Department of Civil Engineering

India@75 - Panel Discussion for DITU Faculties & Students

India @ 75: Policy Dialogue

[Base- Paper]

“India @ 75” is a catch phrase first coined by Management Guru Prof. C.K Prahlad. The idea behind that catch phrase was to see the emergence of a developed nation by 2022. He articulated it at a India @ 60 celebrations in 2007, in New York.

Delivering the Seventh Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Lecture (Jan 2010); under the theme “From Sampurna Swaraj to Sampurna Azadi: The Unfinished Agenda”; Prof C.K. Prahalad opined:

“No other society in the world has tried to change a system as large and complex. What India needs are not best practice from somewhere outside India or even within India. India needs Next Practices. India must have the courage to chart its own path”.

In the lecture he talked about fundamental innovation in governance in India as under:

“Part 1: The Basic Structure of the Constitution and its violation in Practice.

The essential architecture of the Constitution is based on five guiding principles:

1. Rule of Law, (b) democracy, (c) Secularism, (d) fundamentalism and (e) judicial review.

However, the political and administrative system, in essence, have rendered than ineffective.

ON an overall score cards; India has fared well overall.

I Plan to focus on the incipient danger’s to India’s success. There are obvious blemishes in the record of practice of the principles entrusted in the Constitution.

1. Converting ‘shortage economy’ into an opportunity for personal gain.
2. Political fragmentation and the focus as caste bases ‘group righs” and coalition politics may became a divisive force challenging the ability of governments to do what is right.
3.  Judicial activeness may now be the basic protection against violations of the rights of “We, the People” in Practice.
4. The basic question that we face is: What are the responsibilities of power.  What should citizen be concerned about?

Part 2 : Changing the approach

The Naxalite problem may be indication of the corrosive influence of apathy, callousness, and denial of basic requirements of social justice, the rule of law, and access to opportunities such as education, healthcare and jobs.

We have within us the ability to change the process of deteriorations by making the administration and governance of India more transparent, less exploitative and more equitable.

Part 3 : Innovation for Social Justice

We need to start with the root causes if we have to considerably reduce the imperfection in the system. They relate to a few key areas.

1. Reduce the asymmetry of information
2. Reduce the number of parts of interpretation of laws
3. Increased accountability.

Focus on Massive Education & Skill development.

Focus on citizen-centric governance.

Strengthen Local Management.

India is at an interesting cross road. It must choose the path to progress needs significant innovations and a discarding of the old and acceptance of the new.”

The NITI Aayog report Strategy for New India @ 75; talks of the collective effort of 1.25 billion Indians in transforming the country.

The Strategy document capture three messages of our Prime Minister

First – development must became a mass movement

Second – development strategy should help achieve broad band economic growth to ensure balancing development across all region and states and across sectors

Third – the strategy when implemented, will bridge the gap between public and private sector performance.

‘Strategy for New India @ 75’ has identified 41 different areas that require either a sharper focus on implementing the flagship schemes already in place or a new design and initiative to achieve India’s true potential.

The guiding Philosophy is “Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas, Sab ka Vishwas”.

The CII Initiative of India @ 75 – Mission 22 prepared a Vision Document touching the themes

Education and skills

Technology and Innovation

Agriculture and Food Security

Business and Economy

Urbanization and Environmental Sustainability

Arts, Literature and Sports

Moral Leadership, Governance and Public Administration

Under each theme 4-5 statements have emerged as a vision.

This Policy Dialogue initiative by DIT University, Dehradun is the first in the series of Conferences planned to be held over the next 1111 days to stimulate discussion and deliberation. It is planned as a mass movement within the Academic environment.

As ordinary citizens what is our concept of India @ 75? It may entail the following.

India to be a $ 5 Trillion Economy.

India is a Space Power, a Nuclear Power, a Military Power.

India sits on the UN High Table as a Member of the Security Council.

India’s farmer overcome the vagaries of weather and there is agriculture prosperity.

India’s youth is skilled and has fulfilling jobs.

India’s entrepreneurial spirit is unleashed across all sectors.

India’s literacy rates perk up to that of advanced economies.

India’s health status catapults to that of advanced nations.

India’s women stands shoulder to shoulder in the development process.

India’s waters are ‘Nirmal’ and surroundings are ‘Swacch’.

India’s quality of life enhances; and it ranks high in the happiness index.

India’s becomes quality conscious across all areas.

Through the Policy dialogue, the audience seeks to know where we are headed for. Is our past performances an indicator of our future prospects?

What should be our focus & what can we achieve?

The Panel of experts may like to focus on the following issues:-

1. Is India’s population a boon or a bane?
2. Is India’s demographic divided in terms of a large youth population; poised to be the labour force of the world?
3. What about the low ranking on HDI? How to tide over it?
4. How to ensure that 500 million Indians are skilled and over 300 million educated to tertiary level?
5. Is Universal Health care the right recipe for a healthy India? How to make it touch the lives and change our health profile?
6. What about growth with a human face? How to achieve over 8 % sustained growth with livelihood opportunities enveloping all?
7. We have a blow-hot – blow-cold relationship with several neighbors. What diplomatic direction / efforts would it take to make relationship harmonious in the long run?
8. As an economy we are now open and linked with the world. How do we handle protectionism, while ensuring growth in all direction?
9. How to tackle the asymmetry across the country? How to make growth inclusive covering the tribal belt, the mountain ranges, the aspirational districts et al?
10. Urbanization poses the biggest challenge in the decades ahead. Are we ready for it? In what direction should we move?

Panel experts may like to touch upon other areas that they deem as relevant and important.

References:

1. Strategy for New India @ 75 – NITI Aayog Publication (Dec 2018)
2. The Seventh Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Lecture “ From Sampurna Swaraj to Swampurna Azadi: The Unfinished Agenda (Jan 2010): Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Trust
3. The People’s Agenda : India @ 75 Mission 22 National Vision Document ; CII