Manifesto 2009 -2014
Government must Pledge the nation to fulfill the promise of REAL Development.
YES – That’s the only way …
Empowered women – Vibrant India
Cheerful farmers – Progressive India
Educated & Financially strong youth – Strong India
Well Equipped Soldiers – Safe & Secure India
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Contents
Preface
Every nation has the government it deserves:
Congress Scorecard 2004-2009.
India Today :
Time has come : It is the worst crisis ever !
Y-our agenda
Priority areas. (YES) Youth, Economy & Security
(REAL) Development – Rural , Education , Agriculture & Livelihood
Food , Clothing , Clean water and Healthcare for the Common Man
Economic Development
Key issues
Solution :
Youth and Women empowerment
Employment Generation from Different initiatives
Organised -Unorganised Sector
Urbanization of rural areas
Retail trade & Shopkeepers community-
E-Governance
SME
Police reforms , National Security & Terrorism
Education and vocational training
Cultivation & Agriculture (IEC- Irrigation, Electricity & Credit) –
Transport
Banking & Finance
Judiciary.
Poverty Alleviation
New thrust areas for bold actions
Economy of the people, by the people and for the people of this country:
Village Republic Scheme (VRS) & BOARD
Healthcare
Adopt a child, senior citizen, Village, School & PHC scheme
Administrative & Governance reforms
Special abilities – disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute
Urban infrastructure
Tourism
Energy & Environment
Loans & Housing
Goods & Services Tax (GST )
Yoga , Mediation & Sports (YMS )
Labour laws
Population Control
Constitutional & Electoral reforms
Defence forces
R&D
Income & taxes
Defence technology SEZ
Export Oriented SEZ for wine
North East Region
National Task force for Animal husbandry, Milk processing, Food processing and fisheries
Post & Telegraph
Private Public Partnership
Cooperative Movement -
Consumer protection movement
Media & Sting Operations -
Disaster Management
Common Civil Code.
Backward – BIMARU States
Tribal Development
Wool Production
Good Governance
Foreign Policy
Preface
Having reaching here to read, i believe you are concerned about this nation with this, i must take you through my journey of how i wrote this Manifesto 2009-14, and why it is important for each and every concerned citizen of this country.
Sometime in 2003 i wrote a book ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ which was not published for public, but was sent across to all leading decision makers, politicians, influential people and Journalists. Most of them acknowledged and sent me their best wishes. Sam Pitroda wrote back ‘ You must enter politics to change the system from within’, Similarly , many people including the Prime Minister , Speaker of Lok Sabha , leader of the opposition appreciated the content ‘ as good for the nation to follow’ ,and sent me the note ‘to spread the message’. Over the last couple of years, i have written a number of open letters to our Prime Ministers right from Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Outcome, as you all know, a formal acknowledgment follows with appreciation.
Sam Pitroda , whom i have always considered as an architect of modern India through his revolutionary PCO booths earlier , and now as the chairman of the National Knowledge Commission. The PCO’s, i believe, had reduced the distance between geographies, created a rural & urban connect, empowered a lot of entrepreneurs. With his PCO movement, suddenly people used to days of travelling to talk to people or communicate through our lethargic postal system suddenly started talking whenever they wanted, Indians got a new high and India was now a connected nation. I my view, his innovative leadership catapulted India and sowed the seeds of the current IT revolution which has put India ahead on the IT & BPO map. Even today, his recommendations as Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, if properly implemented, can bring an enormous benefit to this nation.
Besides Sam’s comment on my earlier book, three people came out to meet or associate or help. Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam met me, sent me the details of Viksit Bharat Foundation, where he has invested his entire earnings. His office has been in touch for all the years he was the President, and still is reachable at a call. Through Dr.Kalam’s office, i was able to get one important change done – ‘Bilingual labelling of medicines ‘. When only 5 % of the people in India know English, why medicines sold in India should carry the name in English? Dr.Kalam moved this through his office and got it implemented. The other important change i was working was ‘None of the above found suitable’ in the ballot papers. This was sent to the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M.Lyngdoh and Dr.Kalam. I wish he had a second stint; this change could also have been done.
Second person who came out to connect, is a top politician, a former Union cabinet minister, founder of BJP & honoured with the best parliamentarian award, Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, He has always been available to meet me whenever i wanted, and kept boosting my morale for making a
positive contribution to the nation. Last year, Dr.Joshi summoned me to write the manifesto for BJP. This could have been a great opportunity to contribute to the nation. Moreover, for the first time, i was being asked to write the ‘Vision document – the Manifesto’ for a leading political party. I wrote from a ‘common man’s’ point of view. Off course, all was not accepted by BJP’s parliamentary board .But still, they took a major portion from my original draft. Also, i must say that Dr.Joshi is rare politician, who practices highest standards of ethics, which is difficult in today’s political environment. I am left to wonder sometimes, how he has survived politics in today’s tough and highly corrupt and institutionalised system. Third personality who has been like a God send gift is a world renowned business guru and acclaimed author, Shiv Khera .Who shares the same passion for the betterment of this nation. He appointed me national President of the organization he founded, Countryfirst. Despite his busy schedule & sessions, he is always reachable and hopefully, one day, he will see the nation changing during his lifetime.
All these people have been a real boost to my activities, and gave me ample opportunities to speak & share my ideas with a whole lot of people.
Back to the manifesto: While the manifesto written for BJP was shared with the parliamentary board of BJP and they decided to pick and choose what was politically helpful and could add to the to the vote bank. Since a lot of research and hard work was done for writing this document of national importance , i thought , it would be good to publish it for a common man to see how the common man’s vision and party’s vision could be aligned . I had a chance to go through the earlier manifestos of both the parties (Congress & BJP); it is shameful that most of the promises are not kept by any of the parties after taking the reins of power. I sincerely hope that the government in power will go through this, and use whatever it considers useful. I am sure that this time, the party will try and implement most of the points mentioned in its manifesto. Though, it is not possible for any government to implement all that is promised in the election manifesto. But still, if 80 % of the promises are delivered upon, it is not doubt, great performance for any government. I also wish that the common man takes the responsibility for change to ‘himself’.
My view is that, the government’s agenda should not be election oriented. It should be drawn from the requirements of the grass root level public. We all saw that Manmohan Singh’s government sacrificed the support from the Left front to get the nuclear deal through; it was at the cost of the government. Finally, we have seen that he is back with a thumping majority, and Left is reduced by its humiliating defeat. This in itself proves that good work cannot go unrecognized. So, the current government must pay more attention to the steps that lead to employment and income generation. The government cannot clap with rising Sensex, as rising Sensex does not raise the GDP of the nation. We also cannot build a lasting economy on dollars only. We need an economy that focuses ‘value creation’ of about 80 % from domestic sectors and for the majority of the population. Exports must never exceed 20 % of the GDP, if we want to create an economy that can grow 10 % for the next 10-15 years.
Sadly, in the last 60 years, 60 % of the population still lives below a dollar a day. Think how they can survive when rice is above Rs.20 a KG, Pulses above Rs 60 a kg, Ginger Rs. 80 a kg? We need to
Convert these people into earning and spending class by imparting them basic skills. We need basic skills at the base of the population, higher & specialised skills at the top level in the population for taking this nation ahead on a faster growth curve. Every year, India must aim to lift 5 % people above the poverty line, and then India can truly become a developed nation in the next ten years. We need to create new income streams; NAREGA is not a solution for such a massive population, the only way these people can grow is by hard work. India has the best of brains but lacks the generation of leaders and will power to shape an actionable road map to harness the potential of the people. We have seen wrong policies being implemented; only Delhi and Mumbai get the most focus and funds. No wonder we are facing migration from smaller towns to these two cities. I have always heard people talking of making Mumbai as Shanghai. Why do we not convert ten smaller Indian towns into Mumbai rather than just looking at already over burdened towns like Mumbai becoming Shanghai? I would also like to see some paradigm change in the tax structures, why do we have an income tax for individuals at all? Tax expenditure! Let people pay taxes only when they buy goods and services and not on their income. Why can we not have such a system?
Now to recession: What everyone is calling a global recession is not a recession. The world has pressed the ‘Reset’ button. With this, a new multi polar world is going to emerge; it will end the uni & bi polar world. Now we cannot dream of independent economies but a truly connected and an interdependent world, full of surprises and opportunities .It is a fact that America has lost all its innovation and it is coming to India and China. Every recession has shifted the power. Earliest recession shifted the position of global power from U.K. to USA & USSR. This recession will finally shift the power from USA. It may be quite unfortunate, if we cannot use this opportunity. Indian Economy is like a sleeping giant, the day it gets up and starts running, no one can stop it. It is a force of a billion brains, and we know what ‘charged’ billion brains can deliver. The current government has to wake up this giant and charge it. Here is the key:
Youth , economy and security are the three key issues before the nation and that is why the acronym ‘ YES’ , and the action of the government need to be towards REAL Development .i.e. Rural , Education , Agriculture and Livelihood . So this acronym REAL. We cannot afford to lose time and focus. Also, the current leaders need to include more common people from the public and a younger generation to lead the nation for the next 25 years.
Our scientists and youth have struggled a lot to reach where we are today. Those who can struggle to survive are the best people to innovate. We have so many opportunities to create jobs, money for the people that we cannot just count our success on increasing FDI or WPI based inflation control to pump the economy or the NAREGA scheme. People are losing jobs & hope with every hour passing by. We need to set our own limits and set out achieve them. It is time for the current government to deliver on the economy by focussing on SME’s and Agriculture. This can lift the economy into to a new orbit.
Foreign money is never free, it comes with its own riders and when it exits, it causes unbearable pain. It might be prudent to divest some of the PSU’s or all and deploy the money into the development schemes. Black money economy is a parallel economy, and is more than our real GDP.
This must be checked and brought back into the system for development. It is time to re-look at our policies, priorities and politics, and do an introspection to evolve out a new growth paradigm. Fire
Fighting and re-construction are two set of activities on the same place and need to be handled by separate teams.
So far, election manifestos have always remained for the media and not for the public. I wish the concerned citizens to review this manifesto , work out their local manifestos based on the local agenda, for each district and approach their local representatives to adopt that and work for the constituency . Politicians have to work for us and they are just public servants and not our masters! We must take India ahead of the world. I will call it ‘India Ahead’ campaign.
We have to come out of our shells and become assertive individuals not only for ourselves but also for our nation. Today, we should not talk about ruling party and the opposition, but of ruling party and the watchdog party but work constructively. Together, positive changes can take place not by criticising, boycotting, opposing and disposing but by participating proactively. I am sharing my vision for what the current government needs to do. We all need to wake up and participate then only, we can change the nation for the better. India has always addressed problems that are non-existent. For examples, we are finding out what is wrong, what is missing in a nation of a billion minds? Trust me; India has all that can make it a strongest, progressive and a powerful nation in the world. Just two things are missing; Honesty and courage. If we all decided to be assertive with our honesty and courage and don’t have dual lives, no one can stop this nation. We talk about corruption but we are active partners. I have always seen that people blame our system of administration. With my personal experience, i can assure you that, we have the best administrative system, no one follows. Today, if you complain against a government employee, an action is certainly taken, but how many of you complain?
The key for the success of the government lies in its active citizens. We have a passive electorate so we have outdated leaders, the moment we participate and start questioning the politicians about our rights and money and how it is used; we will never have to read this book again! Inefficiency cannot tackle inefficiency!
Best wishes,
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
E-mail: rajendra.india@gmail.com
mail@rajendragupta.org
Every nation has the government it deserves:
Congress has ruled this nation for more than fifty years and other governments have ruled for around 8 years let’s examine what they did to this nation?
In the last sixty years, the leaders have contributed immensely to deteriorating the economy and suppressing the rights of the common man, by denying him the right education and running the economy on the ‘Self serving’ license raj. It was only in the 1990’s that the policies led India towards Bankruptcy, and the economy had to be liberalised on the directions of the World Bank. We should not forget that, a single party running the nation for more than 50 years, it did not let the common man to get proper education, as ‘The Common Man’ would have protested for change. The self serving leaders never wanted. A huge Population under the misrule has just remained a mere statistics and a vote bank to be used during elections and abused thereafter. Respect for talent and merit has never been a norm in the any political party. No party practices democracy at home, how can they practice democracy in the nation? Respect for democracy and talent is still to emerge with the politics of this nation maturing.
We are still talking of Indo-US nuclear deal forgetting that, with or without the Indo-US nuclear deal, India should have become a self sufficient state – A Self Reliant India by now.
Leaders have in the last few years built an economy aimed at serving the developed world only, and reduced India to a body shopping country. People have always talked of strong fundamentals in Indian economy. If at all, the Indian economy is strong, then why it is sliding day by day as the developed world sinks deeper into recession? It was never built on strong fundamentals. On the contrary, fundamentals were never addressed. The moment the foreign economies got into trouble, we got into a deeper trouble. This proves the shallowness of the economic principles and that Indian economy was not build it was sold to foreign economies and now that these economies are in trouble, we are in a deeper trouble. None of the political leaders understood what India needs to have to build a robust economy. Today, we are saddled with the burden created with myopic policies of the leaders, and the whole world is adopting protectionist policies and we are going to head for a painful 2009-11. USA will be saddled with trillions of dollars of deficit and will find it difficult to come out. India must avoid that path.
Inflation hurt the common man by taking the prices of daily needs sky high. Though, leaders have manipulated the numbers, it is hard to believe the cooked inflation numbers, as the prices still remain high
At the time of budget, Congress talked of constitutional propriety and refused any stimulus in this financial year. Suddenly, Congress let loose everything throwing the economic principles to the winds. Such Adhocism is only a sure shot recipe for disaster and conveys that Congress knows how to capture power and not how to empower India. Even senior congress leaders like Mani Shankar Aiyar have written, that economic reforms have led to lopsided development outcomes- 836 million Indians haven’t felt the benefits. It remains a big challenge to see how the same people can deliver different result.
Below is an ‘Eye Opener’ on what political parties have contributed to this nation: Key democratic institutions have been used as weapons of vendetta or denigrated. Credibility of the institutions is eroded beyond imagination.
A Failed Judiciary:
On Feb 6, 2009, the Supreme court said that , the Criminal justice system has collapsed – Making the chilling observation, which too many only confirmed the widely held perception of the erosion of the system, a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam also said that the lower judiciary had decayed. “The courts of magistrate and munsif have ceased to be an option for the common man,” the Bench said and compared the lower courts to ill-equipped and ill-staffed public health centres (PHCs) in rural areas.
Only those people go there who have no other option,” said the Bench as an apparent indicator of the low measure of public faith in these courts, which are the first points of dispute settlement for the masses.
While the last Election manifesto of congress in 2004 quoted ‘Immediate measures should be taken to drastically cut the delays in courts, particularly in the high court’s and in lower levels of the judiciary’.
Central Bureau of Investigations: “Only God can save the situation”.
On Tuesday 11th Feb, 2009, the Supreme Court said the CBI was acting at the behest of the law ministry while investigating the disproportionate assets case against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members. An exasperated Bench said, “Only God can save the situation”.
“You are acting at the behest of the law ministry. You are not acting on your own,” said the bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Cyriac Joseph ‘
Ironically, the last election manifesto of congress quoted ‘An administrative reforms commission should be established to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public
Administration system completely so as to make it more performance oriented and accountable’.
Divided Election Commission: Fading hopes!!
The Chief Election Commissioner’s recommendation for removal of Election Commissioner , Navin Chawla ahead of the general elections brings to the fore the differences among the three-member body which has often been marred by clashes over crucial decisions. This is the second pillar after the Judiciary that safe guards the democracy. Under the current s rule, The Election commission’s decisions cannot be trusted anymore. Apparently, looks like, that the system has lost its credibility. Whereas, the Election Manifesto of Congress quoted ‘Congress is deeply committed to electoral reforms’. I do not understand how come the last election commissioner became a union minister for youth and sports affairs? Same happens to most of the people occupying the posts of judges and officers who get elevated to Rajya Sabha or as diplomats or get nominated in different government bodies.
Congress is not in favour of Aam Aadmi??? Poor accountability on spending:
The CAG (Comptroller and auditor general) report released on 20th February 2009 said that the centre’s Aam Aadmi Bill was highly inflated. According to CAG, the funds meant for social and infrastructure development were diverted to celebrations and giving aid to NGO’s and other expenditure rather than creating infrastructure.
Remember Rajiv Gandhi saying, out of every rupee meant for the poor only fifteen paisa reaches the common man. This is what the leader of party said, whose family ruled this nation as its fiefdom since the very independence! On 26th April 2009, at Gangtok, Rahul Gandhi went a step further to say now on 15 paisa reaches out of Rs.100. If so is the case, what have the successive governments done!!
We are living at the mercy of the terrorists.
The less we talk the better. This government has failed utterly against terror. We had all kinds of attacks at all the places – Air, Land & Sea. It is not just Kashmir, it is all across. We are totally at the mercy of the terrorists. Successive governments have let the nation down badly. Congress accepted its failure to act against terrorist in the form of sacking the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil. If politicians don’t act fast and decisively on terror, we are readying India for another partition.
Financially, our economy is at its worst:
The fiscal deficit for 2009 would be in around 11 %. The Fiscal deficit budgeted at 2.5 % of the GDP this year, Should end up at 6 %, to which should be added another 1.5 % of the GDP for the off-budget items like dues on oil and fertilizers companies. Throw in another 3.5 % of
GDP of state government deficits and India Should have a consolidated fiscal deficit of 11 % in 2008-9. Remember, during the CITIZENS led NDA, Revenue deficit never crossed 4.5 %. Congress took over an Indian Economy growing at 8 % every year and after five years; we are just a step away from being rated as a ‘Junk status’ under the current policies and misrule with growth numbers less than half of what we had in 2004.
Current policies led to unchecked inflation. Even we are not sure, whether the low inflation numbers we see today are correct or cooked up. Economy is sliding day by day. Companies are getting into voluntary shut downs, expected job losses till March 09 have crossed two crore. Last Election manifesto of Congress reiterated “its firm commitment to eliminating the revenue deficit of the central government in five years time” & actually gave India the worst ever revenue deficit since its independence . According to S&P’s ( Standard & Poor’s ratings ) , India’s fiscal position is unsustainable in the middle term, reduced the outlook on long term debt from stable to negative for four government entities , and , in turn, the UPA government . In the 3rd Week of Feb’ 09, even Fitch ratings had called India’s finances in to question.
Urban Poverty:
According to the ‘India: Urban Poverty Report, 2009′,The poverty in cities is not an overflow of the poverty in villages but has happened because of the faulty nature of urbanization in India, says the country’s first report on Urban Poverty released in Feb,09. According to the study, an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalor, crime, disease and tension, but not all slum dwellers exist below the poverty line.
They have been marginalised because of the poor city planning and poorer urban land management and legislation.
The urban poverty was not about only nutritional deficiency but deficiencies in the basic needs of housing, water, sanitation, medical care, education, and opportunity for income generation. As many 81 million or 25.7 per cent people (2004-05) subsist in urban areas on incomes that are below the poverty line. Eighty per cent of their meagre income goes towards paying for food and energy, leaving very little for meeting the cost of living in an increasingly monetised society
Congress Election Manifesto of 2004 quoted ‘The Congress is conscious of the havoc that corruption at all levels ads to the harassment of the common man’.
In fact, sixty years of misrule is a naked, sordid & ruthless saga of Gareebi, Bhrashtachaar and Aantakwaad and not the Roti, Kapda aur Makaan that has just remained a slogan after 60 years of rule.
Overall, the governments have failed on all fronts. What all we see as growth is incremental growth that happens on its own. . We have totally forgotten the sacrifices of our freedom fighters. We are at loss of words to express our anguish to forget Bhagat Singh
, Neta ji and Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Maulana Azad and others as well who contributed to India’s freedom struggle.
Sixty years of misrule has certainly achieved one thing; ethics has been eroded in politics and no one trusts a politician. Citizens should be committed to change this by participating actively in bringing about this change and creating an India for the common man. Criticism alone does not work; we need a solution oriented approach even from the opposition. We must support the current government. Though, in the current elections and the new government, we don’t have the actual representation of the common man. All that we see as next generation leaders are the second generation leaders of the existing politicians. Though, there have been some bold statements by Rahul Gandhi for reorganising the congress. Which has been unheard of from the Gandhi clan till now, but still we need to see watch closely what Rahul does going forward. It should not remain just rhetoric. I hope that the congress does not repeat the score card that it had in 2004-2009. The good part is that congress has a clear majority to implement the key plans. Following is Congress scorecard based on the last manifesto.
Congress Scorecard 2004-2009.
This is taken from the congress manifesto for 2004-2009. Reality is shocking.
No. Key Result areas What Congress promised in the last Manifesto What it did
1 Agriculture Annual growth of less than 4-4.5 % is unacceptable Agriculture Growth in Q3 2008-09 is Negative -2.2 %
2 Intensive agricultural development program Should be started in 100 districts ???
3 Farmers insurance Farm insurance schemes for both crops and cattle Should be implemented ???
4 Employment Accelerate employment Generation More than 2 Crores jobs lost till March 2009
5 Fiscal Policy Committed to eliminating the revenue deficit of central govt. By 2009 In Feb 09, the revenue deficit reached at 11.4 % , highest ever since Independence
6 Growth Growth of below 10 % in industry is simply unacceptable Growth figures in Q3 2008-09 was around 5.3 %
7 Education To spend 6 % of GDP and set up Education Development Finance Corporation ???
8 Khadi & Village Industries to be modernised ???
9 Block level Establish at least one industrial training institute in each development block of the country ???
10 Annual Rozgar report To be released every 1st May ???
11 A great thrust on Exports of textiles , handicrafts , Gems & Jewellery , leather , software & engineering Painful slowdown in all this sectors and the government is clueless on what to do? Units are shutting down and much more than one crore people are expected to be out of Job by March end in these sectors
12 Farm labour Ensure the fullest implementation of wage laws for farm labour ???
13 Landless Congress to Redouble its efforts to distribute surplus productive land to the landless ???
14 Women Congress pledges to press for the constitutional amendment to reserve one third of seats in Lok Sabha and in Vidhan Sabha’s for Women ???
15 Healthcare Congress Should raise public spending on healthcare to at least 2-3 % of GDP ???
16 Reservation Congress pledges to extend reservations for the economically deprived persons belonging to communities that are at present not entitled to such reservations ???
17 Weavers & artisans New middle level technical institutions Should be started in places where for example weavers and artisans are concentrated ???
18 Food scarce areas Grain Banks in chronically food scarce areas Should be started ???
19 Girl Child Nutrition program for the girl child particularly Should be expanded on a significant scale ???
20 Organised , Informal & Unorganised sector
Urban Poor Every initiative Should must and Should be taken to expand the proportion of employment in the organised sector, congress Should ensure the well being and welfare of all workers in unorganized sector Only job losses have been reported in the last few years in all these sectors and Congress has remained a silent spectator
21 Congress to establish a National Commission to examine problems facing enterprises operating in the unorganised sector ???
22 A national fund Should be created ???
23 A single , simplified law Should be enacted to set out the obligations of these enterprises to labour and for safety ???
24 Congress Should create legal space in towns and cities for hawkers , vendors , food sellers etc……so that they are spared the risk of extortion , eviction, confiscation and harassment ???
25 Social housing schemes Should be launched to meet the needs of the urban poor ???
26 Security of the nation Congress Should strengthen the intelligence network Most gruesome 19 attacks. A record of 63 blasts in 35 days. Assam, Oct 30, 2008 – 63 people killed, Imphal , Oct 21, 2008 – 17 people killed , New Delhi, Sept 13 , 2008- 26 people killed, New Delhi, Sept 27, 2008 – Three people Killed , Ahmedabad , July 26, 2008 – 57 people killed after 20 bombs went off in two hours, Bangalore , July 25, 2008 – One person killed, Jaipur, May 13, 2008 – 68 people killed in serial bombings, Faizabad , November 23, 2007- 15 people killed in Court bombings, Hyderabad , August 25,2007- 42 people killed in two blasts, Samjhauta Express , Feb 19, 2007- 66 people killed , Malegaon , Sept 8, 2006- 40 people killed in two blasts, Mumbai , July 11, 2006 – 209 people killed in seven blasts on sub-urban trains – the lifeline of Mumbai , Varanasi , March 7, 2006- 21 people killed in three blasts including one at the temple and another at the crowded railway station, New Delhi, Oct 29, 2005- 61 people killed in three blasts on the eve of Diwali
27 Judiciary Immediate measures Should be taken to drastically cut delays in courts , particularly in the high court’s and in lower levels of judiciary On Feb 6, 2009, the Supreme court said that, the Criminal justice system has collapsed… A Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam also said that the lower judiciary had decayed. “The courts of magistrate and munsif have ceased to be an option for the common man,” the Bench said and compared the lower courts to ill-equipped and ill-staffed public health centres (PHCs) in rural areas
28 Manufacturing Sector Congress Should establish a National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council ???
29 Yearly report card – Jan Dastavejh Every year on October 2nd , the congress pledges to present to the people of India a Jan Dastavejh on the progress of the implementation of the manifesto ???
India Today:
India is a land of a billion talented brains. Over the last 62 years, we have proven to the world of our people’s strong determination and capabilities. We are blessed with a rich cultural heritage, natural resources, intellectual capital; world’s best human resources and our ability endure everything & still reach the moon! No wonder, the world looks upon us for the best people. There has been a lack of direction and right atmosphere at home. This has led to brutal crushing of our talent and enormous wastage of our resources. We have contributed to the whole world. But at home, we remain a frustrated population & a struggling nation. Today, we stand at the cross roads to take stock of what did we achieve in the last 62 years of freedom from the foreign rule? Why we were never allowed to flourish and how we can end this?
Time has come: It is the worst crisis ever!
Friends, we can keep hoping things should change and sit back. But honestly, we cannot afford to lose time. We either participate and change or let it go. Time and again, it has been proven that, common man has not participated in nation building via elections. How can 1.03 billion people not wake up when 500+ people are taking them for a ride? Don’t frustrate yourself. Till undemocratic politicians remain at the helm of affairs, nothing can be expected. This is not about an election but our determination to participate and change the nation; it is the question of changing the destiny of this nation going forward. It is not just an appeal to politicians, but to all who wish to see a different India, an India which stands tall above all.
Y-our agenda
All have equally been suffers to the same atrocities and misrule of the political class. Let’s pledge for a better India, a country where a common man has a say, and it addresses the issues that you want to be addressed. This is how we can transform this Nation. All of you are hoping that things will change on their own. But the fact remains, that hope is not a
Strategy. The ruling government will look into this .We say our agenda is nothing but your agenda. Our priority and path is summed up below in YES, REAL Development
Priority areas. (YES) Youth, Economy & Security
(REAL) Development – Rural , Education , Agriculture & Livelihood
Food , Clothing , Clean water and Healthcare for the Common Man
Government needs to immediately attend on our national plan of action to bring about a reform process that starts with addressing the urgent and important issues related to youth, as youth is a ‘Golden Demographic advantage’, with a special focus on empowering women . Women power alone have the strength to change the nation !Putting overall economic development mechanism leading to creating an equitable allocation of resources aimed at creation & distribution of wealth in both rural and urban India , agriculture & non-agriculture , manual & Hi-tech, small scale and large scale industries and aim at security -social , Economic and military ,with the base focus of ensuring Food , Clothing and Healthcare to the common man. The government must earmark 60 % of the plan funds for and effect public investments in REAL development – Rural , Education Agriculture and Livelihood generation .
Economic Development – There is a difference in Economic growth and economic development. Economic growth is purely GDP but economic development is a broader concept that includes not just GDP but also indicators like social justice , income distribution, political freedom, pollution , Equality of income …………GDP captures average national income , but do not reflect how that income is spent.. Even increase in aids and cancer incidences in the country Should add to the GDP expenditure on health services , Also, calamity Should lead to the increase in GDP due to increase in reconstruction activities. Moreover, GDP growth rate is inadequate measure of growth as it is calculated largely on the basis of rate of growth of income of the upper 20-30 % of the population who receive disproportionately large share of income. It calculates only money transactions and leaves many important activities and social measures and conditions like adult literacy rate, life expectancy and HDI rank. The government must move towards transforming the Ministry of finance to economic development so that the real effect of the economic measures can be validated against the goals. There are three sources of growth for an economy, increase in capital, and increase in labour force, and improvement in productivity, Government should impact all the three in its pursuit to make India a stronger nation
Key issues
1. An Equitable, sustainable and stable growth environment needs to be created. The current policies of the government have brought the economy back to its knees.
2. Jobs need to be retained and a massive push is required for employment generation in retail, education, agriculture, Healthcare, infrastructure, Education, technology and tourism sectors on a war footing.
3. IT & BPO sector is under stress , and the current government must create opportunities within the nation to keep up the growth in the sector
4. Vocational training and re-skilling needs to be taken up on war footing to keep the momentum in job generation and growth at all levels in the job hierarchies
5. Agriculture needs new impetus as more than 65 % of our population is dependent on agriculture. More value has to be added to agriculture to increase the productivity and profitability
6. Communication is the key to growth and the government should strive to reduce the tele-communication cost by 90 %.
7. Security of the nation needs a total re-look with a action oriented approach and need to make this system more result oriented and accountable & more freedom be provided to operate without any political interference . A zero-tolerance policy on terrorism should be enacted. Defence forces need a booster.
8. SME sector needs a fresh vigour to make India a developed country. The current government must take all necessary steps to achieve this goal with priority and equal thrust
9. Rural India needs a completely new focus. Despite all tall claims in the last six decades, rural India still remains underserved, underfunded and an outdated system.
10. Judiciary needs to be ramped up to restore faith in the law and order
11. Innovation , entrepreneurship and new emerging opportunities Should be attended in a focussed manner
Solution:
We have failed as a nation. Today the country is facing a severe crisis. People are losing jobs by every hour, faith every kilometre and hope every day. Rising stock market does not raise the GDP of a nation, and this, the leaders must understand. We must do a quick fix for this economy but work out a short term and a long term solution for the economy and society. The mistake every government has done is to address the economic issues without including the social perspective
The detailed road map and action areas are as follows.
Youth and Women empowerment:
• There are 34.8 crore youth in the age group of 15-34 years. Of these, about 10 crore are in the 15-19 years of age. Of these, 7 crore are rural and 3 crore are urban. Of the urban youth, more than one crore are living in large cosmopolitan towns and the more than one crore are living in small town’s less than one lakh. Of the 3 crore urban youths, only 1.3 crore youths have completed their matriculation or higher secondary. These youth need to be guided & incentivised to study and undergo compulsory vocational and on the job learning. They should be a priority area for forming the policy on ‘Earn while you learn’ program.
• Another 24.8 Crore youth are in the economically active age group of 20-34 years. Amongst these 7.6 crore are in urban areas, more than a third of them in small towns of less than one lakh. Only 3.6 crore of the 7.6 crore have studied till matriculation or above. And there are only 1.3 crore graduates. If we count total number of young graduates (Urban & Rural). It should add up to 2 crore.
• These youth of this country are talented and responsible but lack the right guidance, skills and opportunities to tap their potential. The current government must immediately address the issue and how to channelize the power of youth by providing them suitable employment opportunities. Education today is lacking monetary value and the goal would be to ensure that educated people don’t sit idle. Special schemes for women education and empowerment should be launched within six months. Special scholarships aimed at promoting higher education and entrepreneurship in women should be introduced. The government must make the conditions conducive and bring up laws to introduce ‘Earn while you learn’ scheme for employing students to do part time government jobs in shifts.
• The government must work out a policy to allot government tenders wherever feasible, to only unemployed / employed youths limited to running or operating different facilities or housekeeping in government establishments thereby, throwing open 10, 00000 of jobs across to the first timers.
• The hawking zones must be set up with vendors getting legal status to ensure that they have a source of livelihood on prominent public places where the foot falls are high and can create income for people and also serve the public. This should once and for all end corruption and harassment of small business owners. This should create at least 1 crore vendors who can legally earn their livelihood by servicing the needs of the common man in urban and semi urban areas.
• Government must do its best to start reservation in jobs for people from economically weaker sections of the society, eunuchs and especially for orphans. If one is born handicapped or becomes an orphan ,does it mean that government leaves them at the
Mercy of the creator? It is a matter of real shame for the all the governments whether BJP or Congress that no one has taken any steps to give reservation for such children
• Academic and research institutes must also act as incubation centres for meritorious students and , as a norm , Government must make the framework to absorb 1 % of the best brains to be absorbed in the mentoring at the incubation centres. These incubation centres must be funded by the ‘National Innovation & Incubation Bank program’ which should be set up
• Gross enrolment ratio in higher education stands at 11 %. World average is 23 %. Government must put in all efforts to reach the world average in the next four years.
• SHG – Self help groups (Swabhimaan Plan) must be launched in the next six months at the taluka level. Government must form a frame work to organize women self help groups at block level for making them financially independent, and at the same time serve the society by different tie ups from corporates and government. The group must offer services exclusively and not through other channels to ensure success and self sufficiency. The government must create 50,000 SHG’s every year. This should create employment for 1-2 crore women across the country. Same should be applicable to unemployed youth. Government must give a formal legal frame work to SHG’s. A suitable law enabling micro-credit operations and nurturing them to be scaled up must be enacted.
• The government must also encourage & impress upon various corporates and government offices to give special lower rates to students for different products and services which should be 30-50 % lower than the normal market rates like telecom ,hard ware , travel etc.
• Special girls hostels and working women hostels should be established in every town
• Youth hostels should be set up on railway premises which should make cheap accommodation available to students travelling to various towns at actual costs. This Should create employment for 100000 people in the next five years
• 40 Technical institutes especially for women should be set up. 10 in each zone.
• NSS & NCC should be made more broad based & integral part of curricula for people to get involved on a compulsory basis during schooling, understand the rural set up, and also contribute to the development of the same via the NSS / NCC.
Employment Generation from Different initiatives
No. Initiative Total number of jobs generated
1 House-keeping and in house service tenders for youth 10 Lac
2 Legalization of Vendors 1 Crore
3 Self Help Groups for Women 1-2 Crore
4 Youth Hostels 1 Lac
5 Khadi & Village Industries –KVIC
For weavers, Handloom workers etc. 10 Lac direct
50 lac indirect
6 E-Governance , SMART Districts 50 Lac direct
25 Lac indirect
7 SME 2 Crore
8 Government jobs like Police force , Judiciary etc 6 Lac
9 Vocational Training Institutions 1 Lac
10 SOFZ –Special Organic farming & Food processing 10 Lac
11 Local manufacturing units of Global tender suppliers 1 Crore
12 Healthcare 30 Lac Direct
20 Lac Indirect
13 New Townships 25 Lac
15 Tourism 1 crore
16 Energy Sector 10 Lac
17 Yoga , Meditation and Sports centres 1 Lac
18 N.E. Region 5 Lac
19 Cooperative organizations 10 Lac
20 Electricity Meters 10 Lac
21 Post & Telegraph 10 Lac
Organised -Unorganised Sector: According to Sen Gupta report, in 2005, the total employment in Indian economy was 45.7 Crore. Of which, the unorganized sector accounted for 39.5 crore, or 86 percent. This unorganised sector has reduced the poverty by lifting people above the poverty line. The report also mentioned about the socio economic plight of workers from unorganised sectors. Low level of education and poor access to land denies workers access to good jobs in organised sectors.
Commission also found that 40-50 % of the men and 81-87 % of women get wages below the standard minimum wages
The government must commit to radical changes in the handling of this sector that is crucial as we not only need to create more employment opportunities but also create fair payment systems to these 45.7 crore population .
Urbanization of rural areas: This must aim not just to connect rural hinterlands to the urban belts but to provide the basics of urban India all across the country. The goal should be that in the next 10 years, there should be one India and rural world should cease to exist. PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural areas) would be the thrust area of government
• Education, healthcare and infrastructure should be available within every five kilometres across the nation. Clean water and electricity in rural areas should be a top priority. Clean water is a must for rural areas as it causes 80 % of all diseases and ailments.
• Sanitation: 67 % of the rural population and 22 % of urban population has no access to toilets. This should be addressed in the next five years
• Help should be just a call away. The government should set up toll free numbers for connecting with the rural brethren in the times of need. Government must set up Private public partnerships to make this viable model giving the PPP a matchless opportunity in urban and rural India together. Government must evolve a framework so that no urban PPP contract should be allotted without a rural service clause. So urban and rural India should grow together.
• Further, the Golden Corridor project should be completed quickly. Now we need to add a new dimension by identifying and starting townships or economic hubs along the entire corridor
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) movement should be upgraded with better technology and the product portfolio should be extended to increase employment in rural areas. Weaver community, Power loom, hand loom, handicrafts and other untapped opportunities must be added to KVIC that is passing through hard times. Government may issue guidelines to the government staff to buy a quota of the official dresses from Khadi and Gram Udhyog to ensure the profitability of the sector. KVIC must be franchised to educated youth across the country in small and medium formats financed by the National Youth Bank .Handloom exports should be increased from today’s Rs.3000 Cr+ to Rs.10, 000 crore in the next five years. India’s strength in being the largest yarn producer should be innovatively harnessed. ‘Khadi’ as a brand should be globally positioned. All this is likely create employment for 100,0000 youth
Retail trade & Shopkeepers community- Retail is a big employer. According to RAI – Retailer Association of India, the Retail sector is estimated to be Rs.130000000000000.00 (Rs. 13 Lac Crore). There are 12 million retailers in the country. Every 200 Sq.feet of retail space employs one person, Specialty retail employs four people per 100 sq.ft and Hypermarkets employs one person per 300 Sq.ft. and these twelve million retailers actually support at least 8 times the same number in the associated industries like marketing , advertising ,logistics , house-keeping , packaging etc…
• Government must look at giving industry status to retail
• The entire thrust should be to get the best practices from all over the world for making the domestic retailers globally competitive and protect the domestic retailers
• The government must promote modern trade and set up a single window for clearance to ensure smoother functioning of retail. According to a 2003 study, a new shop needed, on average, 15 licenses from 11 government bodies and securing them took an average of six months and cost up to 500,000 rupees.
• Incentives Should be in place to set up world class supply chain infrastructure
In the matter of consumer articles of daily necessity, it is observed that despite adequate supplies available in the States, movement of goods from one state to another is still restricted. This policy, apart from creating artificial scarcity in some States also leads to rise in prices prejudicial to the interest of consumer. Harassment is also caused to traders on account of setup of Check Posts and barriers besides technical formalities of Road Permit and entry forms etc. The government must ensure that there is no barrier to the free movement of goods. System of entry forms & check post should be abolished. Time has come to withdraw, amend or drastically restructure all laws to facilitate smooth inter-state and intra-state trade, which is a prerequisite for a strong domestic market. Formation of ‘Trade Review Commission’ to look into, review and suggest measures to help make the environment conducive to traders and consumers
E-Governance – Today the world over, the public is becoming literate. Mobile phones are becoming the first computer. The mobile connections in India are close to 400 million. The density of mobiles has reached almost 40 %. It is high time that E-governance now converge to the next level in E-Governance. With 3G becoming a reality, the government should move closer to the public.
I believe more the number of offices to visit; more are the opportunity for corruption and bribes. SMART District program should eliminate the harassment of the common man. He / she would not require at all visiting multiple government offices but having a single window nearer to his home
• By issuing digital ID cards and also enable futuristic technologies that can be used to connect to the government departments via mobile and get the basic work done. Why should a citizen visit a government office unless necessary! If at all one needs to, the SMART District kiosks should be the first point to procure all forms, government records etc.
• Government must launch ‘SMART Districts’ program and set up government service kiosks across till the block level. People should go through these kiosks and not to offices to get the work done, so that they don’t even meet the officers, forget paying bribes to get a small certificate.
• These kiosks should only be awarded to economically weaker sections of all societies & unemployed youth. The government must plan to open about 10,000,00 Kiosks in the next 3 years employing at least 50 Lac youths who can read and write . Besides, the setting of the Kiosks should throw open another opportunities for at least 25 lac jobs. IT sector that is passing under a painful period should be used for domestic requirement. So that we can counter global slowdown with inward looking policy. Some of the services like government forms & collection of bills, Photo copy, and fax, STD / ISD should be serviced through these kiosks to ensure relevance and viability. Half of these Kiosks should be exclusively reserved for women. Who might find it convenient to work nearer to their homes?
• E-governance should also make government records digitalised and accessible to citizens without hassles today, people fear treading into a police station or a government office. Mechanism should be set in place to ensure accessibility nearer to the community. All government related permissions and works must become time bound, so that people should not have to wait indefinitely for a petty job to be done in the government office.
SME: Globally SME’s contribute more than 90 % to the manufacturing output in the developed world. In India, it is just 39 % and employ 1.3 crore people.
• The guidelines for units should be re-considered. Eligibility for SME’s should be revised upwards and re-worked to a limit of Rs. 5 Crore or more
• Government must pass strict guidelines to PSU’s to clear the payment due to SME’s within 30 days of the work being done or levy the market interest rates as penalty
• Government must seriously consider that a portion of the store purchases in defence and railways be reserved exclusively for SME’s
• Government must check the feasibility of exemption of earnest money and deposit security for SME when applying for government tenders
• The Government must revisit the criteria to be considered for audit limit as set up in 1984 from Rs.40 lac to Rs. 1 Crore.
• TDS process for SME’s should be revisited and re-looked
• More incentives should be granted for the SME with the goal to make SME sector contribute to more than 75 % of the total manufacturing output in the next 5 years.
• SSI Bases SEZ’s should be considered for every state. More so, near to the ports.
• A separate bank dedicated to serve the needs of SME (National SME Bank) should be considered. Besides introducing a national level institute that should special in SSI education leading to a BBA / MBA in SME.
• The Government must strive to create SME’s employing only women. There should be 25 SME’s in each zone ( North , East , West & South India ) fully funded by the ‘Progressive India venture fund’ set up to promote Women and youth empowerment . . All these efforts from the government Should lead to creation of atleast two crore jobs in the next five years
Police reforms, National Security & Terrorism: Lapses in National security has cost countless lives & we are at the mercy of terrorists today. Lawlessness is a norm and ordinary people to high and mighty are the victims in one form or another. Years ago, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had spoke about the fact, that Terrorism is not limited to geographies. We are under the evil shadow of lawlessness and terrorism and we should have to fight it out and finish it off. I have met up with people personally in North Eastern part of the country. If we fail to take immediate steps, country should be partitioned again soon. Assam is becoming a hot bed of Bangladeshi immigrants. AUDF is getting stronger only banking on Muslim votes of immigrant Bangladeshi’s. This has to end with a stern hand from the center.
It is glaring to note that;
• Last five years witnessed the most gruesome 19 attacks. A record of 63 blasts in 35 days. Assam, Oct 30, 2008 – 63 people killed, Imphal , Oct 21, 2008 – 17 people killed , New Delhi, Sept 13 , 2008- 26 people killed, New Delhi, Sept 27, 2008 – Three people Killed , Ahmedabad , July 26, 2008 – 57 people killed after 20 bombs went off in two hours, Bangalore , July 25, 2008 – One person killed, Jaipur, May 13, 2008 – 68 people killed in serial bombings, Faizabad , November 23, 2007- 15 people killed in Court bombings, Hyderabad , August 25,2007- 42 people killed in two blasts, Samjhauta Express , Feb 19, 2007- 66 people killed , Malegaon , Sept 8, 2006- 40 people killed in two blasts, Mumbai ,
July 11, 2006 – 209 people killed in seven blasts on sub-urban trains – the lifeline of Mumbai, Varanasi, March 7, 2006- 21 people killed in three blasts including one at the temple and another at the crowded railway station, New Delhi, Oct 29, 2005- 61 people killed in three blasts on the eve of Diwali
• The tribunal reviewing the ban on SIMI threw out the Government’s case because of the shoddy preparations and argued half heartedly. This is despite the fact , that SIMI activists have been behind the blasts in India
• Speedy trail of parliament attack was a deterrent to terrorists. There has been a failure of the government in its ability to understand and tackle terrorism.
• Today, India faces multiple threats to internal security from separatists in North East, Jammu & Kashmir; Maoists in 156 districts in 13 states; and Jehadis and terrorist sleeper cells all across the country.
• Prime Minister defined Maoists as the ‘Single largest threat to India’s internal security’. But did nothing beyond that. We need to take them heads on and throw them out.
• There is a strategically planned infiltration of Bangladeshis and Pakistan’s from Bangladesh’s borders.
• There has been no successful prosecution of terrorists in the last five years under the existing laws. On the contrary, Prime Minister equated Pakistan as a victim of terrorism. Whereas, Pakistan is the considered the most notorious nation and the cause and creator of global terrorism. We must declare Pakistan as a terrorist nation. Why wait for USA or UN to do that. We don’t need any proof.
The government must work on the possibility of the half yearly defence review to ensure the security, territorial integrity and unity of India. I mean it, when I say; we must take all necessary steps and exercise all available options in the interest of the nation.
• National security establishment should be well equipped with latest intelligence gathering techniques
• Super surveillance should be set up for checking ‘porous borders’ to avoid infiltration. Fencing of Bangladesh and Pakistan borders or equivalent measures should be taken
• NSG should be stationed in four zones in the country with their own fleet to reach any spot within 3 hours across the nation
• Special toll free number 2611 should be dedicated for complaints and information relation to terrorist activities. 2611 is in the memory of attacks that happened at Mumbai on 26 /11/08
• Special courts should be set up to try cases related to terrorism. Parliament attack convict should be hanged immediately
• The government must pledge to enact stringent legislation to combat terrorism. The New anti-terrorism act must incorporate measures recommended by the recent Administrative Reforms Commission and U.N. Resolution no.1373 on the subject
• The government must take effective steps for scrutiny, detection and repatriation of all illegal migrants from the country
• Defence must be re-looked and reinvigorated with a new vision. The goal should be to make India develop its own defence R&D and manufacturing capabilities and reduce the dependence on foreign procurement.
• By 2030, India should not procure rather supply arms and ammunitions to the world at cheapest prices. The automatic surveillance systems would be installed on all borders. India Should start the R&D center at Futuristic Weapon technology institute
The government must take all measures to ensure a better functioning of the police force & National security. Today, India has one police personnel for every 10,000 population this needs to be attended as it is crucial for a safe society and prerequisite to economic development.
• Police and armed forces should be equipped with latest ammunitions
• IT enabled, citizen centric police system should be put in place in the next two years. One of the ways it can change your experience is, that you can register a complaint anywhere and get it transferred online to the area of its jurisdiction automatically – Why should the victim run from pillar to post to lodge an FIR just to figure out the area of jurisdiction for registering an FIR? Functional and infrastructure reforms should be done ASAP
• National biometric Identity cards should l be issued to avoid infiltration and check extremists
• Watch your community program should be initiated at every community level to check any suspicious activities and people.
Education and vocational training. Educational goals should start with the basic premise that every child should go to school, every school must impart meaningful education, and everyone who is educated gets employment. One of the systemic failures has been the collapse of the education system. Once we had the Nalanda’s and Vikramshila’s of the world. Australia has 400,000 foreign students, Dubai has 50,000 and India has 27000! Today, people are going abroad to study. We need to reverse back this trend and start centres on the lines of Nalanda’s and Vikramshila’s again. I believe that six decades after independence is a time gap sufficient to review the educational system. We must re-look and envision the new education system keeping in mind that ‘Education and training is the fundamental right that should not just create employment & income for Indians, but also shape their character’. It is glaring to note that 2/3rd of our universities
And ninety percent of the colleges are said to be functioning at a ‘Below average level’. Further, with regard to the higher education, the National Knowledge Commission in 2006 stated that the participation rate of the population in the age group 18-23 is only around 7 percent. It is far below the developed countries and is only one-half of the average for Asia
• The government must strive its best to raise the level of the education system & appoint a National Commission of Education to formulate the new national policy for Education. Capacity building should be one of its major responsibilities .Today, degrees are being scattered and there is not much value attached to this, the same must be addressed. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan must be strengthened and the Mid-day meal scheme be improvised
• The government must operationalise the constitutional amendment of Education as Fundamental right. The promised allocation of the GDP percentage should be strictly adhered to
• Capacity building should be one major thrust area
• There are 2800 diverse trades in India; each requires sound domain knowledge and good skills. Vocational course loans must be started for students undergoing a vocational training without any guarantee.
• In the next five years, we must set up and upgrade at least 25 world class universities across India. This Should transform our AIIMS to IIMS ( International Institute of Medical Sciences ) , IIM’s to ( International Institute of Management) , IIT’s to IIT’S ( International Institute of Technology ) to raise the bar and position them as Global institutes of excellence and research. We must upgrade the REC’s , RMC’s and Regional Management Institutions to the level of IIT’s , IIM’s & AIIMS to ensure that people don’t have to wait & forego education despite talent due to lack of seats
• The focus should also go beyond IIT / IIM’s. The government must set up four International Institutes of Nano Technology (IINT) one in each zone (north, east, west, and south).
• More importantly, government must set up 100,000 vocational training institutes across the nation and this itself should generate employment opportunities for 1 crore people directly as staff of these training institutes. Provision must be made for certification of skills acquired traditionally or through private initiatives.
• The government must set up National Skills Development Authority to oversee the requirements for various skills in different regions from time to time
• The government must dedicate four International centres of excellence and innovation for low cost technologies in all four zones across the nation.
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• Scientists working in all R&D labs must co-own the patents so as to reap the monetary benefits of commercialization of such patents. This Should be a big incentive for getting the scientists back to India
Cultivation & Agriculture (IEC- Irrigation, Electricity & Credit) –
Everything else can wait but not agriculture – Jawaharlal Lal Nehru
Food is an important weapon in our arsenal. We can use it for bargaining – U.S. Under Secretary
I believe that this Nation is a nation of ‘Rishi’ and ‘Krishi’.
Agriculture must remain the basic fundamental of our economic strength and core focus of our plans. More than 80 % of the farms are smaller than 5 acres. Moreover, between 1971 -96 the average size of the farms have reduced from 2.3 to 1.4 acres. The input costs have risen dramatically and the cost of living in rural areas have gone up substantially adding to this, are the high cost of loans thus making agriculture unviable for most the farmers . Agriculture needs to grow at 4 % for the economy to grow at 9 %. Currently, it is under negative growth as per the Q3 2008-09 estimated at – 2 %. I believe that there are four prerequisites for a good yield, profitable prices, availability of Irrigation, Electricity and timely credit besides,
• Currently, Governments investment in agriculture is miniscule 0.5 % of GDP. This must be increased to 5 % over the next five years.
• Agriculture must be supplemented by Seri-Culture, Animal husbandry & Poultry, Fisheries, horticulture, Floriculture, Diary and cattle breeding to enhance the income of farmers. There should be special attention in framing the micro policies for the rural sector empowerment and growth.
• Agricultural profitability needs to be addressed by providing newer techniques, higher yield varieties and new farm practices like organic farming.
• Setting of SOFZ – Special Organic Farming zones on the lines of SEZ. At present only 8000 Organic farming exists in India employing 30000 farmers. World over, the use of organic foods is on the rise. Countries like Europe, North and South America, Finland, Canada, Denmark and Sweden have a great demand for organic food. It is expected, that the world market for Organic food would be between 35-40 Billion US Dollars (175000 -200000 Crore rupees). The Organic farming revolution has to spread swiftly and the government must set up a special Task force to oversee the growth of organic farming. The processed organic foods , Should provide employment to atleast 100,0000 people
• MSP- Minimum Support Price for agriculture produce must be fixed on as recommended by the National Farmer’s Commission .i.e. 50 % profit over the cost of production. But this
Should not be the right approach, unless the correct parameters for fixing the cost of production are arrived at like the notional cost of land, labour, opportunity loss.
• Direct Selling direct to customers to get better price for their yield
• Food processing of the agriculture produce. Today food processing is below 3 % of the value of our agriculture produce. The action plan must be set up in place to increase this to 10 percent within 5 years. This should lead to the creation of another 25 lac jobs. The foremost task of food processing in India is to reduce the distance between production and processing points.
• Farm credit based on average yield for five years need to be worked out and rolled out at the earliest.
• Focussed steps must be taken to better irrigation facilities and promote rain water harvesting at every Panchayat level.
• Nationwide irrigation program ‘varsha’ must be launched
• A “National Farmers and Micro credit bank” must be established to cater to the needs of Agriculture sector should be set up.
• A technology up gradation team should be set up with concrete time bound goals to bring modern farming and food processing techniques to India and spread them all across for increasing the output and decrease loss of crops.
• Agriculture and food processing ministry must be merged into one.
• A case study approach should be the responsibility of the government to improve the conditions in the sector.
• The union government must set up a National Agriculture Improvement Centre with branches in all five zones to cater to the farmers for their specific issues.
• The farmer’s development council must be set up in each state with set goals for improvement and implementation of plans.
• Farmers must be connected to technology & cold storage hubs for easy access of information
• Plan would be in place to give credit to farmers based on the credit rating based on the last five years produce. This should be simple and transparent process.
• The small farmers should be entitled to interest free credit for one year.
• For irrigation the government must launch ‘More crops per drop’ campaign to encourage drip irrigation to increase the yield per hectare.
• SHG should be extended to the female members of the farmer’s family to increase the income of the family.
• Each district should have a Chief Agriculture & Irrigation officer to oversee and proactively support the farmers in the district.
• Agriculture focus should be micro managed with special departments under the ministry to oversee , vegetable production, cash crops, Wheat and rice, Pulses, organic farming , Agro food processing
• Agriculture labourers need to be paid on hourly basis
• The government must create in four regions special zones for manufacturing Agriculture implements. For implements not manufactured in India , they can be imported without duty
• Coconut, Palm, Coir and rubber boards should be established in Tamilnadu and Assam.
• Namakkal is the main center in Tamilnadu for supply of Eggs to other states and foreign markets. A central Poultry research center should be established in Namakkal.
• National River interlinking project can only address the issue of floods and draught and the government must implement it without fail so that the dependence on weather Gods becomes a little less.
Transport: India needs cheaper, faster and safer connectivity to smaller towns and between smaller towns to bigger towns. Students, women cannot be travelling with the office goers and vice versa.
• Government must ensure that women, students & office goers have separate buses and trains in towns where and when they need most. The same must apply for handicapped category. The life becomes mechanical spending hours of daily travel in jam packed and suffocating environment. Government must try addressing this issue on priority basis. An average Indian suffers most of the health problems not because of work but because of the poor conditions to travel to work. Government should seriously address this issue to make life and India better. Mumbai locals should be started for students and more ladies special trains should be started. Same should be applicable to other towns
• Government should also work with the state governments on a plan to upgrade the hand cart rickshaws to peddle rickshaws, peddle rickshaws to electric or fuel driven tempos
• Those with old taxis should be given tax breaks and low interest loans to upgrade to fuel efficient cars as taxis. Most of the towns have yellow and black taxis. The government must
Take all possible steps to modernise them for better earning opportunities and comfort of the travellers.
• India needs also needs better airports. But despite newer airports, the congestion has gone up and so have the congestion tax and other taxes and also the risk associated with air accidents. Government must work out better conditions and value for people who spend a lot of money on air travel.
Banking & Finance: is the core to India’s growth story. Government must look to start a few innovative banking initiatives besides strengthening the existing banking and finance sector.
• Government must look at a National Students Bank. Which should be managed majorly by the student’s community and work for providing new opportunities to unleash the creative power of the educated youth and harness the entrepreneurial instincts of students? This bank should work closely with the incubation centres established in various educational and research institutes
• The role of development banks and financial institutions should be enlarged to provide necessary funds for the projects critical to the achieve 8- 10 % growth rate.
• The following new banks Should be set up
No. Bank Sector
1 National Innovation & Incubation Bank Researchers & Entrepreneurs out of Universities and colleges
2 National SME Bank SME
3 National Farmers & Micro Credit Bank Farmers and farm related heads
4 National Students Bank Managed & run by students for their needs
Judiciary. The United Nations Development Program says some 20 million legal cases are pending in India. The High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its work that it could take up to 466 years to clear the enormous backlog, the court’s chief justice said in a damning report that illustrates the decrepitude of India’s judicial system. Chief Justice A.P. Shah of Delhi high court said in the report that “it would take the court approximately 466 years” to clear the pending 2,300 criminal appeals cases alone. Independence of judiciary does not mean that it is not accountable to the people, the ultimate sovereign
• Government should take this as a top priority to enable speedy judicial system by filling all vacant posts within two years of taking over the government.
• The criteria and system of recruitment of judges needs to be changed
• Also, it should attempt its best to ensure the system is overhauled at the earliest possible.
• Digitalization of records should be taken up
• Witness protection plan should be worked out
• Whistleblower bills Should be introduced
• Cases related to political and bureaucratic corruption should be tried on a out of turn basis or special courts should be set up for the same
• Civil and Criminal procedure codes which are over hundred years old should be suitably amended for speedy justice
• Family courts and fast track courts to be increased.
• Alternative dispute redressal mechanisms though Lok Adalats and tribunals must be expanded and strengthened
• Government must ensure that a corpus is created to an amount of Rs.5000 Crores to modernise the infrastructure of court rooms with proper seating arrangement for attendees and lawyers.
• Judicial data should be published every year. This should not only help in reducing delays, but also make the legal system more transparent and accountable to the people, and enhance the image of judiciary in the public eye.
• Government must take all steps to work out a system so that the criminal cases can be disposed within two years and judgement pronounced within two weeks of completion of arguments
• Punishment of economic offence should be made more stringent with imprisonment and exemplary fine
• Jail System should be worked out on ‘top priority’ to prevent over-crowding of Jails
• Judiciary discretion wastes a lot of time. Government should look at introducing guidelines for use of judicial discretion
• For serious offences, the government should work towards speedy justice to restore the faith in the system.
Poverty Alleviation. According to the World Banks release mid 2008, there were 421 million poor below USD 1.25 a day in 1981. Now that number has increased to 456 million in 2005. This clearly shows that the programs of the government have failed to deliver on the socio economic growth. According to several reports, almost 600 million plus people survive on a dollar a day. This is
After 61 years of freedom. The true and sustainable economic development of India is possible when these people become the earning and spending class. No one can stop India that day from becoming an economic super power. I have not seen any government giving a correct solution to create an earning and a spending class out of the 600 million Indians. We can really become a super power if we just focus on this class of people. We need to address the basics
• Government must start programs at the lowest ladder in the society to create self employment opportunities to them and push them out of poverty by providing them FOOD, CLOTHING AND HEALTHCARE. Urban poverty is worse and this is not just an inconvenience to the urban infrastructure but also is a menace to the society, as all evils spring from these slums.
• The government should come out with a time bound policy to phase out slums across India by 2015.
• This must include construction of low cost housing facilities. The government should make laws to make renting easier by providing a strong, simple and easily enforceable legal frame work to protect the interest of both the tenants and the land lords.
New thrust areas for bold actions
Economy of the people, by the people and for the people of this country:
Model envisioned by government must
• Make Indians proud of their products
• Make Indian brands internationally acceptable
• Make India politically and Economically strong so that it can never be ignored in international arena
• Provide adequate levels of consumption
All the programs undertaken by Government Should be guided by one goal,
To provide Food, clean water, Clothing & healthcare for all.
• The Public distribution system must be strengthened to ensure that the people don’t go to bed empty stomach. No matter in which part of the country they stay , they must have access to clean and hygienic drinking water ,
• The khadi and Gram village must be integrated with PDS to provide cheaper garments for all seasons
• Government must work for making primary & secondary healthcare be available within 5 & 10 Kilometres maximum to all across the nation We must be proud of our technology , scientists , competent work force & the Quality of products.
• Government must work towards making this an integral part of all Global tendering processes. Anyone, who qualifies for a tender above 1000 crore needs to have a manufacturing unit in India or set up the plant in India as a precondition to apply for the tender, This is one sure shot way of making India a hub for manufacturing . Also, why we should not derive value locally for the work done for domestic requirements? This Should be passed with taking necessary approvals .This has the potential to create one crore jobs for skilled and educated professionals
Village Republic Scheme (VRS) & BOARD. Till the villages become self sufficient, India can never dream to be a developed nation. This is fundamental to government’s vision. The BOARD (Base organisation for agriculture and rural development) should work alongside Panchayats for making each of the six lac Indian villages self sufficient. The composition of the BOARD Should be of the two local Panchayat members ( One male ,one female ), MLA’s representative , BDO, ASHA, Patwari and two – five members from NSS / NCC / NGO’s / Local Police representative . The BOARD should set the vision and target to make each village self sufficient in every manner in the next three years.
Healthcare – India is sitting on a ticking time bomb when it comes to healthcare. It is now fact the India is infamously moving towards becoming the ‘Diabetic’ and ‘Cardiac’ capital of the world due the highest prevalence of these chronic diseases. Currently ,There is an average of one urban primary health facility for about 150000 urban population, with only 2-4 health workers, There are a total of 22,370 primary health centres functioning across the country, and the shortfall is of 4,833 PHCs, there is a shortage of 2,525 CHCs across the country, 1.5 Lac people get ESRD failure per year. Only 3500 undergo kidney transplants, about 6000 get dialysis, rest die. 2 people die of TB every minute; 1000 every day, 4 million children die due to pneumonia on an annual basis in India, 6 % have access to Ambulance service, and the bed to population ratio is 0.70. Per 1000 population, to reach a 3 bed: 1000 population, India needs 3 lac beds. An average rural Indian walks two Km’s to reach a chemist , 6 Km’s for a blood test and 20 Km’s for a hospital, almost 25 % of all the drugs sold in India are fake or sub standard.
• The GDP spend on healthcare should be doubled by 2014
• Government must take all the necessary steps within its frame work to logically develop the industry with thrust into reduction of duties / levies on medical equipment
• Bringing pharmaceuticals within the health ministry to ensure proper co-ordination
• Focus on preventive diagnostics and chronic care management & geriatric care. This has the potential to save billions of rupees and millions of lives.
• The focus must be on tele-medicine and tele-diagnostics
• Increase rebate on preventive care and not just on health insurance to really benefit the stake holders in the continuum of care. All working class people are entitled to rebate of Rs.15000 for expenses towards medical insurance. The same should be increased to Rs.10, 000 for preventive check-ups and Rs.15000 for medical insurance. This is one major incentive for healthcare sector to grow at a faster rate, and will make it worthwhile for people to invest in the healthcare sector
• I believe that one of the critical areas that need attention is saving lives by Organ transplants. We intend to set up 100 organ transplant centers across the country and start a national registry for donors with proper incentives. 78000 people die on road accidents every year. Even if 25 % donated the organs. It would be a death leading to birth of someone; means adding a new life to someone who needs an eye, liver, heart, kidney transplant. This should be covered under ‘Rebirth’ program started by Government with a lot of incentive to donors
• Healthcare along the roadways and air ambulance services should start for rural India where tertiary and emergency care services are not easily accessible.
• Clean water is one of the pre-requisites for good health and the government should implement a time bound scheme to implement clean water scheme in all Panchayats areas.
• India has to have a world class healthcare infrastructure. Government should work towards making primary healthcare at your doorsteps a reality and emergency care at your call.
• In Next five years, government must ensure that people will not have to travel more than 50 KMS for serious illnesses.
• Government should start 100 institutes of nursing across India. There is a shortage of 32 lac nurses and we should strive to fill this gap.
• Government must work for recruiting 100,0000 health workers to spread information about various chronic diseases and help people to keep fit through information , education and communication.
• The government must enter into PPP to set up 100,000 day care centers across India for minor procedures and immunization. All these should be the nodal centers to issue the Electronic health records and for basic preventive checkups.
• Government should also set up 100,000 chronic care centers across the nation to address the issue of chronic care.
• These initiatives should create about 31 Lac direct jobs & 20 lacs jobs associated indirectly for setting the infrastructure in the healthcare sector in the next three to five years.
• Government should enter into PPP for low cost healthcare model to drive healthcare nearer to the people and diseases away from people without compromising on the quality of care.
• FSI – for hospitals, the FSI should be doubled or trebled compared to the commercial property. PPP hospitals must be allowed to build residential and commercial space within its ‘zone’, and appropriate FSI should be allocated for the same
Adopt a child, senior citizen, Village, School & PHC scheme – The society cannot be happy if the senior citizens just depend on government schemes and lead lonely & isolated lives. They also need to spend time and mix with people and contribute to the society with their experience.
• The government should open senior citizens home in every town.
• “Adopt a senior citizen scheme” should give certain relief to the family who adopts a senior citizen. Hopefully, it should bring smile to a senior citizen.
• The same should follow for a child. Government should also set similar schemes for adoption of villages, schools and PHC’s by professionals , industrialists and NGO’s to bring about a revolution at the ground level in the society
Administrative & Governance reforms – Government must initiate a review of the outdated systems and implement the best practices in governance and administration to ensure speed and efficiency of the system and eliminate unnecessary procedures and simplify others. Efficiency, accountability and pro-common man attitude should be hall mark of the administrative system in the years to come.
• The recommendations of the joint consultative group should be implemented without delay & in total
• Civil service system Should be reformed
• New cadre system and modern service code should be adopted to enable professionalism at all levels in the administration. Senior officers Should be suitably empowered to take timely and bold decisions
• Responsibility and accountability Should be fixed for the fulfilment of goals and targets
• Officers should be allowed to work in private sectors. Similarly, lateral entry of talented professionals from private sector at senior levels Should be encouraged
• Objective criteria Should be laid down for use of discretionary powers
• Planning commission Should be reformed and re-organized in light of the changing developmental needs of the country
• Post the Satyam Scam, it has become imperative to strengthen the entire supervisory and regulatory mechanism including SEBI, MCA etc to ensure best practices and fair return to investors. This is also important to keep the faith in the system and for attractive image of the corporate world. , Government should revisit and revise some of the laws related to corporate governance in companies (Both Private and Public) to ensure that the facts are placed before and acted upon. Unless, private companies become more transparent in their
Internal processes and external dealings, scams will keep happening and people will continue losing money, faith and this will adversely impact the image of the corporate world. Needless, to mention that all private companies only become public at one stage. Government should address this issue seriously.
• Government should undertake a review of all the laws and regulations relating to industry so as to free it from bureaucratic control; institute a system that ensures compliance with the law including speedy redressal of the grievances
• Government must abolish the rules providing protection to bureaucracy from enquiry and prosecution for corruption.
• Revamping the municipal system Should be one of the thrust areas for a citizen centric approach
Special abilities – disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute – Disabled people constitute 5 % of the country’s population. Destitute and beggars are never a part of any government schemes nor are they covered by the census properly. In an all inclusive growth, all these categories have to be taken care of as the total responsibility of the government
• Government must work out a ‘Real India Plan’ that should take of the special needs of the disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute. We understand the plight of these people. Their needs are small but they have tremendous ability & potential to work hard and contribute to their upliftment and growth of this nation’s economy.
• The needs of these special classes of people like transport – food, clothing and healthcare Should be taken care of by the ‘Real India plan’ that Should not only provide them the basics, but also train them to become self sustaining community. When they earn, they would be provided with peddle cycle, carts etc at government subsidized rates. Travel via general class rail would be free for all these card holders.
• Special provision would be made to relocate and train them to places where they can get employed and earn respectfully without relooking into their past or special abilities
Urban infrastructure: I believe that the faulty policies of the ruling governments have created 2-3 towns with best infrastructure and all most all towns do not have even decent roads. Migration is encouraged as the entire focus is towards two or three towns only. Everyone wants to transform Mumbai into Shanghai but no one talks about converting Shahjahnpur , Hardoi , Nampalli or Ballia into Mumbai !!
• On one side we Should create more towns and allow new units to be set up there with long term incentives and
• On the other side, work towards decongestion of over populated downs through well planned measures.
• Government must set the pace for at least 25 new world class towns in India in the next five years so that our next generation does not have to struggle for the daily chores and the job related travel.
• This has the potential to create 25 lac jobs
Tourism – India should achieve the status of being the spiritual capital of the world
• Government must promote this tourism– Cultural or spiritual tourism in addition to medical tourism. This has the potential be the third largest employment & revenue generator after retail and the government should make the best of it.
• Regional centres of tourism should be started in five zones across the country along with institutes to impart specialised education in these sectors. The goal would be, to become a global center for tourism both medical and non-medical. Government should ensure that all hurdles are removed in achieving the goal within the next five years
• Tourism has the potential to create 1 crore jobs in the next five years
Energy & Environment – The Global warming is a Global warning for all of us to get serious about the future of our next generation. We all love our children but we are not blessing them by leaving a healthy environment. Government must take all Steps including drafting of stringent legislation to protect the environment, save it from pollution, degradation and ensure a greener earth. Also, the future of entire economy depends upon the clean and green energy. Government must acknowledge the importance of both and should leave no stone unturned to make Energy and Environment an ‘Urgent & Important’ issues to be addressed
• Advanced institute of green technology should be started
• Afforestation, social forestry and agro- forestry should be started all over India
• Re-cycled product industries should be enjoying special concessions in tax structure.
• Same should apply to solar energy and alternative fuels.
• Electric vehicles should be made tax free and the government should use the best of resources to provide them incentives for growth and profits.
• Ethanol production should be incentivised
• New towers more than 2 storeys should have to be green buildings. Green buildings should be given the necessary fast track clearances within 30 days on priority.
• All the government buildings that can be converted to green buildings should be converted within the next three years. A special Green fund should be set aside for this.
• New buildings should have wind mill or solar panels for passage lights
Energy: With a focus to provide uninterrupted electricity to all parts of the country in the next 10 years. Government should lay an action plan that encompasses the use of nuclear power, wind energy, solar energy, Hydro power, enhanced exploration & Bio fuels to make India self sufficient to meet its power & fuel needs.
• If need be, PPP route should be taken to achieve the goals.
• Smaller dams , Hydro electric plants Should be one of the principles in shaping the vision for power sufficiency
• Government should work within the framework and help formulate a policy to replace all the electricity meters across the country to digital meters starting with Metros. The electricity bills should be visual with photo to avoid tempering with the bills. Only youths should be employed to take the meter readings. This Should throw open opportunities for at least 10 lac jobs
Loans & Housing – This sector needs serious actions from the government in terms of more number of houses to be built. This sector has a cascading affect on growth because a whole lot of sectors are associated with its growth like this sector employs 25 million people, and associated industries like cement, iron and steel, finance etc taken together employ much more
• Government should pursue the agenda of affordable housing at affordable interest rates that are fixed for the entire duration of the loan tenure to ensure that the common man’s budget does not get hit due to frequent changes in the interest rates
• The government must build a large number of houses for rental purpose only and not for sale to drive the cost of the flats down for the common man
• The government should appoint a housing regulator within one year to protect the interest of the home buyers on the lines of IRDA, TRAI.
• For two wheelers and small cars, the loan rates would be lesser than medium and sedans or SUV’s.
• Corporate loans should be at a reduced rates for SME’s and start ups below 5 years in operations
Goods & Services Tax (GST ) – I believe that the government should ensure that GST is designed and implemented flawlessly, it would ensure that a substantially common , yet cumulatively much bigger tax base for the center and state, so that the center and states Should benefit from a much bigger tax base. I believe in the Ability of the GST – enabled unified pan-India market to reduce burden and produce huge macro-economic dividends – It is estimated that the economic value of GST would be half trillion dollars or half of India’s GDP. This would enhance the buoyancy of the states revenues as well. Today 40 % of the government tax collections in the country go to the states even as centre and states share annual development expenditure in the ratio of 2:3.
• The government Should remove tax and duties on by cycles , peddle rickshaws to enable economically weaker sections to use this as an incentive to grow faster
Yoga , Mediation & Sports (YMS ) – A national YMS promotion task force with a dedicated fund of Rs. 1000 crore Should be set up to promote the same across India in a systematic manner . This has the potential to create one lac jobs & drastically improve the well being of its citizens
Labour laws – According to the Sen Gupta report , ninety one percent of the total work force of around 39 crore is in the unorganised sector .Government s should make labour , both organised and unorganised , an equal and proud partner in the production of the nation’s wealth and in its progress . Laws relating to equal pay for equal work for men and women shall be strictly implemented.
Population Control – The real issue for corruption, lack of good governance and poor economic growth is its huge and ever increasing population. We need to address this issue ASAP. None of the government has focussed on the issue seriously due to vote bank politics. A suitable and judicious mix of incentives and disincentives for population control should be presented early so that national commitment on this critical issue is obtained
• A people’s movement should be launched to realise the goals and targets set in the National Population policy. States lagging behind should be focussed more.
• The Government should introduce a set of non-coercive disincentives for a two child norm, and incentives for a girl child. Two child norm Should be made a qualification , on a prospective basis , for contesting any election
Constitutional & Electoral reforms: The Government should set up a Constitutional reforms commission to review the constitution of India in light of the experience in the past 60 years and to make suitable recommendations
• Government Should introduce necessary electoral reforms on the basis of the recommendation of the Goswami committee so as to deal with glaring issues that might reform the politics and ultimately , the governance of the nation
• Consensus Should be evolved to prevent entry of criminal elements into politics
• Government should seek to work towards raising the standards of parliament and state legislature
• Government should work towards holding the Union & State elections together
• A national institute for training elected representatives Should be established
• Currently, we have the M.P.’s and other representatives based on the census of 1970’s. We must realise that the population has grown tremendously, and we need to increase the number of public representatives based on the 2001 census. Every ten years, we must match the number of representatives to the population ratio. Today each M.P. represents a population of 1.9 million. It is humanly impossible to reach out to such a huge number of residents. So there is a complete disconnect between the representatives and the populace. No wonder, the voters are not enthused to come out and vote. It is not about not being serious about voting, but an average voter does not know his M.P.’s very well. If it is not so, how can you expect one to vote? If need be , we must build a new parliament house to seat the increased number of representatives and same in states for legislative assemblies or use teleconference to do the proceedings . Anyways, both the parties have talked of taking the broad band to villages.
• The salaries of the public representatives should be enhanced as they have a big responsibility on their shoulders. Why should a President, Prime Minister, Ministers and other public representatives not draw salaries better than the corporate world? When they draw 8 figure salaries , then only we will have the best of people drawn to it and people will also question their contribution
• I had raised in 2003 an issue of giving an option ‘None of the above found suitable ‘in the ballot paper. This way, we will be able to incentivise the concerned citizens to come out and vote.
Defence forces: Dignity, status, Respect and attraction of the defence forces has reached the lowest level, with people returning the medals back to the government. Government must recognise the importance of Defence forces and should ensure that they not just treated as security men but the custodians responsible for the safety of the Nation.
• Removing bottle necks that lead to delays in decision making for defence establishment
• On priority, latest arms and ammunitions should be provided to the force.
• Parity in status with other services at appropriate level
• Betterment of career prospects and service conditions of all ranks
• Revamping and strengthening the existing mechanisms to resolve individual and collective problems specially of personnel below officer rank
• One Rank one pension as recommended by successive governments
• Government should commit to make the salaries of defence forces better by giving them additional tax incentives
R&D: The government should encourage and rewards innovation and R&D in all sectors should special incentive for milestones in each and every step. The government should incentivise the regional educational centres to be become the incubation hubs at the institute levels itself. A special fund of 1000 Cr should be set up for this purpose. Scientists should be able to co-own the patents with the institutes to monetise it in case of commercialization of the patent
Income & taxes: The slab for deduction for LTC, Children education and meal vouchers should get enhanced substantially based on the current spends level to give relief to the earning class. Today the meal vouchers and education allowance are not comparable to what the citizens actually pay. Though the government is charging taxes comparable to the United States, but the public services are not even 1/1000 part of what US does for its citizens
Defence technology SEZ: the government should work towards making India as worldwide supplier of defence uniforms, parachutes, small arms, night vision devices and bullet proof material. India already has capabilities for the same
Export Oriented SEZ for wine – India produces world class grapes and wine Industry can be a good revenue earner as there is a great demand for good quality wine worldwide. This can bring in good income for wine orchards, farmers and processing units
North East Region – the problem with the North eastern states is, that the government has failed to understand and act on the needs of these regions. The biggest issue there is that there is no source of employment created for the youth of those states.
• The Government should take all measures within its framework to dedicate special infrastructure and employment plan that can be implemented within the next three years. All this is likely to raise the earning potential of the region many fold and take the region to heights of prosperity.
• Development of communication infrastructure to overcome the constraints of physical distance
• The plan should encompass setting up a North Eastern tourist grid
• Settings up industries which are based on the natural resources of north east like the herbal medicines and bamboo based industries.
• Further IT industry should be given impetus as that can ideally work in hilly areas.
• Setting up small Hydro Electric plants in North East region
• North East has popular traditional folks culture, if marketed well, can drive in a lot of new opportunities. Government is expected to make it happen.
• These efforts Should create 5 lac jobs in North East
National Task force for Animal husbandry, Milk processing, Food processing and fisheries Should be set up with time bound goals to make India amongst the top three producers in the world. The frame work to achieve the goal should be in place within the next three years. This is the best way to increase the earning ability of the rural & coastal India.
Post & Telegraph – Post and Telegraph have a matchless network covering all the pin codes in the country. I believe that post offices present a matchless opportunity to increase services to every nook and corner of the country and to create at least 10 lac jobs via PPP with Telegraphs and posts network. The government should use this opportunity to not only modernise the post offices but also create value for the public and the government with a special focus on rural India
Private Public Partnership – So far, most of the private public partnerships have not done much over a long period of time, we understand that government has limitations but also has the responsibility to deliver on the expectations of people. Government must appoint a PPP Regulator. An autonomous body to identify implement & monitor the PPP. This should ensure a smooth roll out in all sectors
Cooperative Movement – Cooperative movement is crucial for the success of rural economy. I believe that cooperative movement must be radically reformed to make it more relevant at the taluka level to India’s growth story. This has a high employment potential. If property reformed, this can create fresh 10,000.00 jobs across the nation. The cooperative movement is not just limited to milk production, but also to oil and Beedi production
Consumer protection movement Should be strengthened and proactive steps should be taken to protect the interest of consumers. Also, that the consumer protection is not just about products and services
Media & Sting Operations -
Media should be given more teeth. Sting operations must be made legal and a special court should be set up to look into the exposes made out of such operations. The journalists should be given security for ‘high level’ expose
Disaster Management apparatus should be reviewed and strengthened
Common Civil Code. All the parties should be taken into confidence and a common civil code should be adopted.
Backward – BIMARU States: Government must focus on special projects to take the economy & employment to the next level. Though, in the last five years most of the Bimaru states have notched good growth, still a lot needs to be done,
Tribal Development – 7 % of the Indian population is tribal. This needs to be attended with sensitivity and a planned needs to be evolved for their development and getting them into mainstream. Which includes?
• SSI for tribal’s
• Industry based on local natural resources
• Promote tribal and traditional folk
• Special quota in police and armed forces
Wool Production – India is the world’s second largest wool producer. However, the wool industry is by and large at a low level of quality and value realization. An action based time bound plan should be placed in the first year to modernise and expand the wool production
Good Governance:
• The government should review all its commitments and progress every six months and review the same at the public vigilance committees (PVC) appointed at every district / taluka level.
• The public vigilance committees should consist of citizens from all walks of life. This should ensure that we stay committed and on track when it comes to fulfilling in our commitments. The PVC Should serve as a watch dog on our time bound action plan that we Should release on all Priority issues within 30 days of coming to power
Foreign Policy: Government should pay the highest attention, to not only enhance Indian role in international affairs, but should, also, ensure that India’s vital national and security interests are fully projected and protected, so that it can contribute meaningfully to the global community and deal with the challenges of the future and boldly assert its position on key issues. Few contours of the Foreign policy:
• UN- India Should support all efforts at a further democratisation of the UN structure and system and Should pursue to Secure a permanent seat in the UN security council
• Out a more Work closely with G-8 , to bring about a more balanced economic order which would seek to ensure that the current global disorder is overcome at the earliest so that the developing countries in particular , are not disadvantaged any further
• Strengthening the SAARC Process
• China. While the normalising relations with China Should retain and eminent position in foreign policy, it is , at the same time, expected that China too , Should display sensitivity to India’s position on various issues which have plagued our relations over the last 50 years. India also expects China to avoid any future violations of NPT.
• Pakistan: Peace is the precondition to the development of both the countries. Somehow, Pakistan has not been able to convince India on its track record to ensure peace in the region. Government should be supportive of a widening of contacts and ensuring peace and stability in the region, working with Pakistan on resolving land standing and urgent issues in the interest and as per the will of the people of India
• Europe: The EU is a valuable source of technology and investments. Relations with EU should figure prominently in the foreign policy initiatives. We Should do everything possible to further strengthen our relationship , consistent with our national interest
• Strengthen our bond with USA nuclear and seek revision of certain clauses of the Indo-US nuclear deal which adversely impact on India’s nuclear program and profile
• Relations with Russia needs to be further consolidate
• West Asia and North Africa: Government should rejuvenate our old ties and traditional bonds of friendship with the Arab world, as well as intensify our cooperation with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).
• Bangladesh: Government should convince the old neighbour that harbouring N.E. Insurgents and terrorists should be highly counterproductive. A positive response to India on cooperation in the economic filed, including transit, Should be beneficial to both countries. Bangladesh must also pay urgent heed to and extend full cooperation to India to check the illegal influx of Bangladeshis to India in case it is keen to have cordial relations with India
• Sri-Lanka. India supports a united Sri Lanka in which both the communities can realise their aspirations. The India –Sri Lanka agreement of 1987, provides an important & immediate starting point for the peaceful resolution of the problem. We note the successful implementation of FTA and favour an early conclusion of the CEPA ( Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement ), to the satisfaction of both the countries
• Nepal: Indo – Nepal relations are age-old and are based on ties of geography, history, culture & religion. These Should be maintained and further reinforced
• Japan and Korea. Both economic as well as political relations with the economic power houses of Asia, namely, Japan and Korea Should be further developed
• Afghanistan. Indio’s relation with Afghanistan has been traditionally close. We Should continue to firmly support the present government in that country , and at the same time , take all steps to further enhance the security around Indian projects and the Indian embassy and consulates in that country
• Iran. We value our strong economic ties so far. These Should be sustained with positive fallouts to the mutual benefit of both countries
• Africa and Latin America. Relations with Africa and Latin America should be enhanced with great vigour. Further groupings like IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) should be encouraged to the benefit of all countries concerned. Further cooperation Should also aim at energy self sufficiency
• NRI & PIO’s. The role of NRI’s and PIO’s in the qualitative enhancement of India’s image abroad and their investments in India are warmly acknowledged. They should continue to be accorded high priority.
