the respective issue of ET was v interesting...it was nice to see the 5 MP's break the hitherto traditional image of politicians ( complete with the trademark dhoti kurta etc) . Also for once it was great to see Politicians turn Journalists instead of Journalists becoming Politicians !!

Nice article Milind - I'll surely try to get hold of this ET. Agree with your views on being defense self-sufficient. I saw in Bowling for Columbine the kind of output the US Cos. have and there's no reason why India should not grow its own industry. Of course, as long as we dont create our own Columbine tragedy!

Milind:

Good article!

I have lived in US for last 8 years - have visited various countries - Malaysia and Venezuela among them... and I visit India every year. I just came back from another visit.

A few things struck me tremendously:

1. Although the infrastructure is being ramped up - the attention to detail and plan is missing (even after months of a highway or flyover being constructed the dirt and soil were still lying contributing to the pollution - and its NOT just "smog" we also have what I call "Dog" Dust + Fog!)...the "Quality of the last mile" is not taken care of! I found only the Delhi metro being an exception of sorts. If this is not taken care of, we will have built the infrastructure but an unsustainable one on a long term.

2. A quixotic law enforcement mentality - and nothing exemplified it better than the Delhi Demolition drive. The real culprit - politician and bureaucrat - was scott free.. while the unsuspecting buyer was facing the brunt.

3. Very high and unsustainable valuations - real estate .. at least in North .. was unsustainable. A 4 bedroom would cost at least 1 crore in Gurgaon .. I know the incomes are rising.... but have they become so high that someone can pay mortgage on that kind of real estate? The lack of will on part of Govt. to unlock the real estate potential through amendment of Rent COntrol Act is damning!

4. Despite the improvements on an overall or visible level - our productivity remains REAL LOW!

5. Politicians in the country have still not woken up and may very soon be in peril from the business lobby. A good illustration was the tiff between Murthy and Gowda. Gowda, a spent politician in every sense.. was just using his political influence to create a mess... now, who generates the money in the country? Businesses.. so where would the politicians get their daily dose? Businesses. I can almost forsee "Activist Businesses" coming up - something along what WIPRO and INFY did with respect to sponsoring the highway in B'lore.

The day is not far when a progressive businessman-activist would realize that it may be better to sponsor his own candidate to a post as opposed to purchasing an unreliable politician that walk around our landscape today. By themselves, politicians have little clout if they dont have the money!

So, things are improving - but we need to stand and think too... in India everyone seemed to be on a high horse with little time for thought or reflection!

Cheers,
Desh
Drishtikone.com

Milind,
Read your article and liked your outlook and ideas - most of all about opening up the defense sector. Why this is not being done is a mystery to me. I think it may be (othert than our excessive security phobia)because of the rather poor R & D facilities that exist and also because of the pathetic performance of our Defense Research and Devlopment organisations till date. Surely we need to concentrate on getting our R&D act together and not leave it to State employed scientists who have their own axe to grind. Would really like to hear from you if there is any plan to get moving along these lines for the future. So far our indegenous defense production (barring a few notable exceptions) has existed on screw driver technology and reverse engineering. The result being that we are at least 25 years behind the rest.

One suggestions if I may. I think it would be interesting to hear from you how the first two years of your politcal carreer have progressed. I know this is a very short span in this field but I am sure you went into this 'arena' with your eyes open and with dreams of your own. I wonder and would be happy if you could share your views on how the reality actually turned out to be so far.

Dear Milind,

At a recent NASSCOM seminar, Mr. Karnik talked about the many million Indians that stand to gain employment as a result of the booming BPO industry. What he may not have taken into account is that industry is quickly reaching a saturation point in terms of employable individuals.

Our population can be such a powerful force, if only it were more educated. I am not talking of higher education but a 10th standard student actually fulfilling all the competencies that are normally expected of a 1oth standard student.

In our work with rural schools, the absolute hopeless state of the hundreds of thousands of govt. schools, where millions of children study is starkly exposed. This morning I was in a school, one of the better govt. schools in the outskirts of Chennai. In a 6th standard class of about 40 children, not a single student could read a simple English sentence, many of them could not read a single word. These children are apparently being taught English since standard 3. Their textbook, however, carries several extracts from classics, poems, etc.

Mr. Deora, if India is to seize the opportunity, it cannot do so unless it addresses elementary education for the masses.

There are many many innovative sounding programs being frequently being launched, lots of money being spent on them... but at the ground level, so little has changed.

Well, it is just so wonderful to see younger politicians focussing on constructive, visionary issues that affect nation building. It is so easy for us in India to become apathetic and paint the entire political fraternity as frivolous and crooked. But these small sparks of brightness.. where the younger lot are really looking to make a difference to the country is so positive. We are really proud of all of you. Keep up the good work!!..
PS: I think it’s superb that Dr Manmohan Singh instituted the Urban Renewal Mission… It was something that was desperately needed. I hope you guys also look at some major urban policy reforms soon !!

Milind,

I agree with you about the lack of home grown defense "companies". We need to do more at home and cut down on the imports.

As you said, the key to India's success is "the challenge of sustaining growth to eradicate poverty and rampant unemployment." This is possible in the current parliament only if the so called communist parties take a practical line than adamently sticking on to their busted policies. I also don't support indiscriminate privatisation attempted by the previous govt. towards the fag end of their tenure. We need to find a middle ground. We need to kick the butt of those old school politicians who create trouble for business. At the same time, we need to make sure that the businesses don't bully its way like what Microsoft did in US. Complete freedom to business (as our self proclaimed Libertarians in India want) is equally bad as complete govt. control. We need to improve the overall infrastructure in the country. It is terrible.

Having said that I have the following observations about our business sector.

1) Why are we contented with just service oriented industry? Why our IT companies, with so much work force at their disposal, couldn't come up with indigenous products that change the world? I see it as a failure of our businesses. Just being a supplier of labor workforce doesn't make a country an advanced country.

2) Why can't our business sector come up with good world class educational institutions. Why there are more IIPMs than IITs and IIMs?

3) Why is India lagging behind too far in original research and development? Our business community doesn't seem to be unduly worried about the LACK of R&D (I mean R&D in a real sense not in their own definition of it). Why is it so? We cannot be an advanced country with zero output from research side.

Our old economic system was faulty and hence the development was slow. Our new economic system is also inherently faulty. Though it improves the economy of India in a shorter run, I don't think it is sustainable in a long term if we don't rectify the issues (some of which I have mentioned above). Our youth seem to have a convert zeal reagarding the privatisation. But most of them don't even realize the big holes on the private sector which is going to affect us in the long run. We need to fix them fast. One of the fixes to it is the total revamp of our educational system.

Milind,

It's a good article. I am happy that there are aspiring politicians who are educated and willing to serve the people. Though we have good people at the higher up, still thugs control the local politics and that's a worry.

Here in the west politicians should work from their local office and attend day-to-day issues of people. In India I have never seen a local MP or MLA. Things have to change and I am sure It will.

Krish,

Your quote" Just being a supplier of labor workforce doesn't make a country an advanced country"

You are absolutely right. We are still a labor supplier to the world. Probably we are doing a good job on this front. We need to develop product that are totally Indian. We still have nothing that we can be proud of.

Educational institutions need more funding, here every education institution gets money from the Private business, we need to cultivate the same in India to bring our institution much more important in the development of the country.

Land development is the other are I want to see some changes. Here in Canada and much of the western world the developper has to pay for roads, sewage, lights, water etc.., when he develop a land. This is in turn charged to the public who buy this land or houses.He can only sell the property once all the work has been completed and approved. We have no such a policies in India and at the end everthing is a mess.

Yogi Selliah

Talking about Human resources,reminds me of a quote from Dr.Kalam's book,THE IGNITED MIND.Dr.Kalam says that the ignited soul compared to any resource is the most powerful resource on the earth,above the earth and under the earth.
So we have to work towards igniting the souls of our citizens,just having the resorces is not enough.
Further when we talk about our economic progress why we only talk in terms of GDP growth?This is very misleading because I strongly believe that today only the riches are becoming richer and poor people are still poor or have become poorer or gone to heeaven(don't forget the various suicide taken place in different parts of the country by farmers and othe poor people).Agrred that opportunities have increased and we are progressing on varios grounds but aren't we eating our own roots to feed ourselves.We have opened all our gates for the Multinationals to set up their shops in our AANGAN without realising that they can anytime enter into our bedrooms and will take away our sleep and peace too.I am not against globalisation but we should think before letting them do business here.If our employment gets reduced & health of our citizens is affected by bringing in some foreign company or their product then such a proposal should not be entertained at all.Coke,Pepsi and lots of Supermalls are examples of this.Theek hai quality achi honi chahiye par uske liye hum hamesha bahar hi kyoun jhanke.Can't we improve ourselves.
Country can not progress, if we will continue to have corruption as our national habit,If our sanskars and traditions are forgotten and If rape,murder,burgalary takes the form of natinan sport and If our politicians keep on spending more time outside the parliament and not inside.
Instead of talking about GDP growth please reflect on some other points like the condition of villages and the people living their.Agar bada bhai khoob kama raha hai aur chota bhookh ke karan so nahin pa raha hai to please continue to talk about GDP growth but don't say that our country is progessing.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairperson of IEEE VESIT (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc, USA) student branch, at Vivekananda Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

IEEE, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, is a worldwide organization dedicated to the advancement of science and technology. The organization has more than 3,00,000 professional members and about 55000 student members all over the world and is well known in terms of publications, standards development and is widely recognized as a respected worldwide body. In it’s efforts to provide the upcoming engineers with up to date technical data information, student branches are setup over the world under the aegis of the IEEE. The IEEE VESIT Student Branch is one such branch at the Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Technology (VESIT), in Chembur, Mumbai.

IEEE VESIT is the premier student chapter in Mumbai which has received wide acclaim over the past few years for its exemplary performance. It has won many prestigious accolades at local, national and international levels in various fields. Our member base has increased multifold over the years.

The metamorphosis of an individual from a student to a technically sound professional is what IEEE-VESIT aims to achieve. IEEE-VESIT provides its members a combination of technical prowess combined with an ability to combat the job market successfully. It trains students to improve their outlook by providing them with umpteen opportunities for resume building.

Our events include specialized robotics conferences and seminars, Web designing workshops, software and hardware contests, technical quizzes, multimedia workshops, and paper presentations. We constantly aim to expose all our members to the best in all fields.

We also hold to our name an award winning website created by a team of dedicated web designers. A constant winner of the Best Website Award at IEEE at the Asia Pacific level, this year we went a step further and clinched the title of BEST WEBSITE IN THE WORLD among all student bodies. The link to this award winning website is:
www.ieee-vesit.org.

The annual all Mumbai symposium, Mélange is a grand finale of all events conducted during the entire year and is graced by distinguished personalities who enlighten students on various topics. This year the the annual symposium is slated to be in the second week of March, the developments of which we would notify you about. The need of the hour demands that students realize the mindset required for a successful launch into this highly competitive world.

There exists a great amount of skepticism in today’s youths to enter mainstream politics because of the image projected of it by the media. We would like you to share your experiences in the Indian political scene with all of us at IEEE. After all we are all eager to know why you gave up a degree from the university of Boston to pursue your political career. We would also be thrilled if you share with us your goals and objectives both for the city as well as the country.

A person with such a versatile stature as yours would be apposite to address the students. I would like to request you to grace the occasion and enlighten our students by veering their mindsets in right direction.
Thanking You

Yours sincerely

Sandesh Gala
Chairperson
IEEE VESIT

Ph- 9820255949
Email: messages_s@hotmail.com

Sandesh, please fax me a letter with additional details on your program to +91-22-22875994. I'll revert accordingly.
Milind Deora

Hello Sir

I have faxed the details of Melange 2006 to the number provided by you. Hope to hear from you soon. Good day.

Hi Milind,
I would beg to disagree with the picture you portray. Yes, it is true that we are creating more wealth than before, our GDP is going higher and higher, our exports are booming, more companies are setting up shops. For me who is sitting 10,000 miles away in one of the premier research labs in the world, it fills me with pride until I start hearing of real stories, stories from oridinary people who only care about working hard doing their job and earning a livelihood. For instance, my brother and bhabhi who literally slog (no sleep for days together)at a government hospital tell me how corruption even doesnt spare something as basic as human lives. Junior doctors are made scapegoats for negligence ( to the extent of revoking their licence for which they worked for 8 odd years). Thats just an example.

If nothing, these stories make me wonder: when is this going to end. How would our 7% and 8% growth make a difference to these issues, people? What do we really seek ? Do we want to be ahead of china in soem game, or do we want to better the lives of our contry men.

I have started to think, that we can do without planning, strategy if only we can gain some values and intent to be good. Like a lot of my country men, I also hold high hopes. While I am anguished at the suffering, I hope things will get right; sanity will prevail in our society.

I have heard so much abt how indians are hopeful abt the young politicians. I would be curious to know what you think, planb to do abt these issues.

thanks
Shrey

Hey good to see your views on India and what a great prospect it really has...Would love to know your views on the recent reservation issue...I completely understand the need for uplifting the downtrodden but i feel really bad when i see people vrooming off in their classy cars securing admissions only cos they have been fortunate enough to take birth in a supposedly lower caste..who'd take the onus to see if these reservations really reach the ones it was targetted for..and with 50% or more reservations do we intend to create yet another generation of deprived ones??

I HAVE LOST FAITH IN DEMOCRACY TODAY!!!!!

Its' not about the reservation decision being taken but its abt the way in which it was taken.Abs no1 sided on making sure no bias was imposed or some expert advice be taken.Funnily your HRD minister wasn't even aware of the % of OBC's in this country 2 days prior to the decision.Hats off to u guys.

I can understand 50% votes is something to die for...but i hoped atleast one of the parliamentarians had some conscience left.

How abt Rs 2 petrol next..It'll as always hurt the nation but wud make sure you win with 100% votes