New Delhi, Oct 10: The honourable President of India made a brilliant speech recently at Hyderabad, urging Indians to think positive. He referred to his three visions, the first being Freedom; he said that in India’s 3,000-year history, we have not conquered any nation, implying that we recognise a countries sovereignty and independence.
The Second is Development; he said, “We lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self assured. The third is to stand up to the World, both in military and economic terms. The honourable President further added that our media also highlights the negative, very seldom the positive. He mentioned that once when he was in Tel Aviv, a day after the Hamas had struck, the front page of the newspapers had the picture of a Jewish gentleman, who had converted his desert land into a granary.
We Indians must feel proud of our achievements and be proud to be Indians; even more, every individual must contribute his best to make our country a great economic power.
The entire world recognises the competence of Indian professionals, the huge wealth of talented technical manpower we have, and the entrepreneurial skills of our business community.
Indians are successful in every field, in almost every country of the world, they compete with the best in class. Many multinational corporations are placing Indians as country managers for their operations, in countries around the world, or in very senior positions in every function of a corporation, in their head and regional offices, including as CEOs.
No other developing country, including China, can boast of the vast talent pool, that we have; indeed as far as professionals are concerned, we are certainly a ‘Developed Country’.
What then is holding India back ? It is primarily the delay in giving India economic independence after the first phase of a socialist economic model that we pursued post-Independence.
We lost our competitive spirit, our passion to fight and win, while those Indians who went abroad continued to pursue excellence and win.
Our technologies became obsolete, Licence-Raj forced the consumer to buy sub-standard goods, we failed to invest in R&D, our scientists feared the patent regime of developed countries, and did not fight for their own patents on a level playing field basis.
Our second biggest issue is the need for those in power to give up power, and eliminate the rampant growth of corrupt and criminal influences in politics.
Some antiquated laws, rules and practices, like labour laws need urgent change, enabling the government to become a facilitator to India’s economic growth, rather than a barrier.
Government should focus on good governance, which we need desperately, law and order, social programmes of education and health, and building of infrastructure like electricity, ports, roads etc.
Even in rural India, if panchayats were more empowered and had less political interference and more private initiative, we would faster growth. In several panchayats in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the women of the village evaluate a school teacher’s attendance and performance, with unbelievable results.
What we also need urgently is a quick judgment dispensing system, resulting in cases against the corrupt or criminals not taking ten or twenty years for the guilty to be punished.
If this does not happen, people’s courts like those run by Naxals in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh or Orissa will take over. The judicial system has to undergo a dramatic change to speed up dispensing of justice.
Twelve years after economic liberalisation in 1991, promoted by a visionary economist, Dr Man Mohan Singh, we are on the threshold of becoming a great economic power.
Our IT industry is already well recognised the world over, our manufacturing sector is cutting costs, becoming competitive, taking a share of the world market, be it in the pharmaceutical sector, in some service sectors, and even in the manufacturing sector.
Hero Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Our auto ancillary industry is fast gaining acceptance from the best car manufacturers, the technology and service levels in our banking and financial sector is superior to those in many advanced countries, and we have the second largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world.
This has resulted in more than a hundred multinational corporations setting up R&D facilities in India. Finally, we must recognise that our farmer is the lowest cost producer, provided he is given the right agri-inputs, training, quality seeds, water and electricity.
We have to ensure that our agri-extension services are committed, the middleman is removed, and the farmer gets access to markets in India and abroad, offering him the best prices.
Post 2005, even if the developed world reduces their subsidies in agriculture somewhat slowly, God has given us varied climatic conditions and sunshine, to make us highly competitive, and export fruits vegetables, some cereals and quality processed foods.
Indians and not necessarily the Government, but industry, professionals, scientists, lawyers, all have to help create a vision for our country, draw up a tight action plan, make people accountable, and learn to act positive. In the field of IT, we have an edge; we must ensure that we maintain this edge, through investments in technology, better education and cost effectiveness.
It is wrong to believe that while living and working in India we must be paid international salaries or our work practices must blindly copy the developed world.
Improvement in productivity, positive focus on reducing costs, and investment in research will provide the edge we seek in IT.
In the manufacturing sector, we must decide the specific industries where we either have an edge or can be globally competitive, based on quality and cost.
Many of these industries may also be the focus industries for China, however, we can still win. We must focus on the pharmaceutical industry, textiles and garments, silk, leather and shoes, food processing, communication industries, white goods, electronic, bicycle, plastic products, toys, watches, beer, chemical industries, and probably, many more.
A group of experts from industry, be it manufacturing or service sector and technologists must debate and decide our core focus industries, and every effort to become major world suppliers post 2005, must be made.
We are running out of time, if we do not focus; China, Malaysia, Thailand and others will leave us far behind, and make it impossible for us to catch up. We can do it, we need the will and the focus.
We can also become major suppliers of fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, tea, coffee, spices and several crops where we can compete; we need to quickly plan and execute, as productivity improvements in agriculture take time.
Our most important requirement is a change in our mindset, think positive, have the passion to win, become a less arrogant and a more humble and persuasive salesman, aim for world market share and as our honourable President said, “have self-confidence”.
In conclusion to his Hyderabad speech our honourable President urged Indians for introspection, which may prick our conscience.
He pleaded with us to stop thinking of the negatives about the government, the system, the policies, and begin to think of what we can do for India, to make us among the top three economic powers in the world.
We must feel proud to be Indians and instead of individual success, think of inter-disciplinary team excellence and the countries success.
This way we will create a better India for ourselves and our children, abounding in opportunities, massive job creation and wealth