Posting after more than a year.
So much has happened. Shall elaborate later. Yeah, that 'later' ususally never comes. The keyword is 'usually'. Hang on to hope, and keep checking this space!

Meanwhile, I shall be appearing on TV today August 15, 2008 at 2 pm & 8 pm. Channel: NDTV Profit.
Update: Did go & attended 'The Unstoppable Indians: Finale'. My essay entry was among the top 5 in the country. And, as a result, I got the honor of asking a question to the elite panelists comprising:-

1. Prof. Amartya Sen (Nobel Prize winning Economist)
2. Mr. Amitav Ghosh (Noted Indian author)
3. Mr. Piyush Pandey (Ad guru, & CEO Oglivy & Mathers)
4. Dr. R.A. Mashelkar (Famous Indian nuclear scientist, and 'a dangerous optimist'!)
5. Mr. Charles Correa (Famous Indian architect)

The audience also had a number of dignitaries including Mr. Mani Shankar Ayer, minister, Youth & Sports (Probably!), Mr. Maxwell Periera, celebrated former top cop etcetera. Spent an hour with Mr. Periera discussing several issues. Amazing Person, amazing ideas! An inspiration!

Here is the draft of what got me there:-
A long essay, bear with me!

If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most

Richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can

bestow - In some parts a very paradise on earth- I should point to India.

Fredrick Max Mueller

The Questions Facing India Today

Has India realized the true potential of her democracy? Has she, in the sixty one years of her independence been able to live up to the glorious ideals enshrined in the Constitution by her founding fathers? Is India unstoppable in her pursuit of ever loftier goalposts?

Can the nation today look back at her past with pride and look ahead at the future with glorious great expectations?

Or, has India and her people been fragmented by invisible divisors of caste, creed, religion, language etcetera? Have the people been irreversibly driven towards national ignominy by the multi-million dollar scams that keep surfacing every other day? Should the nation hang her head in shame when fingers are being pointed towards her elected representatives who claim to be debating the nation’s destiny in the hallowed halls of the parliament? Has the slow and heady poison of divisiveness concocted by some ’leaders’ who claim to be fighting a battle of righteousness and faith finally got imbibed in the mindsets of the nation’s milieu?

Does India still believe that she has unstoppable Indians as its leaders?

An extract from John F. Burns’: “India’s 50 years of Progress and Pain” in the New York Times on August 14, 1997

[Should Indians celebrate that their country- a great tapestry of castes, languages, regions and faiths- survives despite forecasts that it would splinter once Britain’s controlling hand was removed? Or do they despair because inherent strains have spawned secessionist movements and other forms of violence have made India one of the most lethal places on earth?

Should Indians take pride in their parliamentary democracy, vigorously upheld in a world where countries with far fewer problems have remained stifled by autocracy? Or should they lament the failures in their system, the demagogues who have risen to power on the votes of illiterate masses only to betray them, the politicians at every level who have built lives of sybaritic comfort for themselves while 350 million Indians remain mired in poverty?]

These and other questions point to another central question: What future does the youth envision for India in the next 60 years?

India’s economy today:: Paradoxes Galore

Before I begin to attempt to answer those heavily loaded questions, let us have a cursory look at the state of India’s economy after 61 years of independence.

At a G.D.P. of around $1.099 trillion, we stand at 12^th place in the world. More importantly, the G.D.P. at P.P.P. is $2.989 trillion which is the 4^th largest in the world.

At the same time, gross inequity in the distribution of wealth stares us in the face. The highest 10% of the population consumes 31.1%, while the lowest 10% just consume 3.6% of the total wealth. Our G.D.P. per capita stands at a measly $2700 p.a. which is a shameful 167^th in the world. Real G.D.P. growth rate is a phenomenal 9.6%, but the current inflation rate is close to 12%!

We are still classified into the category of ‘mostly unfree’ economies, and worse, our H.D.I. rank keeps falling every year (currently 128^th).

(Data Source: CIA World Factbook)

There are hosts of other statistics which point to problems plaguing this great nation. Some of them are 25% the population being below the poverty line and around 7.1% unemployment rate. Corruption is another fundamental concern.

The way ahead:: Suggestions and Solutions

Indeed one’s faith in one’s plans and methods are truly tested

When the horizon before one is the blackest.

Mahatma Gandhi

Despite such baffling facts, despite the knowledge that the rays of ‘India Shining’ have not managed to make their way to a sizeable chunk of the population, the soul refuses to give in to despair and despondence. Just as the spirit of the country and her soldiers drove out insurgents from her land in Kargil, just as the spirit of Bangalore and Ahmedabad refuses to wilt against terror attacks and just as the country continues to surge to greater heights in spite of an attack on the heart of her democracy, the Parliament, so will the people and the system fight it out and win over the devils of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and unemployment.

There is always light at the end of the night.

The spirit shall prevail, and the world shall bear witness.

In order to attain such lofty goals, in order to win back our erstwhile might, in order to make India truly unstoppable, we will have to toil, we will have to persevere. In order to our dreams taking concrete shape, we will have to begin now with a strategic planning. We have to have an exodus from the mediocre achievement mentality.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Begin it now.

Goethe

A few suggestions to embolden India into a new era of development are enlisted herewith.

With the scale and complexity of problems facing the nation today, we need visionaries to seek bold solutions. The need of the hour is ‘Transformational Leadership’. The need of the hour is a strong vision, exuberant passion, an unyielding sense of commitment, and a robust set of values. The need of the hour is ‘UNSTOPPABLE INDIANS’. And, care has to be taken that those words do not just become fragrant hyperbole, there has to be a courage of conviction to go the extra mile.

These Unstoppable Indians have to come from all walks of life, be it politics, academia, media, or even entertainment and fine arts.

Politics: The focus has to shift from political politics to developmental politics. In the times of the independence movement, political politics was essential. Today, what is needed for India? With its 260 million people living below the poverty line and the illiteracy rate being of the order of 35%, more than 36 million of its employment seekers, the mission has to be to make India a developed nation that is free from poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. This situation necessitates developmental politics. In this scenario, political parties will be competing against each other by putting forth their political vision through their manifesto. One party puts forth their goals like eradicating poverty and unemployment from the country within a period of 10 years, other says that it will ensure all border disputes with neighboring countries shall be resolved in 3 years and India will become a permanent member of the security council in 2 years, while someone else indicates different parameters of development by ensuring that all pending cases in courts are done away with within 2 years, there are no law and order problems and world looks up to India for intellectual guidance. When the mandate is given to a particular party, they strive towards achievement of these goals with all their might with support of everyone else, thus blessing the country and the people with a better place to live in.

Judiciary: There has to be a total overhaul of the judicial system in India. Today, the judiciary is looked up to with respect by the common man as the guardians of our constitution and as the protector of their rights. But the system is so painstakingly slow, that one has to often wait an entire lifetime for ‘justice’.

Justice delayed is Justice denied.

The I.T. revolution can be made use of in a highly constructive manner here. The public should be allowed to register their cases in person or post or via the electronic media. Each party in the case should be allotted a unique registration number. In addition to this, instead of the current structure where the entire responsibility of registration of the complaint and investigation has to be done by a single station, there has to be a deputation of responsibility at every level. It should be made mandatory that the investigation of the case by the agencies and the scrutinization of the reports by higher authorities and judgment are all completed within a reasonable stipulated maximum time frame of say, 2 weeks. This will be difficult to begin with, but if the will is there, the roadblocks are sure to vanish.

Transparency & Accountability: India has been placed at the 59^th position in the world in the global competitiveness report prepared by the World Economic Council. Such a situation is definitely not acceptable to the country and especially to the youth. We should aim at taking India to the 4^th or the 5^th number by 2015, if not before.

How will this be made possible? There has to be a conscientious effort toward this goal by aiming for transparency and accountability at every level.

Transparency is the cornerstone of development.

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Corruption has to be eliminated at the grassroots level. The termite that is eating away at the very foundations of our economy and our people’s trust has to be brutally exterminated. Education can solve the issue to a large extent, an education that has engrained in it the traditional Indian spiritual values. Strictness will have to undertaken until vigilance becomes a way of life for the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the general public.

The media has a vital role to play in this effort. With the recent exposures like the Cash for Questions scam amongst others, the press has shown due responsibility. But they have to ensure that such efforts are not lost in mere T.R.P. gimmicks, they need to ensure that everyone is kept on their toes through the newsman’s constant vigil.

Government Awards & Recognition: The government should take initiative by instituting of awards for P.S.Us., the public sector and the private sector for demonstrating exemplary performance.

Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) should be signed between the state and private and public enterprise and wherein targets are set for high levels of accountable and transparent achievement.

Such steps shall instill new vigor and fervor into the people and the economy propelling the nation to much higher avenues of development and achievement.

Indian culture:: A Sublime Amalgam

T

he History of India can be traced in fragments as far back as 700,000 years ago. The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years.

The nation has been witness to numerous emperors, barbaric plunderers and saints and seers possessing supreme knowledge. She has been imprisoned and she has been liberated many a times over. She has bore the impressions of leaders as diverse as Alexander the Great to Emperor Asoka to Swami Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi. The RigVeda, The Bhagwaat Gita, The Quoran, the Guru Granth Sahib and the Bible have all been enshrined in uncountable Indian hearts over the ages. She has cradled in her arms faiths like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and even the Din-e-Elahi. She has danced to the tunes of Tansen and Khusro and has listened entranced to the poetry of Tagore and Ghalib. Her strategies have been devised by Birbal and Chanakya . She fed Charka who gave the world the Ayurveda. She has nourished great minds as Aryabhatta and Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. She gave the world women of substance like Indira Gandhi and Kalpana Chawla. She gave the world the message of peace and harmony through angels like Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

Through all this, time has left its innumerable footprints on the soul of the country. The people of a nation which has been entrusted a legacy as supreme as this deserve to be at the top. Looking back at such a breathtaking past, one feels assured that the nation and her children who have already awoken from their slumber will in the very near future roar with their erstwhile might. The Garden of Adam and Eve will descend here. The ‘Golden Bird’ will again rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and fly into newer horizons with blinding glorious dazzle. Amen!

Where the mind is held without fear and the head is

Held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into

Fragments ………

My Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore