My Response:
First I would like to thank Uday & Richa for reading the article and taking trouble to comment on that. Now coming to comments part I don't buy some of the comments of Uday & Richa, of course they may be correct in their own way.
Because there are structural issues which only government can handle. For example we are now enjoying the benefit of LPG (Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization) which is again started by then government in 1992 by Mr. Manmohan Singh. So government should take the initiative to do the things better, allow the private players in some of the specific areas step by step to participate & then we can argue that government cant do everything.
Now take the following examples...
Inflation
When world is at the door step possibility of double recession/slowdown/deflation, we Indians are facing the problem of Inflation. Food Inflation is the main culprit in that. And main problem for this is PDS (Public Distribution System) is so pathetic, corrupted & license raj.
For example government is supplying Rice @ Rs. 2 to BPL through PDS. But more than 50% of it is not reaching the targeted people, because middle men are selling same Rice in open market for market rate approximately to Rs. 20. This is just one angle for Inflation & other angle is preservation of food articles, even Supreme Court has given suggestion government that instead of wasting them & distribute to poor people.
In places like Delhi, more than 40% of water & 35% of power leakage & theft is happening, which is Capital of country & where in now we are conducting Commonwealth Games whose preparations are another disaster.
These are just a simple examples how the systems in place are working.
Today, I read an article where in Infosys Mentor Mr. Narayan Murthy is talking about India's problems.
I request to all my readers to please read that article here...
Some important points, he mentioned are as follows...
--> Even 63 years after Independence, 35 crore (350 million) Indians can't read and write.
--> Twenty-five crore (250 million) people do not have access to safe drinking water.
--> While 75 crore (750 million) have no access to sanitation facilities, Murthy said.
--> The country has the largest mass of malnourished children, and 35 per cent of (total production of) grains are allowed to rot.
--> India has an installed electricity generation capacity of 145 gigawatts but only 84 gigawatts are available, which is "sadly a shame
--> Lot of it is due to poor (public) governance. There is no doubt about it. Unfortunately, our public governance is inadequate. Whatever our public governance has touched has not made as good a progress as private governance has. While all of private governance may not be good, private governance institutions have by and large done better because of competition, entry of multinational companies and the need to compete at the global level.
And I read one more article in rediff about global competitiveness of different countries in different segments. And some important points in that are...
--> It ranks 104th in the health and primary education pillar, with high rates of communicable diseases and high infant mortality. Indeed, life expectancy in India is 10 years shorter than in Brazil and China.
--> Infrastructure (86th) is in need of upgrade, especially with respect to quality of roads, ports, and the electricity supply, with India falling 10 places in this area this year.
--> Labour markets are also in need of greater efficiency and flexibility (92nd).
--> And overall India's rank 51st
Bottm line:
Topic is open for discussion...
The irony is - Inspite of India being a Agricultural country, inspite of the fact that India is believed to 'Live in the villages' - these idiot rural indian masses are at the mercy of urban India. Why should they need any government to solve their problems. All the intelligent and capable masses from rural india migrate to metro with greed of big salaries - only waste bodies stay back. Most rural population is good for nothing people thinking that it is responsibility of the Indian govt to take care of them.
September 8, 2010 2:19 PM
Very true, Naveen. These are words of common man....U Me n everyone..
BUT blaming govt. is it always correct? What are we doing to improve things?
Questions? May be we cant do anything, but why not one amongst youth gets into politics to do gud for the NATION....Again a question???