March 14, 2010
Indian democracy is on life-support and the need is infusion of fresh blood enthusiasm and honest committed young people with a global perspective who can change the world. What the Indian democracy needs is a list of political reforms is the one that will encourage more participation from the common man. The middle class in India has no interest or say in the political process and that is because the whole structure of Indian democracy is flawed. For example: What will a union minister from Madhya Pradesh know about the infrastructure needs of people of Tripura?
State level autonomy seems to be the best course of action for India with each state and city for itself. Regional governments must be empowered to decide for their populace. Local government must be empowered to decide on the following issues:
Infrastructure
Industrial Policy
Education
Power and energy
Transportation
Trade and ports
And others but the federal government must be involved in key decision making like policy for defence, aviation, foreign affairs, telecommunication and just focus on these aspects of policy making.
Devolution of power to states, cities, villages and towns is a must to rekindle common man's interest in democracy and policy making instead of reserving the power with a few babus or netas.
State level autonomy seems to be the best course of action for India with each state and city for itself. Regional governments must be empowered to decide for their populace. Local government must be empowered to decide on the following issues:
Infrastructure
Industrial Policy
Education
Power and energy
Transportation
Trade and ports
And others but the federal government must be involved in key decision making like policy for defence, aviation, foreign affairs, telecommunication and just focus on these aspects of policy making.
Devolution of power to states, cities, villages and towns is a must to rekindle common man's interest in democracy and policy making instead of reserving the power with a few babus or netas.
February 27, 2010
Sometimes I wonder what's the impact of Information Technology on India, on one hand it has provided millions of jobs to people like me and a life and career that would not have been possible 10-15 years ago, but sometimes I wonder what about its effect of diverting young Indians like me from contributing anything to the progress of the country, except for the fact that we are helping in increasing the forex reserves through remittances and the country's export standing.
But the larger question is what is role of today's youth in India towards nation building, there exists tremendous apathy towards government and politics, none of us even want to participate in governance at local district and state levels. This generation is more interested in the release of movies and other controversies surrounding the release than understanding what is the government doing to improve infrastructure, education, oil & gas policy, health care and other things that would impact our lives. We get entangled in our own lives and working for our companies than sparing a thought to the nation or helping build the country that we live in. India faces tremendous challenges in the 21st century from issues ranging from economic development to terrorism to political corruption to regionalism to illiteracy to poverty to government inefficiency and the list goes on...
A possible solution to challenges facing the nation could be for people like me and my tribe to take active interest in nation building, be a responsible citizen and show up some interest and involvement in governance. The scenarios that I am talking about is for example if people from the IT industry along with working on building trading systems and automation systems for global multinationals can also contribute and focus on infrastructure projects as project managers, business analyst and work with the same dedication then think about how progress the nation will be able to achieve. I for example always have wanted to work or contribute to the metro rail project in Chennai (my hometown). I can only imagine the satisfaction that I will derive when I take the metro ride from my home in Vadapalani to Satyam cinemas by beating the traffic and not paying crazy money to any other mode of private transport.
The biggest impediment for people from the IT industry is that our political class has ensured that the government organizations present hostile work environment and promote sycophancy which is a big put off for today's educated youth. The government has to ensure that in order to resolve complex challenges it must engage its people and to do that they must create an acceptable environment for people from every walk of life to contribute to nation building. The other aspect is that people from an industry like IT must keep their mind open when accepting such challenges. We need not be Nandan Nilekani to traverse the path of contribution to nation after holding the highest and the most respected position in Indian IT industry, we (each one) at our own levels as project managers, business analysts and software engineers must be able to do that and to enable that the industry (IT), government and the employees must come together. One fine example could be the IT industry getting together with the state / local government and try to understand the technology needs for various infrastructure projects. If the IT industry can participate in such endeavors with the state and local governments by the way of lending some of its resources to work on these projects on a need basis for 1 day a week, think about how much can be accomplished. This will also promote goodwill for these companies in cities or towns or villages where they are located in. I am sure many such endeavors are currently being conducted but it will be tremendously helpful and satisfying to create a movement of this sort, think about this for example if 1 % of the work force in a city like Chennai contribute 8 hours every week to local/ state level projects as to how much we can accomplish.
But the larger question is what is role of today's youth in India towards nation building, there exists tremendous apathy towards government and politics, none of us even want to participate in governance at local district and state levels. This generation is more interested in the release of movies and other controversies surrounding the release than understanding what is the government doing to improve infrastructure, education, oil & gas policy, health care and other things that would impact our lives. We get entangled in our own lives and working for our companies than sparing a thought to the nation or helping build the country that we live in. India faces tremendous challenges in the 21st century from issues ranging from economic development to terrorism to political corruption to regionalism to illiteracy to poverty to government inefficiency and the list goes on...
A possible solution to challenges facing the nation could be for people like me and my tribe to take active interest in nation building, be a responsible citizen and show up some interest and involvement in governance. The scenarios that I am talking about is for example if people from the IT industry along with working on building trading systems and automation systems for global multinationals can also contribute and focus on infrastructure projects as project managers, business analyst and work with the same dedication then think about how progress the nation will be able to achieve. I for example always have wanted to work or contribute to the metro rail project in Chennai (my hometown). I can only imagine the satisfaction that I will derive when I take the metro ride from my home in Vadapalani to Satyam cinemas by beating the traffic and not paying crazy money to any other mode of private transport.
The biggest impediment for people from the IT industry is that our political class has ensured that the government organizations present hostile work environment and promote sycophancy which is a big put off for today's educated youth. The government has to ensure that in order to resolve complex challenges it must engage its people and to do that they must create an acceptable environment for people from every walk of life to contribute to nation building. The other aspect is that people from an industry like IT must keep their mind open when accepting such challenges. We need not be Nandan Nilekani to traverse the path of contribution to nation after holding the highest and the most respected position in Indian IT industry, we (each one) at our own levels as project managers, business analysts and software engineers must be able to do that and to enable that the industry (IT), government and the employees must come together. One fine example could be the IT industry getting together with the state / local government and try to understand the technology needs for various infrastructure projects. If the IT industry can participate in such endeavors with the state and local governments by the way of lending some of its resources to work on these projects on a need basis for 1 day a week, think about how much can be accomplished. This will also promote goodwill for these companies in cities or towns or villages where they are located in. I am sure many such endeavors are currently being conducted but it will be tremendously helpful and satisfying to create a movement of this sort, think about this for example if 1 % of the work force in a city like Chennai contribute 8 hours every week to local/ state level projects as to how much we can accomplish.
