Dehyphenating India and Pakistan

Really interesting article from Shekhar Gupta, Chief Editor, Indian Express.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-new-project-pakistan/499501/

How do you contribute to the nation/society?

This is a question that has been baffling me and I assume a number of people through decades.

Last year, Abhishek Gupta, my friend from college who studied at Upenn afterwards, posed this question to P Chidambram after the Wharton lecture. Chidambram asked him to join politics. He rationalised that Indian politics needs good and educated people like him. He said Abhishek should see that all is not wrong with politics and educated and clean people like Mr. Chidambram himself are able to get better of the dirty politics. I must definitely say that this did enthuse us to look at politics as a long term career but didnt really convince us.

Over the time now I realise that Mr. Chidambram gave a very narrow way to go about contributing to the nation. It is simply not possible that everyone has the same aptitude to go out and play the dirty game. Moreover, the way to contribute should be broad enough and inclusive. Restricting it to joining politics is bound to keep a lot of people away. There should be room for everyone to contribute.

JRD Tata once said that he wanted to join politics after hearing speeches of Nehru at Bombay but decided not to as it was not he could be good at. He wanted to contribute where he could make a difference rather than joining the agitrators in jail. The key lies right there.

It is in pursuing excellence throughout your life. It should be simply excelling and being the best at your chosen profession.

One cannot think of a situation where JRD Tata, Narayan Murthy would have not been involved in their profession. These people contributed immensely to the nation by excelling in their chosen fields. Same goes for many people from different fields – Dr. Trehan, Vinod Dham, Amartya Sen, Rajat Gupta, Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, and so on.

The best part is that now is an age where intellect and capacity to excel is being given a lot of premium. Mr. Chidambram himself is a distinguished lawyer and has realised the fruit of convergence. So has his colleagues Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Sibal. But the top most honours definitely go Nandan Nilenkani to go straight from being the Chairman of Infosys to being a cabinet minister in the union govt. This trend is going to continue as people want to see progress and are looking for leaders who can manage the show and understand the nuances rather than simply agitating on streets.

Life altering indeed .

The Second Stimulus Will Fail

The second Indian stimulus package will fail to revive the economy. The government has eased credit in the infrastructure sector and consumer market, provided some duty reliefs and tried to relieve the pains of the realty sector by allowing them ECBs. This will no doubt increase liquidity in the market and provide a short term relief to certain sectors but it will not lead to broad based recovery of the indian consumption. The government should realise that consumers only spend when they have a confidence that they will keep on earning and will be able to pay their debts in short as well as long term.

The direction of package is wrong especially because the pain point in Indian crisis has not been lack of money to spend, but, the willingness to spend. The electronic media has amplified the fears of slow down to such a level that people are just cutting down on spending fearing a job loss. It is leading to a spiral effect where consumption has gone down forcing manufacturers to cut back expenditures and eventually jobs. Thus, the problem will not be solved by giving people more money to spend or make the stuff cheaper as there will always be a doubt that it might suddenly run out as it was introduced. The problem will be solved by making broad based reforms to boost confidence in the Indian story, governance and economy.

The Indian government should have sensed the mood of the nation and tried to prop up the confidence by offering package that would have appealed to the heart and the head. The government could have created a special vehicle to focus on improving the infrastructure in the country and in devising processes to increase access to the new infrastructure. Spending on building infrastructure would have not only created new jobs, but also sent a signal that the government is interested in growth and they are going to take advantage of the slowdown to build infrastructure to fuel long term growth. This signal would have reinforced confidence in the Indian story and investors would stay put in the country, thus, providing a much needed psychological cushion to the consumer market.

Secondly, the government should have spent substantially on recruitment and modernisation of security personnel and revamping of judiciary . The recent mumbai attacks would have allowed the government to take such a step and restore the confidence in governance. Another step that the government could have taken would have been to launch e-governance in the country. E-governance should have been introduced at every level the citizen interacts with government institutions. This would have sent the signal that the government is trying to reduce corruption and give a power to the citizens to make the bureaucrats accountable.

Thirdly, the Indian government should have taken the opportunity to start investing in clean energy sources. With all the world attention on climate change and the commitment of US administration to spend on clean energy the government should have started a mechanism to allow the Indian industry cash in on the emerging next bubble. China has taken a lead in the manufacturing sector already. The government could have earned a lot of money by creating carbon credits and trading them for a profit. Inspite of it, there is a huge market in India itself, which if we dont capture, will be served by others.

I really feel that the government is far away from the concerns and the need of the time and the people. If something could be done…

Teaching 100,000 english

That’s the mission I aspire to acheive to contribute to social responsibility. I think it will be immensely beneficial if I can somehow build a process and a coalition to enable teaching the english language to atleast 100,000 people.

It is a worthwhile mission because it will allow individuals a foot in the globalised world. It is far more important in this age and time because of the availability of technology that can easily provide accessibility to internet on mobiles – the most widespread medium of communication in India. If we can all somehow learn english , we can be the biggest content contributor globally. This will allow us to shape world opinion the way we see things, and hence close cultural ties with the world. Ultimately, leading to more and more jobs and a brighter economic future.

Secondly, I think the fact a large proportion of population would be educated – it would bring sense into our democratic system. The other day I was going through a forwarded email about the education qualifications and criminal records of our parliamentarians. I was saddened to see that more than 20 percent of the strength of the house had criminal records and the educational qualifications were also not something to be really proud of. It is also sad to see that people who have been uneducated have not led their community to education and a bright future. However, I resigned myself to an apathetic attitude – thinking that the leaders are representatives of their voters. If the voters, want such leaders than they should be there. I think the reason for existense of such kind of leaders is the prevailing scarcity for everything (security, education, healthcare facilities, infrastructure, etc.) leading people to elect those who can arm twist their way to snatch some proportion of the scarce pie for their constituency members. With education and proper laws things can change and better governance will be provided as it will be difficult to fool and divideople.

Europe and India

Traveling has always been a pleasure to me. I relish the experience of being a part of a new place. I traveled through the length and breadth of India during my college – making trips on student-discount sleeper class train tickets from Mumbai to Kolkata and from Jammu to Chennai. The sight of sunrise and sunset over large fields from the train coaches is simply mesmerizing. In addition, you get to speak with people from varied backgrounds so much so that the trip eventually becomes a learning experience. On my trips, I have met retired army men, engineers in railways, bureaucrats from delhi, small businessmen from Gujarat, and caring families, who make the trip a nice heart warming affair.

My long trips ended with college as I started working soon thereafter. The pressures and pulls of the job hardly give any time to plan vacations with friends. The only way to ‘vacation’ are official trips. In college, I was pretty fascinated when I used to hear that a particular senior of mine had gone on such a trip. These trips were mostly outside India especially in US, thus, giving a lot of exposure to their benefactor. In addition, I viewed them as the recognition of talent of the employee by the employer who is giving the employee a chance to interact with client. As soon as I saw photographs and status messages of seniors who were recently back from such official trips outside India I used to pester them to tell me about their experiences by bombarding them with questions on orkut and chat sessions.

Not surprisingly, I agreed to go on a small official visit to Europe as soon as it was offered to me. It was my first trip outside India. The fact that it was to Europe made it all the more special as I loved the beauty of that part of the world as seen from bollywood films. The reality started sinking only after my visa application got approved and I was scheduled to fly that very week. I started thinking about the vast expanse of human existence. I realized that the same human beings occupy parts of the world from california to sydney and from russia to zimbabwe. It was a sweet recognition of the fact that all of us are the same individuals separated by historic migration. After all, we were of the same size, had the same desires and looked the same- the different was only skin deep. (Interested in human migration can refer to these two webages – a Wiki and National Geographic project).

I were to visit Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France giving me a chance to observe a large part of the developed Europe. Travelling through four countries in 10 days gave me a chance to look at them as a whole. I was in a position where I would be forming impressions on each of the countries in quick successions and amalgamating them to form a larger picture.

My first steps on foreign soil were in Amsterdam where I had stopover for a connecting flight. The first thing that I noticed was empty airport terminals and the ‘excessive’ infrastructure. I couldnt help comparing it with India – How can a small country boast of such amazing infrastructure whereas in India we are grappling with the basic amenities? I pondered over various theories that could justify and concluded it was a combination of small population and a colonial past. These countries have accessed cheap labour and raw materials by fighting wars and signing treaties. Although, I was in Europe but strangely the feeling of being in a foreign country wasn’t sinking in. Since, I had a connecting flight in 3 hours I didnt have time to step out of the airport. The airport terminal was new and swanky. It was constructed using modern architecture which relied heavily on glass and steel. It almost felt like being in a mall in New Delhi (a la City Select Saket). This got corrected when I visited Stockholm. It was beautiful and traditional – cobbled streets, statues, canals.

Over the entire trip one of the most interesting observations was that everyone in the world have similar aspirations. No matter how many people I talked to most of them aspired for similar things as we did in India. Everyone wanted to own a house, buy a great car, peace in life and world and, do ’something exceptional’.

I also observed that overall the regions within Europe do not have much difference with each other which was radically different of what you would observe in South Asia. In each country you have a different cuisine and language, but the difference ceases there. You cannot fail to realise that the environment is predictable and everything is similar if not the same. One of the in your face observation is that most people there drive black cars and wear black dresses. Even when you go in malls you find only plain colours. Here on my travels in India, I would see the culture, dialect, the type of clothes, the colour of clothes changing every 60 kilometres or so. As soon as you enter punjab, haryana, or rajasthan you see varied multitude of colours. In other words, the change in much more intense and abrupt in India as compared to Europe.

You actually feel freedom in Europe. I think it is the best place in the world. You are free to do anything unless you are not harming anyone. Such freedom was something new to me as in India we are typically free under restrictions. The threat of terrorism has already bled much of the freedom and there are now many ideologues which propound stretched theories to curb more freedom. For me it was the best experience… I didn’t feel the same exhilaration even on climbing eiffel tower.

Culturally, the two parts of the world are strinkingly different. It does’nt make any sense to draw any comparison between the two, but the fact is that they are very different from each other and that the integration of the two is very difficult. Some of things that are anathema to us are pretty normal there whereas some of our things would seem illogical to those. The need is to respect cultures individually and not to compare. I think that this generation of ours would face the challenge of living in multiple cultures and belonging to none. This would be a bit lonely generation.

Finally, the respect for law and human rights. You really have to see it and observe how it changes country. Infact, I think I should add this as the third point to answer the creation of such wealth in Europe.

10,000 years of Indian Heritage

Akshardham Temple is, according to my judgement , one of the best landmarks of modern India. The megastructure located at the banks of Yamuna river near Noida(Delhi, India), is a blend of indian architecture and modern technology.
The temple has been built to spread the message and teachings of Bhagwan Swami Narayan and create awareness about the glorious Indian heritage.

The architecture and the land scaping have been done deliciously in characteristic Indian Style. I have heard that the super structure of the temple does not include steel. The massive structure stands on columns and pillars made of stone only.

On entering the temple you cannot stop admiring the beautiful sculptures carved on walls, roofs, pillars and gates and the lush green gardens. The cool wind, calm atmosphere and beautiful surroundings together form a serene environment. As the evening descends, the sculpture lights up and the view is simply breath taking.

Apart from propogating the teachings of the diety of the temple, the complex houses a garden of leadership, musical fountain and an amazing techno museum.

You actually travel across 10,000 years of Indian Heritage and Culture in a boat that takes you through the golden period of Indian Civilisation to the most recent times. I have never experienced history in this manner. The garden of leadership gives you a chance to meet with the great leaders from all the time and understand about them through the audio documentaries that play as soon as you approach the pedestal of the statues.

A must visit. An amazing place.