Editorials

Developed India for Developing Indians

Rajen Kumar
Nov 2010
There is every reason to rejoice that the Obama visit to India early this month brought hope and happiness in the political hierarchy as well as in the corporate corridors.
 
The US President put a stamp of confirmation on the certificate that India is a powerhouse albiet a developed country. However, his remarks that India, as a developed nation, will have to discharge its responsibility of being an economic leader raise many questions.
 
Let's face the facts straight. India, as the largest democracy, has nearly half of its population which sleeps with empty or half-filled aching stomachs. There are villages after villages which crave for a ray of light having no electricity. Every second person in India is illiterate. More than 22% of the entire rural population and 15% of the urban population of India exists in such difficult day to day existence worsened by financial predicament. Hope and happiness is yet to touch the lives of millions of Indians dependant on unpredictable agriculture income.
 
Most schemes designed to eradicate poverty have made only peripheral progress. Programmes like Integrated Rural Development Programme, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and the Training Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and other on-going initiatives have not really come up to the expectations whatever be the blame game. The administration both at the state and village level needs to be revamped with a transparent, tamper-proof mechanism to plug loopholes.
 
We are yet enmeshed in the proverbial Mandir and Mandal, while the lot of the poor remains still and stalled. If we are so keen on a double digit growth trajectory, we must review, revise and re-design schemes which are workable and people-friendly. A point in case is our abject failure to introduce and encourage micro-finance at even the minimal desired level; our SMEs sector is beset in hurdles. Our corporate-centric banks are visibly averse to small entrepreneurs.
 
It took India six decades to realize that skill development is an indispensable tool for economic prosperity. But how skills will be imparted to our gen next teeming millions is mired in mist. An average Indian youth suffers from a sense of insecurity. India may be the only 'developed' country where education does not come with any guarantee for job. How and when will we develop an socio-eco-system where an average hard working Indian feels proud to be a part of a developed nation. This question merits an answer?
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