The identification of the path - Translated version of "पथ की पहचान" by Harivansh Rai Bachchan

"Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path.

 Its neither written in the plethora of books out there, nor can some soothsayer tell you about this verbally. Many people have walked on this path called life but who knows them. But there are some who have left their footprints. Though the footprints are dumb but they tell a lot. Please understand and find meaning from those footprints and know the ultimate way to succeed.

Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path.

It impossible to predict when you will find a river, mountain, trench etc.

It impossible to predict when you will find a beautiful garden or a forest

When the journey will end that is also impossible to predict

It impossible to predict when you will find a bed of roses and when a thorn

Whom will you separate from and whom will you meet is also unpredictable

But remember one thing, whatever comes you will not stop

Promise this to you that you won't stop whatever be it

Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path.

Who says don't dream, do make castles in the air

 and then make a ship to reach there.

Everyone sees dreams in their age and time and 

if you try to avoid these dreams as well, they won't leave you.

Because they are born in you eyes with a some underlying 

purpose which you don't know! So do dream.

But if there are two dreams then there are hundred truths

Don't only keep dreaming, do something about it being fully aware of the truths and realities of life as well.

Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path.

You dream of the heaven and you are ecstatic and full of energy,

You embark on your journey with all the delight and oozing 

with energy and a determined heart and mind.

But a single thorn in the path breaks all those big dreams

Couple of droplets of blood falls and a whole world is sunk forever.

Eyes should dream of the heaven but the feet should be on earth always,

Always remember this awesome learning from the thorns and roadblocks of life. 

Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path.

It is not worthwhile to keep debating always that whether it is good or bad,

Now it is impossible to leave this path and follow another.

You believe that you have chosen the right path and keep moving forward,

This will make your journey easy, worthwhile and meaningful.

And don't think that you were the only one who took this plunge.

Every successful person on this earth ever has embarked on this journey 

with this leap of faith.

Now it is your time to prove to yourself whether or not you have that dint of determination and courage to be the one you want to be.

This is your test and you need to prove to yourself and none other.

Hey Traveler - Before embarking on your journey, identify your path."

ANGEL OF LOVE

It was evening time in the summers of 2013. The clock had struck 5.40 pm. The social entrepreneurship class for the sophomore MBA students at IIMA has just ended. The atmosphere seemed a bit unusual because the students instead of rushing to their respective dorms were busy talking about the story they had heard just now. They were so awestruck by the story of Manan who was just like them 15 years back. Fresh out of the best Fashion Technology institute in the country, she had obtained scholarship for International Fashion Academy, Paris and was planning to join the MBA Fashion Business course there. She was in the purple patch of her life. She wanted to design the most stylish and expensive clothes ever and walk up the ramps in style leading the fashion parades. She wanted to be famous and earn fabulously like others. But, was life planning the same for her as she herself. What happened on the chilly night of December 21, 1998 which changed the course of her life? Why Manan decided to pursue a completely different path? What struck her so much that she decided to throw away her childhood dreams? These were some of the questions that were being discussed.

Some went on to the extent of even questioning the truthfulness of the story. People were left so dumbfounded that they also started arguing that can someone even do that. Was it a true story, or just a sham? They were overlooking the fact that reality is not only vastly stranger than fiction but vastly more interesting.

Manan was born in a typical Rajasthani bourgeois family in 1977 at Jaipur. Her father was a magistrate and mother, a homemaker. She was a pampered child since she had no siblings and was born after lot of invocations. From her childhood days itself, she was good at arts and design and while she was in high school she had decided that she will become a fashion designer. In 1994, she got selected for the Bachelor’s course in Fashion Technology at NIFT. This opportunity provided wings to her dreams. She had a wonderful stint at NIFT, Delhi. This provided her with a launching pad to pursue her dreams further. She had two job offers from multinationals and an international scholarship awaiting her choice.

It will not be wrong to say that some plans are made in heaven. She came back to Jaipur to consult her parents regarding her future career plans. But at the Sindhi bus stop in Jaipur, for the first time, the stark reality of Indian poverty struck directly in Manan’s face. She saw a girl of around 12 years of age, completely naked, near the scrapheap along with dogs, searching and eating some pieces of the food remnants in the debris. She was flabbergasted. Some incidents leave impressions which are life-changing and this was the moment for Manan which would change her dreams and priorities and she would lead a completely different life hereafter from what she aspired for. Manan contemplated that cloth designing is not a profession worth pursuing in a country wherein people do not have clothes to wear. She left her illustrious career options and went on to open a shelter for homeless children namely ‘Surman Sansthan’, with the first child being that 12 year old girl. The fight within her was transient but not so the uphill battle that followed. But she did not lose hope. Presently, there are more than 100 children whom she provides food, shelter, clothes, education i.e. all the basic necessities of life and her aim is to make them capable and provide them with the equality of opportunity they deserve. The aim is to make them realize the importance of empathy and she wants to create more Manan’s out of her family, who can make the dream of “poor less country” a reality. She finances her household and earns living for her big family by selling paintings made at non-stop painting exhibitions, acting in short films etc. She was also bestowed with various accolades for her awe-inspiring contribution to the society and she has dreams to take her initiative as far reaching as possible.

On one side, was an illustrious fashion designing career with all the glamour, modern city life, lights, colours, media attention, money and so on. On the other side, there was a life of destitution, struggle, melancholy, lacklustre and obscurity. But, she chose the latter and became mother for several destitute and homeless children, legally adopting them, picking them from railway platforms, pavements and even dustbins. She is providing them equality of opportunity and teaching them to lead a life full of self-respect and they call her “Maa”. Is she not the “Angel of Love”? Is this not a life worth living?

[800 words]

An Audacious Riposte to the political cynicism of Indian bourgeois

In India, there is a lot of pessimism among the bourgeois about political institutions. There is criticism from the middle class about the way in which democratic institutions have suffered at the hands of the very men responsible for running these. But, few in this cribbing middle class realize that the decay of political institutions is nothing but consequence of their own apathy and cynicism towards the polity of the country.

There is no clear cut definition of middle class [1] in India but there are rough guesses of who constitutes it. It includes government officials, civil society members, corporate employees, teachers, educationists, researchers, small businessmen etc. Although the classification is not perfect but one thing is sure that these are people who have benefited the most of the 65 years of independence and they run the country in several ways and have a big say in the making of public policies of the country.

The question arises what are the values that they cherish and aspire for? Looking at the culture of India’s middle class [2] in the present, we find that these people value education, emphasize merit and professionalism, celebrate entrepreneurship, value security and safety, and have a global outlook, but are very risk averse, and apolitical. Their romanticism for the last word is the key reason for their apathy towards the Indian political system. There is no shortage of negative thoughts that come to the Indian bourgeois mind when they think of Indian political life viz., corruption, scam, vote bank, position, dynasty, scandal and so on.

One of my key observations is that increasingly, democracy is being delegitimized in this country. Many people are being tempted to look at undemocratic answers. For instance, there is a growing belief that the rise of the unelected is better for the country than the elected which is a perilous misbelief. For example, the judges can name their own successors i.e. judiciary is totally independent; no effective democracy permits that to happen. Unquestionably, this is a travesty of the constitution. This needs to be improved; otherwise, people will fall to the enticement that a non-democratic organ of the government is always a better organ. The middle class believes that a politician by definition is malicious and politics by itself is wicked; hence anything that is non-political is dreamily acceptable.

Although I am not denying that there is much that is wrong. But they need to remind themselves of the goods that their democratic system and political institutions have delivered before they start reprimanding the politicians. India can be claimed as an operative democracy on several benchmarks. Firstly, it has competitive elections and the system has been able to throw out governments persistently. The best example is of the all-powerful Congress thrown out of power during 1977 elections in response to the tyranny during emergency. Secondly, there is presence of real political freedom in the country. For instance, there is a mutual respect between winning and losing political parties unlike neighbouring countries like Pakistan where losing elections leads to suffering at the hands of the winner. Thirdly, the elected government has a strong say in parliamentary affairs. These are values of Indian democracy worth celebrating.

While countries are fighting and dying for the right to vote, the Indian middle class had it since independence and they are not bothered at all. Voting percentages in urban India, where educated middle class resides are remarkably less. In contrast in rural India people value the right to vote and turnout is high. [3] There is a deep belief among the middle class that vote is the weapon of the weak. After 65 years of independence, there are campaigns just to motivate people to exercise their franchise. This is a sad state of affairs. The question arises - Why is there such incongruence between the political world and what the Indian bourgeois espouse?

India’s educated middle class is detached from politics and not concerned but even if they wanted they are not acquainted enough about the contemporary issues, the details of the parties and their manifestos and even modern Indian history. History for them ended in 1947 as the high school syllabus includes history till that. Everything that happened afterwards is only known in bits and pieces. But large number of the bourgeois has not really engaged them with issues of contemporary polity. The TV talks and superfluous stuff do not really count; they are just different themes but the same yelling. Going forth and understanding the critical and burning issues of the day is very important for participation.

This disinterest of Indian middle class in politics is reflected in the abysmal results for some really courageous people in elections. For instance, in 2009 elections Meera Sanyal (Mumbai South), Captain Gopinath (Bangalore South), and Mallika Sarabhai (Gandhinagar), contested from 4 constituencies which have one of the highest percentages of urban educated middle classes. They all got votes below 5%. Undeniably, these are people with incredible guts and vow to their morals and all of them are middle class icons. But, they had to face embarrassment for their political participation. There audacity needs to be rewarded if India has to change. If the Indian bourgeois wants to see young, dynamic and vibrant politicians, they need to elect people like these, to inspire more.

In absence of educated people’s votes, politicians have to seek uneducated votes which have become costly. The investment of huge amounts of money to buy votes and liquor in elections has become indispensable for winning election. In other words, expenditure does not assure triumph but non-expenditure warranties loss. This is the reason why noble folks come last which reduces incentives of these people to join politics. The educated middle class needs to understand this and participate. They also need to educate the uneducated and uninformed voters which in turn can lead to improvements in the scenario.

Why do we see these kinds of outcomes? Why the educated middle class seem to be behaving in this particular manner? One simple answer is because they can afford to do this. They already dominate the sectors that matter. They are in government, although not the political leadership perhaps, but the government that makes the country run i.e. the bureaucracy, civil services etc. They form a large chunk of employees in businesses i.e. the private sector, where most of them aspire to go. They are also in key positions in the media. In terms of influencing public policy and results they have a strong say. They can get what they need without much effort and so why bother about electoral politics? The political world does not matter to the middle class and they think they can do without it.

If we gaze back at the freedom movement, most of the educated folks were at the forefront of the movement. If we look at Jawaharlal Nehru [4] and Subhash Chandra Bose [5], both were well educated but realizing the importance of freedom, they plunged into the freedom movement. This involvement of urban educated middle class was just not a peculiarity. Even in our generation there are people who have engaged in public service and embarked in public movement. Prominent examples are Medha Patkar [6] (Anti-dam movement), Aruna Roy (Right to Information Act) [7] etc. There are others who have brought innovative technology and business solutions at the grassroots for the masses. Examples are Husk power systems [8] in Bihar, Vijay Mahajan [9] inspiring the Microfinance sector.

A phenomenon which I see much more today is one where a lot of people are establishing or running or being involved with NGOs, civil societies etc. They actually manage to bring about policy change and impact policy outcomes but they are too small to impact the larger masses. There is one principal feature that they want to be apolitical shying away from direct political engagement.

But that’s not everything; we can also see signs of reengagement in anti-reservation campaigns against OBC quota in higher educational institutions brought by government in 2008. This is an example of groups emerging and engaging in political demonstrations and Other examples are country wide demonstrations for Lokpal bill i.e. India against corruption (led by Anna Hazare) [10] and against the recent 16th December Delhi rape case. [11] Moreover we have extremely innovative facebook driven protests etc. which are some of the positives that is coming out. But we need to ask ourselves is this enough.

These are erratic and occasional incidents and no tangible long lasting movement seems to emerge. What does everyone wants to indulge in? Is getting neutral systemic solutions, going to make all the transformation?

It is the people who matter and not the institution. Change in political culture requires a deep understanding of the issues and the middle class need to identify their roles in changing this, stepping out of their comfort zones. The bourgeois needs to realize that no one else but it is they who are responsible for the political culture. The answer to this cynicism is not apathy but active participation and involvement. Looking at Indian political class closely it is discovered that it is not all about the negative ideas that we talked at the beginning. There are people devoted to public service, zealous to work for development and who devote full time to politics and public service, have compassion and audacity and are alacritous to sacrifice and who are leaders who can inspire. They can look at people like Nitish Kumar [12], among others.

Politics was about people like Gandhi and Mandela and that kind of role models exist, but today the middle-class is in a state of abjuration. They negate that politics is a full time commitment. If that is so how are our politicians going to survive and how are they going to run their families? Elections cost money, running of political party costs money, where is that going to come from? They say no to increasing of politician’s salary, they want election spending limits to be low instead of finding newer ways to level the electoral playing field. And therefore, they end up creating only crooked politicians who can subsist and flourish and none of them who want a healthier politics is willing to spend anything to make that dream a reality.

It needs to be reformed. They need to barricade into this and contribute their ideas, time, dynamism, money and resources either by being active representatives or by working with some causes. Obviously, it is very trying and perplexing because it is amorphous, with no surety of triumph, but they have to keep going on with it. People argue against it saying that during freedom movement it was a different scenario. Nobel laureate, Amaratya Sen points out that “1947 was just political freedom. True freedom is when each and every individual can live to his/her potential. It means freedom from poverty, ill health, illiteracy, ability to make your own choices and hold your head high without social discrimination. ”

Thinking about Sen’s argument they need to ask themselves that are they free from these evils of daily life like poverty, ill-health, and illiteracy? The answer is no. Then India needs to fight many more freedom movements. India needs their educated middle class to lead in this movement and reward the courage shown by a valiant few by electing them as their representatives and increase their say in the country’s politics. I hope, it is by this engagement in politics, involvement, participation and contribution, India will get a better political system. And thus the apathetic attitudes of the Indian educated middle classes need to be changed to transform the landscape of the corrupt Indian political culture. 

                                                                                                                         Word Count: [1959 words]

Bibliography

[1] The Great Indian Middle Class. Varma, Pavan. 1998. New Delhi: Penguin.

[2] Middle Class Values in India and Western Europe. Ahmad, Imtiaz and Helmut Reifeld. 2003. New Delhi: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

[3] Lectures of Dr. Rajeev Gowda (Head, Public Policy, IIM Bangalore) and J.P. Narayan (Founder, Lok Satta Party, Andhra Pradesh, India) on TED

[4] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-04-18/mumbai/28029725_1_indian-politics-swing-votes-total-votes

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Chandra_Bose

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medha_Patkar

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruna_Roy

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husk_Power_Systems

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Mahajan

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Against_Corruption

[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape_case

[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitish_kumar

Indian Governance and Change -- by Raghuram Rajan ( ISB Graduation Day 2012)

Mr Chairman, Mr Ajit Rangnekar, the faculty and staff of the ISB, parents and family members of the students, and dear students: Thanks very much for inviting me to speak today. First, congratulations to all of you who are receiving diplomas today. Congratulations also to your teachers, family, and friends who can see the fruits of their support in your diploma. You graduating students deserve the confidence that many of you feel because if you can survive the rigors of an ISB education, you can survive anything in the real world. 

Unfortunately, the last hurdle in that education is to survive my speech. Worse still, I have a monopoly over your time conferred upon me by the school, where I can say what I want and you have no choice but to listen. 

Chicago Nobel Laureate, Ronald Coase, would say that if we could create a spot market where you get together a collection to bribe me to cut my speech short, and I left with the money, the world would be a better place for both of us. 

However, there are transactions costs in setting up that market, including the possibility that I might still inflict the speech on you even after you pay me, simply because I am attached to my duty as speaker, or because I love the sound of my own voice. We need an outside enforcer for the contract – perhaps Mr. Godrej might consent to step in?

Before the murmurings about crass economists willing to sell their souls for money get too loud, and before journalists with their great originality in inventing names start writing about ISBgate, let me tell you the serious point in all this. 

Markets and competition don’t appear by magic, they have to be nurtured through appropriate regulation and enforcement. And because self-regulation by interested parties is ineffective in a variety of situations, it is appropriate for an outsider to undertake the regulation and enforcement. Typically, that outsider is the government. And the central focus of my talk will be on whether the government in India is performing its appropriate role. 

India has achieved much in the two and a half decades or so since you were born. There is so much to celebrate, whether it is that we appear to have moved away from the Hindu rate of growth of 3.5 percent or whether it is that so many millions of Indians have moved out of debilitating poverty into a life of modest comfort – and yes, despite all the furor over the Planning Commission’s poverty line, we have brought down poverty. 

You graduating students have far more opportunities, a much wider choice of careers, and far better salaries than we had when I graduated 25 years ago from a Well-known Institute of Management in Western India. India has come a long way, and we should justifiably be proud. 

Just look around you. I was involved with this school right from the very cold February in Chicago over 15 years ago when it was first conceptualized by Rajat Gupta. Success has many fathers and I am proud to claim some portion of paternity, however small it may be. 

The dedicated top-notch global faculty, the excellent staff, the magnificent architecture, the superb facilities, they all come together in the quality of education the ISB has imparted, as evidenced by you students, who are second to none in the world. All this was made possible by a small dedicated band, many of whom are on the board today. This school is an example of what we can do as a nation when we put our minds to it. 

But even though there are many more such examples of achievement in India today, such as the New Delhi Metro or India’s success in milk production, we should also be realistic about India’s deficiencies. Even as the world becomes more competitive, India’s star has dimmed in the last few months, as our governance is besmirched by corruption scandals and our macroeconomic health has deteriorated. 

Our politicians seem unable to come together to vote for growth-enabling reforms, even while they are willing to join hands in every populist vote. Coalition dharma seems to fail us only when steps to sustain growth have to be taken. Alarm bells should sound when domestic industry no longer wants to invest in India, even while eagerly investing abroad. 

We must remember that the history of development is replete with countries that grew strongly for a while, only to stutter and stop as their government and their people started taking growth as their birth-right. Somewhat paradoxically, it is only when we are paranoid about sustaining growth that we will continue achieving it.

A key factor in our ability to rebuild business confidence and resume growth will be the quality of our regulation and our governance; our soft infrastructure so to speak. And the deficiencies here are even more alarming than the inadequacies of our roads, rail, ports, and airports that we are in the process of addressing. 

The government does too much of what it should not do, too little of what it should do, even while being capricious and unaware of its limitations. Unfortunately, the private sector has not earned the trust of the broader public, so it is hard to make a strong and persuasive case for change to the voters. This is where you, tomorrow’s leaders of our country, can help.

Let me elaborate. Start first with what the government does too much of. In the early post-independence years, with private sector capacity limited, government forays into steel making, heavy electricals, and even electronics may have been useful, and even critical for our subsequent growth. Some of the top talent in our private sector firms today began in public sector entities like Bharat Heavy Electricals or State Bank of India.

Yet given the growth of capabilities in the private sector, there is really no reason for the continued government presence. Indeed, government ownership hurts public sector firms – low salaries at the top and continuous interference impedes the ability of these firms to attract talent in an increasingly competitive environment, while over-employment at the bottom hurts efficiency. 

The natural reaction of the government is to protect its progeny by giving them special privileges. But this tilts the playing field against the private sector. An Air India, which is on continuous and interminable life support from the taxpayer can charge whatever prices it wants and offer whatever service it has the inclination to provide for it has no need to make a profit. 

State ownership in many areas no longer serves the public interest, and the only reason it continues is because it serves the many vested interests that benefit from the status quo – the public sector workers who have cushy undemanding safe jobs, the unions who enjoy the power, the occasional corrupt executive who rakes in bribes, and the minister who enjoys the patronage. 

Incumbents in the private sector are not blameless either; It is no secret that for a long time, the government’s willingness to keep air fares high so that inefficient Air India would lose less money, allowed private competitors to make a killing even while they could rely on the government to keep out entrants. It is only recently that they have begun complaining about a more aggressive state airline driving them out of business. 

What ought to be done about state owned enterprises? Some would say, “Do nothing”, there are more important problems to fix. Yet our most pressing problem is coal, and at the center of it is the public sector coal monopoly, Coal India. Similarly, we are the world’s largest arm’s importer, and one reason is the failure of our public sector defense establishments to deliver on important weapons systems despite decades of development. 

Fixing the public sector – that is, making the well-performing do even better while forcing the poorly performing to shape up, even while leveling the playing field with the private sector -- has to come back on the table as a matter of urgency. 

Privatization has fallen into disrepute, because the public does not trust the government to sell firms fairly to new private owners. Minority share disinvestment is no answer for it preserves all the ills of government ownership while allowing the state-owned firms more resources that the government can influence. No private owner would be allowed to get away with the kind of exploitation of minority shareholders that the Government of India indulges in. No wonder many public sector firms trade at a significant discount in the market. 

We need to bring more radical solutions back on the table. For many of these state-owned firms, we need to first break them up if they are monopolies, strengthen corporate governance and oversight, then return these firms to full broad-based ownership through a public offering. I will call this “publification”, a contorted but precise term, for it puts them back to work for the public rather than for narrow interests. 

Clearly, not all public sector firms need the medicine of publification, and there is a need to experiment with what works. But the sooner we stop treating the public sector as untouchable holy cows, to be tethered and milked but not liberated, the better for our growth.

Even while the government needs to get out of activities where it is holding back growth, it needs to play a stronger role in creating a fair, transparent, competitive market that will allow our citizens to make informed choices. 

Take, for example, healthcare. As M.I.T researchers Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (2009) indicate , India has a public health care system that looks like a model for developing countries. The average household is within 2 kilometers of the nearest public facility, the facilities are fully staffed, and the rates they are required to charge are far cheaper than private providers. 

Yet the system fails to deliver, literally – a survey they conducted in Udaipur finds that public health sub-centers were closed 56% of the time during regular hours because personnel were absent. This is not to take away from individual dedicated public servants that each one of us knows, but it is a shocking fact about the system as a whole.

Most households prefer therefore to see private providers. Private providers spend more time with patients; Even if it is an alarmingly low median of 4 minutes, this is double the time a public provider would spend, if one is lucky enough to catch them at work. The problem is that many private providers, especially the ones seen by the very poor, are quacks who tend to overprescribe so as to cover up their deficiencies. 

Fully 68% of visits to a private facility end up in a patient getting an injection, and 12% in their getting put on a drip. Such over-prescription not only does the patient harm if she is misdiagnosed, it also makes antibiotics ineffective in the population. In the competition between the uncaring public sector and the unqualified private sector, it is the citizen’s health that suffers. 

Would it not make sense for the government to give people more meaningful choice by forcing more transparency and disclosure on private sector providers? Should we not know if the “doctor” we go to actually has a medical degree? Should not the unqualified be prohibited from prescribing injections and antibiotics? 

The government has an important regulatory role to play. Unfortunately, all too often, relying on the government to regulate simply increases bribe-taking without any improvement in quality. I will come shortly to why there is hope this will change. 

But first, two other problems with government. It is capricious. The ideal government would set the rules of the game, and allow an independent judiciary to settle disputes. It would change the rules only when they are clearly broken, and rarely, if ever, with retrospective effect. 

The key concern with the Vodafone controversy is not the government’s right to change the law prospectively if it believes it was poorly written and allows an unintended loophole. It is not even the government’s right to change the law retrospectively if it believes that everyone knew what was intended. The concern is that it intends to change the law retrospectively after the Supreme Court upheld Vodafone’s interpretation of the law. 

What is the point of having an independent judiciary to interpret the law and adjudicate disputes between government and business if the government has no need to obey it? A government that changes the law retrospectively at will to fit its interpretation introduces tremendous uncertainty into business decisions, and it sets itself outside the law. 

India has missed a golden opportunity to show its respect for the rule of law even if it believes the law is poorly written. That is far more damaging than any tax revenues it could obtain by being capricious. 

And finally, our government is often unaware of its limitations. There is a lot we could learn from the rest of the world. China does not feel threatened by new information – it gets the best experts in the world to offer it advice, then it picks what it is persuaded by. 

Yet Indian administrators, apart from a few open-minded ones, feel threatened by new ideas. India is sui generis they maintain – that is, it is in a category of its own. So it has nothing to learn from the outside, from the Indian diaspora, or even from its own private sector. 

Whether this is a matter of convenience, allowing administrators to pursue their vested interests, or whether it is intellectual laziness, is unclear. Nevertheless, we keep repeating failed experiment after failed experiment, ignoring what has worked around the world. 

A convocation speech is not the place to dwell on gloom and doom, and I think there are well-grounded reasons that matters will improve. I want to focus on three: history, information and technology, and young people like you. 

First, history; India is not unique, neither uniquely good nor uniquely bad. In the late 19th century, the United States was as badly misgoverned as we have been at our worst. Bankers routinely bribed entire legislatures for the licenses to set up, while businessmen sabotaged rival pipelines or steamships. Tammany Hall practices would make the Organizing Committee of the Delhi Commonwealth Games seem like the Sisters of Charity. 

The United States changed – there is still corruption but it is typically not organized, in-your-face, and routine. 

In part, political patronage became less important in the United States as growth created private sector jobs. But also a free “muck-racking” press exposed corrupt government and business practices, empowering progressive reformers and improving the quality of government services. And new and effective government services such as unemployment insurance reduced the need to go to one’s patron for a handout. So growth and democracy helped create a virtuous circle that improved public governance. 

India seems to be poised at a similar stage, and the revelations by the CAG and in the press in recent months should be taken as a sign of the capacity of the system for self-diagnosis and healing as much as it is of the corruption within. 

There are areas still immune to press scrutiny – such as the activities of powerful industrialists who can withhold advertising rupees – but even this, I am confident, will change. 

Second, information and technology are making it easier to keep a check on the government. Official disclosure, as embedded in the Right to Information Act, has been an important step forward by the current government. The private and NGO sector can also get into the act. 

How hard would it be to collect and publicize “reviews” of the experience patients have with different medical practitioners in a city so that the incompetent and unqualified can be shunned? How hard would it be to shame government administrators? 

Indeed, Swati Ramanathan of Janaagraha has started a website on the prevalence of bribes intending to do precisely this. Crowd-sourcing monitoring can be a way of improving governance, and while there is some obvious scope for abuse, it can be controlled. The possibilities for social entrepreneurship in India are near unlimited, and I am sure many of you will play a role in such ventures in the years to come.

Similarly, the best way to empower the poor so that they can discipline government providers is to give them cash or vouchers that they can spend on the provider of choice, even while providing them more information on their choices. 

And the best way to change the incentives of those manning government dispensaries or teaching in government schools is to tell them that they will not have a job if they do not attract customers. It is high time we included the poor in deciding their own destiny – perhaps that is what the “inclusive” part of inclusive growth should be about. 

All this, of course requires technology. Technology to inform people about the performance of providers and to enable them to share experiences, technology to create unique IDs, technology to transfer cash directly to bank accounts, mobile payments to spend the money easily, etc. And fortunately, technology is not something we lack in.

But perhaps most important of all, we have young energetic entrepreneurial people like you, who are dissatisfied with the status quo and want change. 

Today, we are probably the country with the greatest difference between the age of its political leaders, whether in power or in the opposition, and the average age of the population. This must change. We need a new generation of leaders, not necessarily just the sons and daughters of politicians, but self-made people who bring energy and ideas to leadership, leaving the old discredited slogans behind. 

Nations become great when they become self-confident, when they acquire the collective belief and will to succeed. As the cities of India become the centers of its political strength, they will look to people like you. I am confident you will not disappoint. 

A self-assured India, brimming with ideas and energy, can play an enormously positive role in the world. We could offer an alternative view of development, one of the first developing countries to grow rapidly even while being a vibrant democracy, with an economy that has cutting edge innovative companies even while providing bottom-of-the pyramid services. 

We could teach both the West and the rest, even while learning from them, as we did in the historic past when we were a global broker of ideas. We could be a voice for good in the international arena, where all too often we are either silent or simply trot out old tired visions. 

You have the capacity to make all this possible. But first you have to expand public trust in the private sector by the way you conduct business, increasing your market share by building a better, higher quality, cheaper product rather than by securing underpriced public resources through underhand means or inflicting a government protected monopoly on your customers. 

Pioneers from the private sector, many of whom are on this school’s board, started on this track decades ago. You must build on their work.

This then is the message I want to leave you with. India and the world are changing, and probably for the better. You will be able to help shape the world and your place in it. By all means set yourself ambitious goals. 

But remember that, as both ancient Indian philosophers and modern day behavioral psychologists say, the achievement of narrow personal goals -- greater wealth, rapid promotion, or increasing renown – rarely brings you anything other than brief pleasure. 

I don’t claim to know the secret of happiness, but this seems obvious – if you like the journey, if you get pleasure from the work you do, it matters far less when, or indeed whether, you reach your destination. You have far more control over the journey you choose. 

And often the most enjoyable journeys are those where your goals are broader and where you take others with you, especially others who could not make it without your help. In doing so, you will make this world a better, and more stable, place. 

Let me conclude. You have been very patient in listening to me, despite your lack of choice. Thank you! I wish you good luck in your future endeavors and hope they are crowned with success. 

TRYST WITH DESTINY

My rendezvous with my dream college IIM Ahmedabad was no less than a tryst with destiny. Walking through the serene campus I was struck with awe when I saw the legendary Louis I. Kahn plaza. The intellectually invigorating environment in the Vikram Sarabhai Library makes you feel like heaven. The dorm culture makes you feel at home.  The kind of treatment you get at the campus is awesome and dinner with some of the best faculties in the world discussing various issues pertaining Indian society is stupefying and if you take a stroll of the campus accompanying the faculty , what more can you ask for.

Govt. Programme And Policies

(1) Prerna- The ‘janasankhya sthirata kosh' (national population stabilization fund) has to promote & under take activities aimed at achieving population stabilization at a level consistent with the needs of sustainable economic growth. Social development and environment protection by 2045

• Prerna is a responsible for parenthood strategy. It is monetary incentive strategy aimed at pushing up the age of marriage of girls and delay the birth of the first child.

(2) National Rural Health Mission:-Launched in April 2005 the mission seeks to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care which is accountable and at the same time responsible to the needs of the people.

• It also aims to achieve the goals set out under the national policy and the millennium development goals during the mission period.

(3) Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna:-Launched by ministry of labour & employment, govt of India to provide health insurance coverage for BPL families.

• Beneficiaries are entitled to hospitalization coverage up to Rs 30,000 for most of the disease that require hospitalization.

(4) National Food Security Mission:-Sponsored scheme launched in august 2007.

• Objective is to increased production and productivity of wheat, rice and pulses.

(5) 15 Point Programme-In Oct 2009 govt decided to include 3 more schemes in the Prime minister’s new 15 point programme for the welfare of minorities.

Those are: -

• National rural drinking water programme.
• Urban infrastructure developed scheme for small and medium town.
• Urban infrastructure and governance scheme.

(6) Bharat Nirman Yojna:- It is a time bound business plan for action in rural in infrastructure .Under Bharat nirman , action was proposed in the areas of:-

1. Irrigation.
2. Rural housing.
3. Rural water supply.
4. Rural electrification.
5. Rural telecommunication connectivity.

(7) National Mission On Education:-It is a mission in which education is provide through information and communication technology. “SAKSHAT” one stop education portal was launched on Oct 30 2006 by the president of India.

• Head of National knowledge commission:-sham pitrade

(8)Right To Education Act 2009:- Article 21-(A), as inserted by the constitution (86^th Amendment Act) 2002, provides for free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years as a fundamental rights. Consequently the parliament has enacted this in April 2009.

Salient features:-

(a) Free and compulsory education 6 to 14 age group.

(b) Will apply to all India except J&K.

(c) Provide for 25% reservation for economically disadvantaged communities in admission in private school.

(d) A child who completes elementary education (up to class 8) shall be awarded a certificate.

(9) Female Literacy:-It is a scheme to provide education & related facilities to ST Students launched by ministry of trial affairs in dec 11, 2009.

(10) Anil Kalkaska Committee on reforms in IITS:-it will suggest reforms to make these elite institutions a global brand.

(11) Yashpal Committee Report:- It was set up in 2008 for higher education and research.

• It has suggested the scrapping of all higher education regulatory /monitoring bodies and creation of a super regulation.
• It also recommended that the deemed university status be abandoned and that all deserving universities be either converted into full fledged universities or scrapped.

(12) National Rural Livelihood Mission:-Ministry of rural development and panchyati raj proposed to restructure the existing swarnjayanti gram swarojgar yojna into rural livelihood mission to have a focused approach to rural poverty eradication in a time bound manner.

• Objective is to reduce poverty among rural BPL by promoting diversified and gainful self employment and wage employment opportunities which would lead to an appreciable increase in sustainable basis.

(13) NREGA Renamed After Mahatma Gandhi:- On Oct 2, 2009.

(14) Chandra Sheker Panel:- on the recomandation of a committee headed by cabinet secretary K.M Chander shaker. Centre had increased the pension for retired service man.

(15) Rajiv Awas Yojna:-Ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation had launched the housing project called the Rajiv awas yojna for slum dwellers and the urban poor.

• Aimed at making India slum  free in the next five years.

(16) Government Gave 50% Women’s Quota: - For women in urban local bodies from 33 % to 50 % by the 108^th const. amendment act.

(17) B.K Chaturvedi panel to resolve the inter ministrial issues to speed up the ambitious national highways development project taken up by the road transport and highway ministry.

(18) Librahan Commission:- It was set up in dec 16 ,1992 by the Narashima Rao govt. to probe the demolition of Babri Mosque.The commission was initially asked to give a report in three months, however it could do so only after over 16 years that saw 39 sitting and 48 extensions, finally on June 30 2009 it gave the report.

(19) S.D. Tendulkar Committee:-It is to estimate poverty in the country. It’s said that about 38% of the country’s population are living below poverty line. This figure is 10% higher than the present poverty estimate of 28.5 % by the planning commission.

(20) Moily Panel:- For administrative reform commission it is the 2^nd administrative reform commission.

(21) Unique Identification Authority:- Chairman of UID is Nandan Nilekani. He revealed that the first set of 16 digit unique identification number for citizen of the country will roll out by the end of 2010.

• The UIAI is a part of the planning mission of India.
• AADHAR:-UIDAI now new name AADHAR and also a logo.
• AADHAR or foundation through through which the citizen can claim his/her rights and establishment when assumed of equal opportunities as symbolized by the logo which has the halo of the sun in the imprint of a thumbs.

(22) M.S swami Nathan Panel:- It’s recommendation is on coasted management zone.

(23) G.T Nanavati-Akshay Mehta judical commission:- Probing the Godhra train carnage and post Godhra riots.

(24) Justice B.N Srikrishna is the head of the committee on Telangana issue. The committee is requested to submit its report by dec 31, 2010.

(25) Census 2011:-15^th national census of India. President being first person to share her details. First census was conducted in 1872.

(26) D.P Wadhawa Committee On PDS:-Established by the Supreme Court to give recommendation on the reform of public distribution system.

(27) Rajiv Gandhi Grammeen LPG Vitarak Yojna:- Union petroleum and natural gas ministry inaugurated this scheme for providing liquefied petroleum gas to the rural house hold at Lachhman ghar in sikar district of Rajasthan .

• Under the scheme it is proposed to increase the number of connection to 16 crores with coverage of 75% of population by 2015.

(28) Punchhi Commission:-Commission on centre state relation. It was constituted in April 2007. It was ask to make recommendation to help address the emerging challenges faced by the nation regarding centre state relation. Before this in mid 1980’s the SARKARI commission had undertaken a comprehensive review of the center state relation.

(29) National Integration Council:-The Govt. has reconstituted it which will be chaired by prime minister. Set up in the early 60’s by Nehru.

(30) E.R Rammohan Committee on Dantewada Massacre of CRPF personal.

(31) ICDS:-Integrated child development service launched on 2^nd Oct 1975.

• It is the world largest programme for early child hood.
• The objective is to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 0-6 years.

(33) Green India Mission:- Ministry of environment and forests and the defense research and development organization have launched the mission.

• The aim is to bring a million heacter of high altitude, cold desert ecosystem under cultivation by 2020.

(34) Pradhan Mantra Adarsh Gram Yojna:- It was launched in Rajasthan Sriganga nagar district.

• Aim at integrated development of 1,000 villages where a majority of the population belongs to the schedule caste.
• It is a replica of U.P’s Ambedkar village scheme.

(35) Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission- Objective -Generation of 20000 mw of solar energy in three phases by 2022.

• Under this govt. aims to add at least 1000 mw solar power by the end of 2013.
• Power Finance Corporation and the rural electrification corporation had agreed to provide financial assistance.

(36) Certified command of state centre force in chattisgrah, orissa, jharkhand, Bengal was mooted to counter naxal problem. Under this a IG rank officer or a retired major general on board should be headed the certified command. In this:-

• Additional helicopters should be provided.
• 400 new police stations should be opened.
• 34 new battalions should be constituted.

(37) S. Irani committee:- Rajasthan Govt appointed this committee regarding the Issue of providing reservation to Gujjars.

(38) Pradhan committee:-

• Investigate Nov 26 2008 terror attack.

(39) Muzzafar Jan Commission:-

This committee had probed the gang rape of 17 years old Asiya and pregnant neelofar in shopiaon (J&K).

(40) Kasturi Rangan Committee- Council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR) has set up this committee. To see the capability of the national aerospace laboratory (NAL) to build civil aircraft.

(41) Goverdhan Mehta Committee:-To review the procedure of the intergovernmental panel on clime change.

(42) National Advisory Council:-

• A consultative body, chained by Sonia Gandhi.
• To serve as an interface between govt. and civil society.