy snowfall, the new anchors, on behalf of government, shamelessly announce on TV that Kashmir is cut off from rest of the country. Why have we not developed another or probably two more alternate roads to address the Kashmir connectivity issue? The same is the case with Northeastern states. Whenever there is flooding in Brahmaputra river , the entire north east is cut off from rest of India. Our political leadership needs to find creative ways of connecting north east with rest of India. May be, there is need to strike some alliances and agreements to make roads thru Bangladesh.
I have tried to cover many topics in this blog and will revisit some of these topics in details in later blogs. Many folks may not agree with my point of views but that’s OK. That’s what blogging is all about (“Swachhand Vichaar” (Unrestrained thoughts) and whatever I have written is based on my beliefs and convictions.
- Iti Subham
