India needs urgent reformation *Aditya Rangroo |
ne may wonder that what India has achieved after gaining an independence from colonial powers in 1947. This question is yet to receive a satisfactory answer from the government of India.
India, which is seen as a potential country in the Asian sub-continent, has witnessed the rapid economic growth when Dr ManMohan Singh, the then Finance Minister of India, liberalized the economy in 1991. And over the years, India has received an impressive FDI and FII inflows in many sectors. Especially, the Indian economy has seen a vibrant growth between 2000 – 2007. However, the global recession, started in 2008, has fractured the world economy and many countries’ are still trying to reconcile their economy from the effects of recession. Nonetheless, considering the prevalent economic, social and political scenario in the country, the global recession will not be an excuse for India’s ambiguity in tackling its myriad socio-economic issues. The major blow to India came when the global financial group Fitch downgraded the India’s credit rating to negative citing corruption, lack of political consensus and economic reforms. To rebuild the India’s social-economic model, India needs to bring urgent changes in the following areas. Introducing more Think Tanks/Consulting Agencies Though there is no dearth of analysts and researchers in India, but the prevalent socio-economic structure in India doesn’t ensure encouragement to potential students to take up research as a profession in India. The government doesn’t guarantee employment opportunities, stable career and a satisfying salary structure due to which creamy layers migrate to western world and it results India losing their visionary minds. To give you a brief idea about the advantages of research, take a case of US, where one can find numerous research organization/think tanks/consulting agencies which hires best of the researchers/analysts and trained them to monitor a political, cultural, social demographics of a particular country. Once government provides them with all necessary research requirements and satisfactory salary, the analysts produces quantitative and qualitative and well-researched reports. The policymakers, under the government’s cabinet, studies these reports very carefully, discuss it with the analysts, and forms foreign policy accordingly. A foreign policy varies from country to country depends on the research reports. In this way, the government can form more clear foreign and economic policy without any ambiguity. The current foreign and economic policy of India seems nothing but ambiguous. India should urgently focus on its foreign affairs by setting up think tanks with proper investment and infrastructure. They should encourage potential researchers, political analysts by providing an opportunity which will be beneficial for the country. To name a few think tanks - Brookings Institute in US, Chatham House in UK, and Fabian Society in UK are the ones from which India can take an inspiration. Reforming Education Every year students in India, especially in 10th and 12th standard commits suicide despite of introducing grade systems. The suicidal figures of students revealed by the government are always manipulated to avoid panic and failure. I asked many school children that which subject holds no interest to them. Most of the children seem disinterested in subjects like Math, Social Studies, Science and Hindi, which are fortunately or unfortunately obligatory to study till 12th standard. In my view, the government of India should bring urgent amendment to primary and secondary education. Instead of forcing students to study these subjects which are insignificant for many children, government should introduce subjects which are of the interest of the children. For example, if parents realize that their child, since childhood, is inclined towards painting, computers, army etc, the government should introduce these subjects not as an additional course, but major subjects who can be chosen as replacement of Maths, Science or Social Studies. Government of India should understand that many students’ feel compelled to study these subjects under obligation and it ultimately results into failure. India should introduce this policy otherwise it will certainly discourage potential students’ to excel in the field of their interest. Promoting Food With the entry of McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominos and Starbucks, India’s consumer market is captured by the foreign brands over the years largely. And, now the situation has come to the point that no domestic brand has an ability to compete with these brands. Unfortunately, India was in a deep slumber when these foreign brands slowly and gradually captured the Indian consumers. It is no denying that India with massive population, food and beverages sector contributes vital part of GDP. Domestic manufactures should promote their local food chains to avoid get beaten by foreign brands. They should have come up with fast food on the lines of McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut much before when these brands started entering the Indian market. The lack of vision and heedlessness resulted in the growth of foreign brands in India, which has resulted in high stakes of foreign owners in our domestic food and beverages market. Defence Equipment Being one of the largest army in the world, India imports over 70% of its defence equipment from foreign nation. However, if foreign components in the equipment/platforms assembled/manufactured in India are calculated, the dependency would be higher. As a result, in coming years India’s defence import will reach up to $63 billion, according to the reports. Now, the question arises, why India’s is spending rather paying truckloads of money to foreign companies for defence equipment? In my view, the Indian leadership should chunk out the black money which they have stashed in ‘Swiss bank accounts’ to manufacture the defence equipment with latest and reliable technology. I am sure Indian leadership have denned enough black money which would be sufficient to create defence technology. This will provide India a sense of self-reliability and enhance their techno skills rather than depending on foreign material. It will also reduce their customs import on imported military materials and our military spending can be reduced too. But, I am skeptical that our leaders with vested interest will not encourage such exercise perhaps. Control of Mass Migration within the country One of the biggest setbacks for India from the time of its independence is population. Thanks to so called Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, who went on encouraging people to increase family, as India was in a dire need of manpower to develop the country post-independence. The population explosion and mass migration has eaten India’s social fabric. The current situation in India is complex; people from small towns are migrating in large-scale to metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata for employment and education purpose. The result is that these cities have become over-crowded with sky rocketing property rates, which ultimately effects demand and supply chain. Also, it adds to the already traffic chaos which results in petrol and diesel hike too, as more vehicles with huge distance in big cities consume massive petrol. In my view, Indian leadership should tackle this menace by making a proper blue print of every state. To make things convenient, the Chief Ministers’ of every state in full collaboration with central government leadership should plan their state properly. They can pick up 2-3 major cities from every state and develop it with all basic amenities, high job prospects, quality education institutes, better healthcare facility and infrastructure For example, in Punjab; the government should transform Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bhatinda into metro cities with all facilities, job prospects, satisfactory salary, education, restaurants, malls and transport. Likewise, Uttar Pradesh government should pick Banaras, Luckhow, Allahabad, Kanpur and Agra and develop them into proper metro cities. This will definitely cut down the mass migration and all the cities will have a balance population. It will also bring balancing chord in real estate and housing sector. This is a need of the hour to develop 3-4 cities in every state immaculately so that migration chaos will end forever. Resolving traffic chaos The reason of traffic chaos is population and mass migration from one city to another. We see traffic chaos every day, and it becomes worse especially during office hours. And on the day of heavy rainfall, situation becomes unimaginable. We have been demanding to improve roads, have proper water drainage facility and widen the roads, but all goes in a vain. By improving the quality and widen the roads and having proper drainage facility will be a relief to the traffic chaos, but it will not resolve it. At a rate at which mass migration is occurring and more vehicles are running on the rounds, traffic chaos will surely grips the every city soon, especially metro cities. To get rid of this menace, the government should construct multi flyover (means constructing 3-4 storey of flyovers on the top of the already existing flyover). The way US and Japan have done by constructing multi flyover leaving no chance for traffic to get jam. This is definitely a need of the hour, especially for metro cities. |
Aditya Rangroo has done MA Media and Globalization from Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has worked with premium news organizations such as Press Trust of India, International Business Times, and The Indian Express. |
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