The Bitter Pills for India Reprieve. P. Abraham Paul. papaul@hotmail.com Tweet @PA_Paul (Originally published in May 2004, edited time and again). Link in Worpress.com/papaulsblog http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-5I The Bitter Pills for India Reprieve.

Introduction: Integrity and worthiness of any political party is to be judged from the way how its elected representatives conduct themselves in the Parliament and in other public forums, making themselves Democracy is strangled when the elected representatives, ignore the needs and aspirations of the people

ical parties that support and oppose the government. Democracy is strangled, when political parties stoop down to induce communal feeling of one group against other to come to power and when in power, become obliged to oppress the other groups to appease its supporters.

Democracy is strangled when head of States under oath of office and supposed to function above partisan politics while in office go around and spread malice against the democratically established and functioning Federal Government for own political gains.

Democracy is strangled when the Government formed by duly elected representatives are Democracy is strangled when the Government formed by duly elected representatives are at logger heads with other stake holders in the process of governance such as Judiciary, Army, Law enforcement bodies, Bureaucrats and heads of constitutionally constituted bodies like CVC, CAG, EC, HS etc.

In the past six and half decades, for the first time perhaps after the days of Emergency, Democracy is at cross roads again in its choice between a constitutionally functional Parliamentary Democracy with strong political will or to allow the country to deviate towards anarchy induced by Marc Antony or Hitler style of impulsive neo populism by power hungry political actors that will eventually troll the death bells of democracy. 1. The inherent perils in Indian Democracy. Individuality in thoughts, unrelenting desire and self centric ambition to gain superiority over other at any cost and ever growing insatiable greed and desire for power being the basic instincts that differentiate the human race, a political setup that envisages any country be ruled by a government the human race, a political setup that envisages any country be ruled by a government Of the People, By the People and For the People, is more an Utopian myth than a realizable reality. It is too ambitious to wish that India too, a made-from-scratch-youngish Federal nation inheriting long embedded ethnic variations, diverse cultures, social structures, linguistic differences, highly dominating regional beliefs and interests, and unfit ideals inherited from colonialists to become such an Utopian democratic nation too soon. There are too many faults in democracy, such as there is no way to assure that political masters in charge of government and the political lean of the stakeholders in bureaucracy & other wings of the government are in sync.

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1.1. supreme right and sole authority to ruledemocracy: In the Indian context, less than about 50% of the total population only have voting rights and of that only about 50% cast their votes. Considering vote split happens among three major contestants; a political party that can manage to get 7 to 8 percent of votes could become the largest single party and a coalition of parties that can manage between 9 to 11 percent of the votes of total population get absolute majority. A one percent shift can tilt the scale either way. Therefore, the type of Democracy of majority rule that can be

This is This is one of the major perils of our type of democratic process. And then, it can become more harmful when political incite and use various forms of communal feelings for electoral advantage, or various cast based or regionalist interests and interests of the omnipresent self serving crony capitalists. 1.2. Need of responsible opposition in a democracy: Notwithstanding the above inherent problems in democracy the people are destined to live with, it is only fair for every Indian to aspire to have some sober and stable governments at Federal level that could take care of the needs of all the people in the country irrespective of their Socio-economic levels, Faith order / Religious beliefs or Political leaning and their representative strength in the Federal system. For this, it is imperative that the representatives of the factions inside the ruling coalition to behave with responsibility in taking along all in harmony, and those outside the ruling party or coalition, to realize that they are the next majority stake holders based on the party or coalition, to realize that they are the next majority stake holders based on the overall percentage of votes polled, to cooperate with the progressive and people-friendly programs of the democratically elected ruling coalition governments, to push the country forward instead making themselves of mere nuisance value by blindly opposing all policies for frivolous reasons, merely for the sake of opposing with sole aim to obstruct governance or to bring it down somehow. 1.3. Idea of shadow ministry: One of the ways to make the opposition parties responsible and their actions visible to their voters is by making them participate positively in the process of governance by creating shadow ministries of every portfolio that are held by members nominated from the opposition parties to give suggestions, solutions, alternatives and opinions in the floor of the house, as to how they would have approached or handled issues had they be in power, for every proposals presented and actions initiated by the corresponding ministries in the ruling cabinet. 1.4. Governance need continuity: Current electoral practices are in no way conducive to 1.4. Governance need continuity: Current electoral practices are in no way conducive to take care of real needs of the country in a continuous manner. There are more important factors other than the representative strength when it comes to satisfactorily fulfilling the responsibilities of a Government. Most elementary but important of these is that basically those who are chosen to govern should have enough knowledge of governance which is now far from reality, the way our election process are. Another important aspect is that, for any institution and more so for the Governments, there shall be functional continuity as governance of a country is a continuous process.

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With current musical chair Ayaram / Gayaram political masters, there is no guarantee of continuity that is very much necessary for long term planning and implementation of

me consuming programs based on long forecasted predefined policies. 1.5. Political class in India has reversed the process of governance. Functionally Politicians are nothing but just middlemen between the People and Government. Being impractical to have the right people with right knowledge for the right job and then to lack of continuity of governance due to periodic election process, the established method to be followed is that to limit politicians job is to make or amend laws and rules to enable governance according to Pe have the process governance according to Pe have the process of governance done by and through well experienced bureaucrats who are exclusively trained for that. Therefore, it logically makes the function of the elected representatives is to act as mere middlemen between the People and the Government in taking the needs of all peopletheir constituencies to the Executives and Bureaucrats in the government who are responsible for all functions of governance, and to see that these are rightly implemented by them, without in anyway interfering in their day to day functions. But the situation of governance in India is no where near it as political class have entirely reversed the process of governance. This is one of the major reasons for the systemic failures in governance we see around.

http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-cV 1.6. Politics is about being Pragmatic. Politics is via media between 'Perfect' and 'Practical'. The distinction between the Political heads and the Executive is that the 'Practical'. The distinction between the Political heads and the Executive is that the Bureaucrats have the tendency to act like horses fitted with blinds that make them view with focus only to matters pertaining to their area with single viewpoint while the Politician has the responsibility to have a birds eye view of various aspects inter-related to different areas of P priorities and take decisions accordingly in more cohesive manner. Examples are aplenty. An army chief wanting the entire defense system to be revamped urgently while the Rural development minister wanting to cut down defense expenses for providing amenities for the rural poor. A Railway minster wanting to modernize Indian Railways and improve quality of service even if it had to drastically increase cost to users, while his political head is hell bent to continue with the policy of giving cheap and with less focus on quality of service, and so on. 1.7. The Vote banks in India: In India there are basically two types of majority vote banks; both having sets and subsets of the other. i. Majority religion based. By sensitizing the malleable in the majority religion, the i. Majority religion based. By sensitizing the malleable in the majority religion, the politicians keep the country divided for their gains. ii. The majority of socially and economically backward. Appeased by every party with

that never to be, and ensure they remain so. iii. A concoction as a mixture of the above two. To give proper representation of all sections of the population and to take care of the interest of all sections of the society, it is necessary to make a major change in the present

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system of coalition politics. To begin with there are some basic fundamentals discriminating the role of the National parties from that of the Regional parties at the State level. 1.8. The idea of an apolitical Federal system. With position of regional parties getting stronger for various reasons, national parties have lost much of its popularity making the situation becoming more and more difficult to have stable government at Centre lead by the National parties.

An apolitical Federal Government would be better for India. An apolitical Federal Government would be better for India. http:I//wp.me/p1ZsI2-4 India would have been closer to better democratic process by opting for a non-political Federal government constituted by representatives with clean back ground, caliber and qualification, elected from various constituencies in States represent their States as a single group and function as Directors of a corporate body, leaving their politics behind. Currently a considerable portion of citizen shun away in exercising their franchise finding none worthy to vote for. This situation can change only if clean, capable and forward thinking persons come into political arena. Graduation in Political science shall be made mandatory for candidates contesting elections to States and Federal Government. Many would consider this Utopian idea, and so we have to live with what we have.

To give democracy a chance, the political system as well as the bureaucracy needs to be To give democracy a chance, the political system as well as the bureaucracy needs to be cleaned up weeding out incapable, corrupt and unscrupulous characters from the scene. To start with, it is time for the political parties to stop passing on political and official positions to unworthy elements without commensurate caliber, character and conduct in

or mother had been minister, son also made minister whether he has the requisite knowledge, experience or capability for it not. This has to stop, lest people will be

Power to recall etc., as being talked around and propagated by many nowadays. 1.10. ote or Vote for None as NOTA. As a citizen, voting is not only a right but a duty taking part and contribute in building a better government. It is necessary to make voting mandatory and penal actions against those who do not participate on it without valid personal reasons like making an entry in their Ration cards / ID cards, Municipal/ Village and Panchayat records etc. so as to their Ration cards / ID cards, Municipal/ Village and Panchayat records etc. so as to educate them and discourage them against habitual defaulting in exercising their franchise, when they approach for Govt. facilities. If a citizen vote, he/she shall

encourage people to go and vote every time there is an election. In order to bring a regulation like that, there shall be someone among the candidates who is worth voting for. However, in such situation voters can exercise their option of their

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-to-V -O of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 or recording their vote for None of the above NOTA. The rule 49-O. states that: 49-O. Elector deciding not to vote, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark. The drawback of this is the secrecy of the voter is not maintained, and therefore, ECI and The drawback of this is the secrecy of the voter is not maintained, and therefore, ECI and

Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). However, currently outcome of such option do not influence the election result. The earlier rule was that if number of such votes is higher than the margin of the lead of the winning candidates, then the result of that election can be nullified and a fresh election will be organized with a different set of nominees. The political parties being aware of the risk involved in such rule oppose its existence. To make this rule some tooth, the least Govt./ EC should consider cancellation of the poll if NOTA gets more votes than the leading candidate. 1.11. Need to have Community watch dogs. As there seems to be no major change coming up in the current process of neither by Government not Judiciary, people shall think of ways and means to apply correction in the democratic process. One method is to think of ways and means to apply correction in the democratic process. One method is to set up apolitical societies like Community Watch Dogs and Citizens Charters in every constituency to impartially conduct research and analysis and point out the merits and demerits of the contestants to help people to choose and exercise their franchise for the right person to represent them in the local and Federal governments. Pleas see 'Indian Citizens Advisory Community Organization' (ICACO) http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-b4

2. The political parties in India. 2.1. The Indian national Congress: None can forget the sacrifices of the freedom fighters and the contribution of the members in Indian National Congress and others in building up the nation in its infancy. Many valuable lives were lost in their fearless fight to contain anti-secular and separatist tendencies. As years passed, the political leadership became ineffective to effectively tendencies. As years passed, the political leadership became ineffective to effectively address the urgent national issues due to various reasons; making many matured leaders of the party to leave forming new party or join other political parties. The Congress party lost its erstwhile glory and popularity and reduced to a minority lacking muzzle to be at the helm of affairs alone. For sure, it was not of any fresh found love for the party or its leaders, the Indian National Congress could bag few more seats in the last two general elections. In many counts the BJP led NDA governments were good if not better compared to many

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Congress majority led Governments we saw in the past many decades. Reason for their marginal gain in the last election could only be attributed to the grave concern of secularist mass the country fortunate to have; that if NDA voted back to power, a section of its supporters of erstwhile NDA and from mainstream religious fundamentalists and activists, would get upper hand to push their communal centric extremist partisan ideologies which would lead the country towards anarchy and chaos. It is known to all that the unholy nexus of power mongering communal and regional extremists and their proliferation into political system are the basic ingredients in breeding various forms of terrorism. UPA and the lost opportunities: It was with the efforts and astute statesmanship of few in the Congress and elders among the Communist parties and others, a change could be made after the 2004 General election in the formation of UPAI. However, in the final analysis it can be seen that India lost a golden opportunity to take the country to the highest pedestal of democratic reforms with two national parties, the Congress and Communists both started of with a Common minimum program to take on and upkeep common man's interest and alleviation of poverty hand in hand together, as the main theme in their agenda. The best thing these parties could have done was to patch up the differences and go even with a give and take attitude in the interest of the country and could have gone ahead with forming coalition governments of Congress and Communists in Kerala and other Congress and Communist led States that would have changed the fate of the country. Blame it to the egoistic leadership of both parties and sidetracking the astute statesmen in both parties. UPA2 is nothing but another lost opportunity for INC. Distracted and bogged down withstalling of parliament and hue and cry of various social groups in the public sphere with some real and mostly hypothetical and superficial scam allegations, UPA2 choose to remain paralyzed and inactive in almost all spheres of governance. The weakness of the Congress party has always been its inability to connect with the mass due to lack of good PR work and properly articulate its achievements and ensure that party is not getting isolated / insulated from the mass; and sadly from its own grass root level party workers, and its allies and well wishers. On the other hand the party is not bold enough to openly expose the misdoings of the anti-secular groups and fight the menace for the fear of losing a section of the electorate More surprisingly the party never considered to have in place able press secretaries both More surprisingly the party never considered to have in place able press secretaries both under PMO and under the party president to handle systematically and effectively official press releases at regular intervals on behalf of the PM and the Party President. Corrective actions never happened in this area inrooftops everywhere.

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2.2. The Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP came to power at the center, with the support of power mongering hard core fundamentalist groups whose only ideology is to transform the country to a Hindu Raj, identical to the majority religion controlled rule in the neighborhood. To some extent, BJP had to succumb to their ideology in the name of majority religion which claims to include various communities and tribes that existed from ancient days in small Kingdoms of Rajas, Rulers, Sultans, and clusters of Jameendaris and Landlords across the country, and all types of people flaunting mythologies and ancient scriptures. It has come to pass time and again, that every time there is a political back lash, BJP fall back and take shelter under the ultra rightist religious factions and seeks support of its fundamentalist groups in one form or other. In the process, the image and the glory of this magnanimous majority religion that embraces great virtues of tolerance, compassion and allowed, encouraged and practiced harmonious co-existence of different religious, communal and social groups; get eroded.

regain power with support of fundamentalists in majority religion at cost of secularism will not sell for long with the majority of younger generation. By and large the last NDA government under the able stewardship of Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, a matured politician and astute statesman at the helm, was not that bad. One of the major

message to prevent the apathy on the intolerant actions of some of the hard core message to prevent the apathy on the intolerant actions of some of the hard core communal factions toward other communities, in many regions of the nation. Another misdoing of BJP was their undue haste in economic reforms, which only helped to further widen the gap between the rich and the poor. One need not be an economic wizard to discern that blind selling out of profit making public sector enterprises and un-bridled FII and FDI in non-vulnerable and in the long run, would lead the country to economic slavery and greater suffering for the majority mass in the lower strata. Private participation in the development of the country is utmost necessary and therefore, need all feasible encouragement bwelfare of the majority poor masses. Sans Mr. Vajpayeeworse in spite BJP made amends later though, in distancing from the anti secular groups. Sadly things are back again on the same political trail, mixing communal activism and Sadly things are back again on the same political trail, mixing communal activism and politics in their election agenda. Whenever the general elections come closer, BJP tries to play the communal card again. Not finding desired results, BJP is now trying hard not to succumb to the forces of religious and regional extremists with the balancing act by a charade of tryst with secularism as its front face.

tters of national importance is visible in their many actions, inaction and reactions which had cost them millions of discerning voters.

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For them continuation of the current political situation leaves no option other than to bring a major change in their outlook and work to bring in place secularist and forward looking government, in the next election to keep the communal powers at bay and join hands with secular parties and work for the betterment of the nation.

2.3. The Communists: Except in pockets of State level politics, the communists did not make much impact in the Indian political scenario. After the 2004 general election, the vision and wisdom of the Indian political scenario. After the 2004 general election, the vision and wisdom of few of its senior leaders helped the communists came in national limelight joining UPA

was a big opportunity for them and for the country had they joined hands with the congress and led as the UPA front in the State level elections and did governance of the State jointly. By and large the style of function of Congress party made itself get isolated from the common people of the country. CPI/CPM having greater rapport with general mass could have filled this gap had they joined the ruling front in UPA1 and continued it with UPA2. But not only they were averse to such ideas but also they failed to reap benefits of the advantage they got at Central level in other States, because of their flip flop strategies, in keeping afloat the UPA government and pulling it down just before the previous general election and for the wrong reason. They were quick to claim ownership of every gains of UPA and equally was quick in disowning responsibility for its shortcomings. shortcomings. The blame shall entirely rest with the egoistic top leadership of the party. Indian Communists of today lack political sheen due to the latent inertia in its leadership in amending their anti progressive outlook and inconsistency on many of the national and international policies. Instead of forcing a national debate in dealing with major policy matters such as the dangers of opting for nuclear power, the CPM leadership arrogantly decided to pull the plug of UPA joining hands with BJP and that too with the vain hope of making a 3rd front government without them. In India, like Government and political parties, lip service is the only service they do to the poor. How can the country bring up the poor without generating resources needed for

Communists itself. Instead of striving to bring in ways and means to remove poverty, they try to reap benefit by exploiting the poverty situation of the mass inciting class

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This philosophy had stopped working where it originated and is no more workable here

which is something transient, where any positive change in the state of its base constituents act negatively for the party and such unworkable ideology is destined to die in its infancy.

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mean to stand for the oppressed and downtrodden. It is time they shed their obsolete and antiquated ideology inciting class conflicts and learn from what is happening elsewhere in the world, amend such obscure philosophies for their own good, and join hands with other secularist parties to get in to the mainstream of Indian Politics and profess to those remain in their fold to work for a change for themselves and for the good of this secular nation. As of now the communist parties are going through the phase of leadership bankruptcy. Marx and Lenin would be tearing their hair off watching the modalities of the new era communism as being practiced in Kerala and at the Federal level. May be such an unfortunate phenomena of disappointment with the party is the reason for the such an unfortunate phenomena of disappointment with the party is the reason for the breeding of many off shoots of the new generation communist groups that are slowly turning out to as main threat to the country. 2.4. Other political parties: Some of the regional parties have attired considerable local support in the states unlike the old trend of many jumping parties like changing their shirts. It only helps in splitting the people with no productive outcome neither for these parties nor for the people. Political work in the true sense is unrewarding hard work making the intelligent new generation to shun away from politics. The patriots of freedom struggle have become history. Patriotism is the last virtue in the current political arena which is taken over by opportunists and undesirables, who use politics to make them rich and powerful. Nevertheless, regional parties have become a major factor both in State elections and in national elections. It has come to pass that formation of Federal government will have to depend on the alliances the national parties can manipulate with various regional parties. depend on the alliances the national parties can manipulate with various regional parties. 2.5. Coalitions of manipulators and opportunists: India had many governments, initially of single party and then of coalitions of stark opportunist parties who are highly indulgent in manipulative politics with no firm ideology. In the last election tomisfit coalition of parties with diverse outlook on many national and international issues came into control of governance in the Center. Obviously, the natural outcome of such a misconceived coalition with different regional parties of visibly different ideologies would be its continuous struggle to survive. However, in the wake of wide spread anti-secular tendencies sowing communal hatred in many parts of the country which culminated in to many new born terrorist activities being experienced now, a change in scenario was of some relief. We earnestly hoped that the Congress and the few like-minded parties would continue to hold hands to alleviate this ugly situation to some extent and at least, live up to their promise of safeguarding secularism, if nothing else. secularism, if nothing else. 2.6. The arithmetic of Coalition Politics. It is astonishing to find that how the Indian National Congress party did not firmly put their foot down from the beginning about seat sharing with the regional parties in the coalition. Fundamentally it is suicidal for the National parties to leave larger chunk of seats to the regional party candidates and support them to win in a Lok Sabha election. If at all an electoral understanding is to be done with the regional parties in the States, it

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shall be with higher percentage of seats for National Party and lesser seats for the Regional party in the Lok Sabha election and the other way around in the Assembly elections. If the regional party is not agreeable for such an understanding, the coalition has to cease with end of the term. Any new coalition, if become necessary, is to be formed after the election according to the over all situation. i. There cannot be two ways to progress. The major national parties, Congress and BJP if they have the same progressive out look to take the country forward, the plans for that cannot be much different. In spite of on-and-off connections with some hard core Hindutva groups here and there, nobody seriously believes that BJP is a non-secular party Hindutva groups here and there, nobody seriously believes that BJP is a non-secular party though some of its leaders and affiliates make us believe so. pro-hindutva stance as seen during the election time always (which is in fact forced on it by some individual events of electioneering campaigns), is nothing but just a tactics to get into the vote bank and to come to power like they did in the first time. ii. It is high time for the National Parties realize that a coalition with regional parties with no nationalistic outlook in the federal government is neither worth for the National parties or for the nation. It will be only a stumbling block in the path of over all progress. mushrooming of many regional parties. Therefore, it is only common sense that in Lok Sabha elections, National party should have more number of seats and less number of seats for regional parties and the other way around in Assembly elections mutually supporting the candidates of both. The National parties should put their foot firmly down and bargain for it instead of crying foul afterwards. and bargain for it instead of crying foul afterwards. iii. Similarly many other national parties refuse to come out of the religious shells and grow up beyond communal politics. It will be in the wider interest of the nation for the National parties become polarized to few major political parties in the national level to avoid opportunist regional parties hijack the political system, and to make sure that the country can have stable government in the Center; without mixing religion with politics. It is all the more important now with the explosive situation in the countries around us and the ever growing threat of terrorists from those countries are likely to be pushed into Indian territory due to the actions happening elsewhere, willfully of otherwise. 2.7 India is a necklace made of beautiful pearls of different shapes, sizes and color. Through the many decades after independence, secularism is always being talked about by every politician, Gandhian or else, but did secularism is always being talked about by every politician, Gandhian or else, but did nothing cohesive to make it a working reality. If we need to become an India as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi, a secular and non-violent India in the true sense of humanity, a transparent and non partisan India that provide equal opportunities to all its citizens, we need to go many more miles. There is much to be desired in the present mode functioning of the leaders of the major political parties in the parliament. History will not be kind to BJP and Congress, the two major National Parties if India is pushed to anarchy by their misdoings.

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Common people are neither interested as to who rules the country nor who the PM and the Ministers are, as far as their basic needs are taken care of by the government. If old leaders in the parties are the stumbling blocks, youngsters should come forward to take the leadership of ordogs for God sake. It is time the sensible ones in these parties sit together and take some pragmatic decisions in the interest of the country. Unless Congress Party and BJP make quick amends; India need a better alternative for the country to move forward as a healthy democracy and therefore, a more capable coalition of forward looking secularist parties if can happen, is always welcome. coalition of forward looking secularist parties if can happen, is always welcome. 2.8. Federal Governance needs big change:

The governments so far, irrespective of their political leanings, did pretty little to transform the country to a welfare nation; other than proclaiming too many redundant policies and empty promises. Elimination of poverty and starvation and availability of basic needs still far dreams for the common man. Lok Pal, Panchayath Raj, Minority Protection Act, more representation and rights for Dalits and Women etc., PURA and other disparate Yojanas and programs are yet to deliver. So far the government machinery irrespective who at the helm; were incapable of planning the growth with foresight and effectively implementing thneeded infrastructure and welfare programs. Though onus of governance changed hands, no significant change in governance happened; mainly because of the latency for change no significant change in governance happened; mainly because of the latency for change in the political leadership, the inaction of bureaucracy and rampant corruption in every level. The funds for development schemes get pilfered en-route at every level, leaving only a fraction reach the intended projects or schemes and target population in the end. There is no factual accounting or audit on these funds. Pitifully, things have only worsened in the past decade with mushrooming of many political parties and its splinter groups, whose main focus is to come to power and stay there, enhancing corruption and nepotism. For many, politics has become a quick means to become rich. 2.9. Proper governance is not being honest and upright but also being pragmatic. Mr. Manmohan Singh, a most distinguished and honorable person of irreproachable character and impeccable integrity becoming a PM by accident, evidently seemed to suffer from some sort of power fatigue, wariness leading to lack of dynamism that usually happens when political power accidentally thrust upon non-ambitious and non usually happens when political power accidentally thrust upon non-ambitious and non power hungry persons. Nonetheless, the needs and challenges faced by the country have drastically increased during the past decade making it a herculean task even for a government with absolute single party majority or even for a dictatorial government. 2.10. Government need to function like a Corporate: There is much to be desired in the mode of functioning of the PMO and other ministries. There seems to be no brain-storming sessions on policies and decisions within the government, within party or open

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discussions between the coalition parties. No effort is made to bring awareness of various government decisions to people through media. It is astonishing that even leaders of Congress and in UPA are not aware what is BPLindex and how it is related with poverty eradication planning. Government should have smart, able and articulate press secretary to officially communicate Governments decisions, with Media and through it to the people of the country on a day today basis on behalf of government and P.M shall meet the press periodically and as and when required.

3. Governm cies need change. Most of the old school political big wigs think that governance means money making by heavy taxation, levies and duties and using most of it on non-productive government expenses, inefficient PSUs and ill organized programs which only help to fill the coffers of the unscrupulous. The Congress led UPA government also initially went through the same old rhetoric about improving the economy by manipulating the Rinterest rates, half a percent here, quarter percent there etc., etc. None seems to have real grasp of the enormity, volume and magnitude of the economic structures required to meet the social needs and aspirations of a billion and odd, that are more demanding and continuously changing with time. As inclusion of more and more in the lower strata happen, the needs also will spiral of exponentially in geometrical proportion. When looked in the right perspective, for a country like ours, the proposals and figures in our annual budgets are only a miniscule of what need to be done. Those in the government and the opposition vie each other in, magnifying the many non-issues out of proportion and fight on those, leaving out the real problem areas where focused actions are badly required. The politicians by and large in this country lack courage to go anywhere near the real issues. 3.1. India has enormous potential to grow: Every sphere in India is bursting to expand. See what has happened in Telecom & IT sector. From a waiting period of 3 to 5 years, Telephone now has become available and affordable to general mass and many Telecom service providers and vendors have made billions of it. Similarly every other field in the country is waiting to grow. There is huge growth potential in Power, Highways, Roads and Railways, Airports & manufacturing of Airplanes, Auto mobiles, Rural Telecom & IT services and Telecom manufacturing, Airplanes, Auto mobiles, Rural Telecom & IT services and Telecom manufacturing, Linkage of rivers to harness water resources, Fishing, Farming & Agriculture, Education, Health care, Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Defense production, Internal defense and National Security, Shipping and Ship building, Oil & Gas and exploration and internal utilization and export of abundant natural resources etc. Major infrastructure projects like construction of Dikes across river mouths viz., Gulf of Cambay and Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat and other such huge Gulfs in other regions into sweet water reservoirs. It is also possible to generate Electricity using sea tides with

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turbines in the dike across Gulf of Kutch. Roads and Rail over the dikes across Gulf of Cambay and Kutch can reduce the distance between Mumbai/ Maharashtra/M.P regions to Jamnagar and Kandla areas. Considerable amount of power could be generated with Solar fields in the deserts and Wind machines in many more areas in the country.

big job opportunities.

3.2. Need to embrace technology. Inception of Technology, not more and more rules and regulations, is the solution. Inception of Technology, not more and more rules and regulations, is the solution. Quick inception and its prudent usage technology in every sphere is the need of the day.

the country get over most of the current woes with large scale inception of Technology. With the help of super computers and right products and applications and Enterprise Resource Planning tools in place; Technology can be of help to improve the govt. departments looking after:- Education and Health care, Acquisition, storage and distribution activities in PDS, Improve agricultural production and farming, Financial inclusion of people in the lower strata, Help prevention of terrorism, Crisis and disaster management, Reducing delay in the Judicial process, Reducing delay in the Judicial process, Make the public sector and Government departments functionally efficient, Reduction of Rail accidents, Curbing of Unemployment.

3.3. Corruption to great extent is due unmatchable Demand against Supply. India with it is enormous human resources and high level of technology capability, it is possible to overcome most of its current woes due to rampant corruption using technology on a war footing basis. For this we need a government that is pragmatic and at the same time forward looking. India needs hundred of Trillions of rupees for eradication of poverty and taking care of the needs of its Billion and fast growing population of which two third live in poverty.

If the current leaders are not capable of doing it, they need to be changed. If Sri. Anna Hazare movement acts as a catalyst and eye opener for the people in the If Sri. Anna Hazare movement acts as a catalyst and eye opener for the people in the Parliament, Government, Political parties and various Religious factions, it shall be welcome. However, the current programs of various Annas and Babas are counter productive and will only drag the country backwards. With little more pragmatism exercised by its organizers, it can still be converted into a positive movement that will enable to unite the country again. Otherwise instead of eliminating corruption and systemic deficiencies it will only lead the country into anarchy.

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3.4. Lack of leadership at the top: Unfortunately, as could be seen evidently there is lack of leadership required to take it head on. The appropriate and perhaps the only way for India to get out of the financial crisis is to quickly launch the much needed infrastructure projects financed with infrastructure funds by way of bonds and other such instruments. Is it not surprising that big central PSUs like ITI, and like KELTRON, MELTRON, UPTRON etc., in the country are slogging with negative growth while foreign entrepreneurs in various industries, manufacturers and service sectors and others coming are prospering here. India indiscreetly allowed export of most of our natural resources very cheap and imports India indiscreetly allowed export of most of our natural resources very cheap and imports its finished products at huge cost. Priority action is needed to revitalize and reorganize

export. With a strong political will, foundation for a major change can be paved within a year.

4. The Bitter Pills for India Reprieve. There is no easy way. In order to realize the goal, India also has to go through the pangs and pains of growing. Harnessing the vast human resource in the country shall be the main objective. Instead of blaming the enormity of our population base for every woe, it shall be Instead of blaming the enormity of our population base for every woe, it shall be converted as our major strength. The prime cause of poverty in India especially among the majority rural mass is the lack of environment to generate the minimum income needed for lively hood, from agriculture, employment or other resources. India needs a different type of democracy, knitting of a secularist nation with the threads of participation of the entire masevery sphere of national growth thus realizing national integration in the course. The American model of democracy where self-indebted vanity is the yardstick of development is not suitable for India. The consequences are obvious now. though seem effective are too drastic and impractical to emulate here through a democratic process. Most of the unrest and disharmony happening every where, may it be of social, political, various disruptions caused by actions and counter actions of different ethnic groups and various disruptions caused by actions and counter actions of different ethnic groups and communities turning into religious extremism, are due to the shift in the focus of life among the mass especially the village youth, due to desperation fermenting of the prevailing situation that deprive them options and opportunities to grow up and lead a normal life. To alleviate it, the primary focus shall be on the uplift of the 750 odd million rural population, by providing them basic amenities such as a home to live, clean water, cheap electricity and fuel, primary healthcare, free basic education, effective public distribution system, good roads and other infrastructure, and a minimum assured income from

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agricultural or trade related occupation for a moderate livelihood. When that is achieved, there will no one to follow the miscreants. Priority for next ten years shall be the

To bring real change, it is necessary to enable participation and sense of ownership for common man in the nation building process and plug every means of corruption at all levels. Experiences thus far have proven that current methods of governance and government machinery are not capable to achieve these. A strong will and conviction for a major shift in the policies of the Government for a changed social outlook are needed to push the country forward.

with matured national heritage, cultural strength, abundant natural resources, etc. The trick lies in harnessing all these with our wealth of human resource effectively. The points mentioned below towards this end may seem difficult to conceive and digest by many in the higher echelons of current political hierarchy. Though seems to be unconventional, these are realistic and achievable. 4.1. Participate Army in nation building process. Move the Army to Villages and strengthen and diversify the defense establishment for the rural development revolution.

days of conventional wars had gone and most of us believe that war is not the solution for every disagreement. It is not that we can be complacent and remain unprepared for any every disagreement. It is not that we can be complacent and remain unprepared for any possible aggression. Along with that we should also consider how better we can use the men and resources in the defense forces effectively during peace time. The current form of non-sharing the law enforcement bodies by the Central and State

local police force and the NSG to contain mere handful terrorists for over two days in a city like Mumbai is a glaring example of how ill equipped and inefficient our security capabilities are. If we had the right resources, just a few gas masked security men could have put the terrorists out of action within minutes of their invasion and apprehended them using some neutralizing gas, it was just fool hardy to jump the hands of mindless AK 47 and Grenades wielding terrorists. 4.2. Revisit the condition of our army and defense systems. Without trifling the splendid service and the valuable efforts and sacrifices of the men safeguarding the nation in the boarders and elsewhere, we still need to ponder whether it is necessary for nation in the boarders and elsewhere, we still need to ponder whether it is necessary for most of the defense infrastructure remain embedded in developed cities occupying prime lands. It is also worthwhile to examine, such exorbitant existence of the army establishments eating out of the central exchequer, have matching contribution during the days of peace for the over all growth of the nation. For the sake of nation building, it will be apt to move most of the army setup out from the cities and re-locate distributed in rural areas, strengthen them further and diversify their activities deploying them for

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national development, working hand in hand with the local administrative bodies and local population. 4.3. Restore peace in border and redeploy the military for nation building: Resolve the issues and bring in good relation with the neighboring countries, so that attention can be concentrated on nation building. India has a mammoth and strong army. It is told that

between India and Pakistan. If a peaceful settlement is achieved, most of it can be deployed for nation building. So start the reforms from Kashmir. People in Kashmir have suffered enough. The army shall be used for the uplift of the region, not to create more suffered enough. The army shall be used for the uplift of the region, not to create more hardships. Anyone trying to incite communal tension there or anywhere should be dealt with severely. 4.4. Make the Army join the mainstream of rural growth. Provide opportunity for the army personnel to lead family life in the villages along with the civilians giving them the opportunity to lead a peaceful and stable social life in healthy situations with the local population and at the same time taking part in the nation building process. To realize these there need to have a joint mechanism of Paramilitary & Civilian administration. This establishment shall function in the style of Corporate with the Federal and State Legislative Representative of the constituency, the District collector and one delegated Army personnel of Brigadier level as board of Directors supported with capable administrators taken in from open market. The working of the corporate shall be extended over the district with Lt. Cornels with the Tahsildars at Tahsil level and shall be extended over the district with Lt. Cornels with the Tahsildars at Tahsil level and Lieutenants / Captains with the local executives at Village / Panchayat at level, each supported by units of Military and Paramilitary personnel and supporting staff. 4.5. Participate the rural mass in nation building process: General development of the rural area and uplift of the people there by implementing centrally drawn out development programs making use of locally available and other manageable resources shall be the joint responsibility of the local administration and the army units with close co-ordination of Bureaucracy, Law enforcement supported by the Judiciary and NGOs. All able bodied un-employed persons in the 21 to 45 years age group of the local population shall be compulsorily enrolled to form human resources units in every Village / Panchayat. Enrollment and training shall be a continuous process. All persons in the units shall be given compulsory basic education, training in agriculture, trades and other vocational given compulsory basic education, training in agriculture, trades and other vocational training. The eligible ones shall have opportunity for free higher education. 4.6. Para military training for all: Paramilitary training shall be given for all those are physically fit. There shall be facility for giving short term Para-military training for the youth from the urban areas and it shall made mandatory for all job seekers to have undergone at three months Para-military training. All employed persons without exception, shall undergo at least a 45 days Para-military training, once in two years.

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Everyone should be trained on anti terrorism awareness programs and prevention methods. Imagine the potential of a country with 250 to 350 million mentally and physically disciplined and well-organized persons available across the country that could be mobilized and used in case of any national emergency or external threats. The mobility achieved with more roads, highways, railways and infrastructure across the country will make the defense potential much stronger. Moreover, this will be best way, may be the only way to bring self discipline and prevent youngsters falling prey to extremists and the only way to fully eradicate terrorism. 4.7. Rural service shall be mandatory for all Professionals. It shall be made 4.7. Rural service shall be mandatory for all Professionals. It shall be made mandatory for every Medical, Engineering and other professionals to serve rural

this quota of rural service shall have eligibility to accept other jobs in Cities or abroad. 4.8. Give priority for infrastructure development in all sectors. Government should give top priority for infrastructure development in Power, Roads, Railways, Water resources, Telecom, IT and other sectors. 4.9. Rural development shall be the common responsibility. In case of Telecom, TV and other such technology, it shall be made mandatory for all Service providers licensed to form a consortia to set up common system and networks and share them to provide service to the rural mass such as using the principle of Virtual Mobile Network using one network by many service providers to make Rural Telecom and IP services available, accessible and affordable to common man. accessible and affordable to common man. 4.10. Explore and use local resources: Export of basic resources like iron ore, coir yarn, rubber, and all other natural resources should be banned.

-operative units for agricultural and dairy farming, fishing, etc. should be encouraged and populated in every village. Industrial/manufacturing units using raw materials from nearby areas etc. shall be set up and made to function effectively. Schemes for provision of water, construction of roads/railways, electricity, schools, hospitals, living quarters and other infrastructure, agriculture and diary farms, local industrial units, mining, oil & gas exploration etc. shall be taken up using the locally trained human resources. Where possible, projects for rain water-harnessing, linking of lakes and rivers, generation of captive power from water, solar and wind energy, electrical distribution etc., shall be carried out by utilizing these trained personnel of the units to the extent possible. 4.11. Preserve serenity and healthy environment of the Villages. 4.11. Preserve serenity and healthy environment of the Villages.

ts serenity without converting these to crowded towns and crammed cities and concrete jungles in the process of development. The roads, buildings and infrastructure done in the Panchayat / Villages shall merge naturally with the surroundings and its serene atmosphere without

European village models need be adopted to realize these.

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4.12. Allow the mass to continue to stay and prosper in own villages. Instead of running away to crowded cities, the local population shall be encouraged to stay in the units in their own villages, by providing them, basic amenities, with the objective of utilizing the trained mass for the rural development projects in local area. Everyone shall be given adequate minimum wage for a comfortable living for themselves and their dependent family. Those who acquire higher education and training and skill sets shall be given jobs at appropriate levels within the units or send to occupy jobs in other units.

5. Funding and financing of the Program. This of course, is the most crucial factor. The program as envisaged for uplifting from the current levels, developing, and up keeping of 700 million people, would need huge initial funding and recurring expenses in terms of astronomical figures in hundreds of Trillions which is mind boggling to any one. It is not possible to make available such huge fund for implementing the scheme across the entire country by government funding at one go. The way out is to bring in private participation, internal as well as external in all possible areas and start the schemes in prioritized areas beginning in stages, and then expanding into other areas in a phased manner. 5.1. Over all control shall be with a Central board for Rural development. Such enormous programs can be achieved only by melding strong political will and conviction with dynamism at the center leadership. Planning and linking these village conviction with dynamism at the center leadership. Planning and linking these village projects shall be the joint responsibility of the corporate body comprising the Federal representative of the constituency, the district collector and the Brigadier of the district Army unit and coordinated by the Central Planning & Implementation board. 5.2. Local revenue generation. In course of time, by effective planning and implementation, considerable amount of revenue could be generated by the units from various projects, co-operative dairy farming and agriculture, cotton and textile industries, cement, Paint, Pharmaceuticals, Breweries and Civil infrastructure projects, Construction jobs, minor and major industries, Educational institutions, Health care centers, Hospital, Tourism related and IT based industries and businesses, etc. Millions of hectares in various part of the country could be brought under active farming if water can reach in these areas. 5.3. Have effective control on Gold. Exercise control on gold, if necessary by banning 5.3. Have effective control on Gold. Exercise control on gold, if necessary by banning further import, marketing and usage of above 18 carats Gold and Platinum for two to three years. Bring restrictions in owning of gold. Take over excess gold, from individuals as well as from Institutions, Religious bodies and Trusts, print money of equivalent value and issue 10/15 year cash convertible bonds in lieu of Gold to owners who surrender gold, and use the money printed against deposit, auction it to foreign buyers, taking it in as foreign exchange reserve use the money for Infrastructure and social development programs.

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Peg the Indian currency with value of gold as value of Rupee picks up to comfortable level. For example: Value of one milligram of gold shall have a representative prize of

rupees. 5.4. Infrastructure development projects through PPP. Private Public Partnership is the way out being propagated by economists. However, parting with all profit making PSUs will only add the woes of the government. In my view, the best way to realize effective PPP is by Government owning some amount of stake (say 10%), in all Private Companies (say above capital outlay of 1000 Cr.) in the of stake (say 10%), in all Private Companies (say above capital outlay of 1000 Cr.) in the country so that the profit earned could be diverted to development needs, keeping the budgetary deficit low without undue increase in Duties and Taxes. Reduce direct TAX and duties so that price of essential commodities could be kept down. Government also should enter share market trading by setting up a financial company like IFCI, so as to take advantage of market appreciation instead of allowing FIs to siphon out the investment of Indian share holders by unscrupulous maneuvering the money market. 5.5. India need to eradicate poverty; not the poor.

The right way to eradicate poverty is to ensure financial inclusion of poor to realize inclusive growth. One method to realize it is to enable the huge unbanked population across the country using technology solutions. across the country using technology solutions.

It has become a fashion for long for everyone to talk about empowerment of general mass by their Financial Inclusion. Mostly it all adds up and ends up in big fuss about something that could otherwise be resolved much simpler way. The need of the day is to put these ideas into action quickly by having the systems, products and services in place that can provide all sorts of micro/macro finance support to all without the need for these unbanked population to go anywhere near a bank or other financial institutions. 5.6. For over ten years now, I have been propagating the idea of using phones, Mobile and also fixed ones in a limited way, for almost all types of easy and simple money management anytime from anywhere without the need of any sophisticated paperwork or involvement of regular banks and banking industry and complex tasks using Internet. Please see my blog in wordpress.com 'Universal unbanked Money Management by Please see my blog in wordpress.com 'Universal unbanked Money Management by phones' in the link: http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-4g

- gages principle of banking but works in a transparent way as far the users are concerned. Nonetheless, for the Money management Service providers, it complies with the regulatory norms of banking industry such as safety, security and privacy of the user and safeguards for the service provider; the differences are in the parameters and method of service delivery.

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If the Government understands this properly without confusing this service with what is

rolled out in no time as the technology is readily available and readily marketable. The challenge is only in spreading the reach to places where currently telecom networks not yet available. In addition to offering convenient and easy to use Pay by Phone service, there is a need to urgently implement non-banking and non-internet dependent solutions to realize Financial Inclusion and provide Micro Finance support to people in the lower social and economic strata. Money through Mobile (mTm) is envisaged as a method to provide economic strata. Money through Mobile (mTm) is envisaged as a method to provide financial service for the huge population of the unbanked that can quickly accelerate

both urban and rural areas across the country and will become an effective and user

The hold up i -banked money management. Regulation is a must but blocking of technology growth is not a solution. I have even suggesting for many years as can be seen in article mentioned above on this, to RBI/ NPCI and others to set up a new bank exclusively for handling all forms of money transactions using phones. Please see a detailed presentation on this topic Money through Mobile (mTm) for Inclusive Growth. http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-ue

Money through Mobile (mTm) is a means to effectively disperse Governments welfare payments to real beneficiaries. The banks, both nationalized and private are white payments to real beneficiaries. The banks, both nationalized and private are white elephants always with an eye on profit rather than service. Whatever said and done, banks will not be able to effectively serve people in the lower economic strata in urban as well as rural areas. Even with inception of Banking Correspondents, formal banking procedures are not user friendly for illiterate and poor customers especially for the women and aged. Similarly, services of most of the Micro Finance Institutions are also unaffordable to people in the lower economic strata. mTm system will make micro money payment facility available, accessible and affordable to everyone; including people in the lower economic strata at an individual level who is able and eligible to have phone in urban and rural areas. mTm as envisaged can provide Micro Finance service also to those who do not own a phone. Money through Mobile (mTm) can be effectively used for sending various government welfare payments various forms of pensions to retired employees, old aged and widows, mentally / physically handicapped etc and money related programs like MNREGA, Right to food, Education & Health care, through the mTm account of the beneficiaries across to food, Education & Health care, through the mTm account of the beneficiaries across the country so that the money is received by the real beneficiaries directly in their mTm account without pilferage and third party intervention and can be transacted using their mobile phones sitting at their homes. mTm can enable effective usage of ADHAR as it become ready for identification and KYC of the mTm users. ADHAR linked with mTm account number to enable personalized secure transactions to realize Financial Inclusion and Micro Finance

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services available, accessible by everyone and especially the people in the lower economic strata, both in urban and rural across the country at affordable cost. 5.7. Factors that decide success of unbanked Money management using phone: It is also necessary for the authorities to discern that the success of the system depends on the following factors. (i) Need to regulate. necessary and to allow only limited number of service providers as disparate systems at necessary and to allow only limited number of service providers as disparate systems at points of service (POS) can cause confusion to the users and the whole exercise can become counter productive. (ii) Making the system available, accessible and affordable to general mass. The system shall be workable using any base model low cost phones that can work in base end technology systems and network and the service cost to the end user shall be nil or negligible. (iii) While most of the transactions are e-payments without involving any hard cash transactions, there shall be simple and readily available methods to meet the hard cash needs of the users. (iv)There shall be sufficient safeguards for the micro/macro finance service provider to protect their funds being loaned to their customers. (v) There shall be means and ways for accruing benefit for all stake holders involved in the systems, networks and service by way of appropriate revenue and profit sharing. All the above aspects are taken care of in my proposal of Money through Mobile (MTM) as explained in the article in the blog.

Please see my blog: http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-rP and a presentation http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-ue

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6. Remove Public Distribution Systems from Federal control.

Public Distribution system is the prerogative of the State.

Public Distribution system is the prerogative of the State and so be it. It is impossible for Federal Government to run PDS across the country and it has been proven so, time and gain. Parliament can make rules accordingly and leave it to the States to do what they choose according to their needs and resources.

State shall be free to decide what and how much to give and what percentage of population to be covered. Responsibility of identifying the beneficiaries and classifying them to decide whom all given what benefits and also the mode of distribution operation of PDS, shall also rest with States. State can chose the physical distribution through the networks of ration shops or giving cash using DBT or both also shall be the decision of networks of ration shops or giving cash using DBT or both also shall be the decision of State.

Financial implication of PDS / DBT shall also be borne by States and other than what are supplemented from federal exchequer. With this Food Corporation of India shall be changed to Food corporations of States.

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6.1. Impact of Public Distribution system on Farmers and Market economy.

One of the major drawback of Government run Food acquisition and distribution to large percentage of country's population is its impacts on market economy and its effects on

th dumping of huge quantity of food items at low cost to a major portion of the population as envisaged in the FSB, a good portion of it will creep into black market through profiteers and middlemen disrupting open market economy at the distribution areas on one side; will have adverse effect in farmers in not getting right price for their products as they will be forced to depend solely on Government to lift off their produces at floor price on the other side. depend solely on Government to lift off their produces at floor price on the other side.

This will kill agriculture growth and in the process government will be forced to import Food grains at very high cost to keep and sustain PDS live and kicking. Contrary to this, replacement of PDS with DBT by giving money to the beneficiary for buying their needs from open market, market decides the price and farmers get its benefits.

Thus DBT through banks or through Mobile phones, will help people as end users, the farmers and help to bring huge saving to governments in the expenditures on FSB.

6.2. Relevance of BPL Index as decided by planning commission.

Please see the chart above made by me on this subject showing relevance of BPL Index Vs Standard of living Vs Resource mobilization based on the assumption that with

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nominal 5% GDP growth, it shall be possible to fully eradicate poverty in a span of 20 years. The chart is hypothetical but self explanatory.

6.3. Give subsidies only to those who need it.

NFSB is good as far as it supports the needy. But giving coverage up to 67% of population is not justified. BJP & other parties asking for NFSB coverage for 100% of population is absurd if not atrocious. of population is absurd if not atrocious.

Crux of the matter is that subsidies should be given only to those who are really in need of it; and all subsidies for those who can afford without it (indicated as shown

in the chart above) shall be scrapped. To ensure this, a method for identification of people below poverty line and those in acute poverty in the base of the population pyramid is needed. Hope this will be realized with Aadhaar at the earliest.

6.4. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is the game changer in realizing inclusive finance. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is the ideal way to realize poverty eradication and Inclusive Finance. DBT can ensure transparency, prevent pilferage and quicken the processes of disbursement of money direct to beneficiaries. Money through mobile (mTm) system, network if implemented will be the best way to realize it. realize it.

6.5. PDS with its all attendant problems can be done away with Direct Benefit Transfer to the needy and only to the needy.

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DBT can replace PDS. Remove PDS progressively with DBT. Current Public distribution system is inefficient, riddled with logistic problems, pilfer prone, wasteful and inadequate. PDS suffer from severe management problems in every step; procurement, transport, storage and distribution of materials under PDS scheme, corrupt practices by various agents in the chain and huge number of bogus and ghost ration cards etc.

6.6. How Money through mobile (mTm) can help to implement programs under Food Security Bill.

The much debated about Food Security Bill has been steamrolled through Loksabha, in spite of many aspersions about the bill, especially about its financial burden on the Government in Federal and States.

There are also animated arguments about Planning Commissions view point of defining people below poverty line with BPL index fixed at Rs.33.3 and Rs.27/- per day per person respectively in Urban and Rural areas. On the face, it appears to be much lower than what a person would need to survive. Explanation of Mr. Montek Sing that this is just an indicative metrics to start with to identify people in acute poverty for whom free food and many other freebies covered under various Government welfare programs to be given, does not seem to have understood even by leaders in ruling party, not withstanding

the fact the BPL index is based on 2004-05 price index and that need to be enhanced linking with inflation. linking with inflation.

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If we take the benefit of NFSB in terms of its cash equivalent as decided by BPL index, the expenditure for coverage of 67% of population will be about 52.63% of the annual budget allocation.

It is strange that no one from the Government cared to provide convincing explanation of this to the members in both houses of Parliament before taking up the bill. It is equally strange that Opposition while casting aspersion of financial burden of FSB on one side, and cry foul about high CAD etc., most of them wanted FSB to give universal coverage, which will need an expenditure equal to 78.55% of over all annual budget expenditure. It is nothing but sheer madness. is nothing but sheer madness.

Fact is that with right method of identification. It will come to pass that about less than 25% of the population only would need free food supplies and this figure also will go down as general Standard of living improves over time.

7. Money through Mobile (mTm) for Micro Finance support.

8. Pool back the income. In B.O.T /Sale of products and produces, Electricity, River & Water supplies related projects, Road, Bridges and other infrastructure construction projects to the concerned States/ Central governments, and providing man power services, can bring in considerable revenue to pump back into rural development. By these methods it will be very much possible to generate enough revenue in course of time which would self

generate surplus for taking care of the areas which are not able to produce adequate income. Funding of these village development

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projects shall be from a centralized setup. Surplus revenue from the projects shall be pumped back for further development process. 9. Weed out corruption at all levels. Corruption is the cancer that kills the society as a whole. Corruption need to be totally eradicated from politics, bureaucracy, army and local administration by strict and strong-handed disciplinary norms. It is shameful for every Indian to know even the name of Judiciary is tarnished by incidents of corruption. At every level, quality of the persons, systems and products shall be given prime importance. To a considerable extent, systems and products shall be given prime importance. To a considerable extent, corruption has a big hand in pushing up in inflation as easy gotten money is fast spent. See that governance is percolated to grass root level. As corruption is weeded out, it shall be possible to achieve the vision of true Panchayat Raj by handing over power to Village and Panchayat levels. 10. Exercise Control on Corporate bodies. By and large many of the Corporate of late have become very greedy. Look at what has happened in US. The likes of that are also obvious here looking at the IPO pricing and the

ng the wealth amassed, by investing it in infrastructure projects for the benefit of general mass. Mother earth do not charge for its resources like water, sun light, wind, crude oil, coal, metal ores, fish, forest wood etc. It is the duty of mankind to ensure equitable distribution of the natural resources across the world, taking mankind to ensure equitable distribution of the natural resources across the world, taking only the operation and logistic cost plus a small margin. It is the greed of the countries, the corporate and the middle men making these un-affordable to common man. The Government should think twice before giving away the government assets and non-renewable resources to private sector. There is need to scrutinize the real intention of the industrialists, and see whether they need such vast area of land for the proposed projects; such as; why thousand acres of arable land is required for a small car manufacturing unit. With the economic fiasco across the world and its ripple effects in India, people have lost faith in the capabilities of the corporate world. The banks and various Fund managers loot the customers and eat into their invested capital for the extravagant executive and managerial spending. Therefore, government should girdle and have control on industrialists and banking sector. Government should frame rules to impose corporate

11. Special Economic Zones: SEZ by Public sector or Private sector or on combined 11. Special Economic Zones: SEZ by Public sector or Private sector or on combined ownership are much needed and so shall be welcomed it every State. However, the prime focus shall be the development of that area and benefits and welfare of the people there, which should be made visible beforehand to the people who originally own the land and live there. It should not be mere promises of the benefits they would get after 10 years. The rehabilitation of the entire displaced villagers giving them reasonable alternate accommodation and facilities and a means of lively hood shall be made available hand in

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hand as the first step of the project and a share of its overall appreciation in due course. To enable this it shall be made mandatory for the private participators in investing part of FDIs / FIIs into infrastructure development, agriculture, manufacturing centers and factories and Special Economic Zones in rural areas by various subsidies, reduced taxation and duties on the products coming out of the village units. This will avoid repeat of Nandigram like situation which are definitely going to happen everywhere where mass scale human habitat evacuations are involved.

12. Implement workable Solutions to overcome Terrorism: It is matter of great shame that a country that exhort time and again about its capability It is matter of great shame that a country that exhort time and again about its capability and readiness to face any challenge, took more than 60 hours to contain massacre and rampage by ten vandal youths came from abroad. True that it is almost impossible to take adequate and appropriate action in case of terror attacks. Prevention of terrorism is the only way out. This can be done only by India get immunized itself from terrorism, firstly from internal threats and then from external forces. To prevent internal terrorism it is necessary to take stern and decisive action against communal violence and disruptive tendencies within the country. The set up of mass participation as envisaged above will be the ideal and may be the only solution to eliminate terrorism initiated inculcated and practiced by fundamentalists. As mentioned earlier, everyone should be trained on anti terrorism awareness programs and prevention methods. There shall be a set up of Citizen Utility Boards as social watchdogs in every unit to check anti-national activities. Anti national and anti-secular activities shall be construed as treason and anyone indulging in it shall be treated as traitors. 12.1. Prevent terrorism from external forces. Find out and eliminate the root cause. India was the first country to recognize Palestine and right of Muslims to have their home land back. India also took the courage of joining the nations in severing diplomatic ties with Israel. India is one of the nations which condemned a unilateral decision of war in Iraq. India give moral and physical support for

legitimate actions and entered into cooperation in many areas of trade and sharing of resources even at the risk of friendship with America. India had contributed much for the development of many Gulf countries and Arab nations. Till recent past, Indians were treated as friends in every Islamic nation. It is necessary to ponder where we have gone wrong for a turn around of the situation causing the Islamic fundamentalist groups to take on disruptive activities in India. It would not be surprising that fingers started pointing back to us; to our misdeeds in past decade of Indiof in-tolerance towards minority communities and tolerance of hyperactive religious of in-tolerance towards minority communities and tolerance of hyperactive religious extremists and their unholy alliance with power mongering politicians. It is sad that no one including the so called secularist politicians is dare enough to stand up against it condemn such activities for the fear losing majority votes. It is time to realize that the most effective way to eliminate terrorism is perhaps the simplest of all other alternates we have in our vision now. Just what we need is to stand up and openly admit the mistakes we committed in the past; seek apology and mend our

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ways in future. Unless we change ourselves, terrorism in one form or other is likely to grow further and become very unmanageable. 12.2. Crisis and disaster Management and terrorism control: Manufacture enough quantity of indigenous sophisticated weapons, arms, armor and tools in the ordinance factories and set up systems and other infrastructure, and make available to the army and anti-terrorist personnel. Build up an effective Crisis / Disaster management system and establishment with the back borne of highly trained and equipped army and Para-military personnel at every city and towns and villages. 12.4. GPS / GSM Wireless Telecom Network for Crisis Control and Disaster Management. Please see my blog http://wp.me/p1ZsI2-28 Quick means of communication is one of the vital needs at the time of major crisis and disaster. The irony is that public telecom networks are of no help when it is most needed. The normal telecom networks are designed for optimum busy hour telephone use of a routine day. The systems get choked due to over usage. It is impossible to design a public telephone network that is capable of handling the sudden spurt of telephone traffic of sporadic nature that happen at the time of any major events, crisis and disaster. It was pitiful to see that while the 26/11 terrorists were able talk to the perpetrators abroad, there were no clear communication happened between the Police HQ and their various men in field. Even the police control rooms did not bother to get information from the large number of media persons present in the vicinity. This is very much evident from the fact that had Mr. Karkare and others with him were not able to get real time information of the ground situation, whereabouts of the terrorists, the type of weapons they have with the ground situation, whereabouts of the terrorists, the type of weapons they have with them etc. in spite of the fact that there were dozens of media reporters giving real time running commentary. The least there should have means to pool these and use it. Had there been proper communication, death of those three policemen could have been avoided and things would have ended in entirely different way. The way out is to have a private Wireless telecom network exclusively for essential services such as security, army, police, ambulance, hospitals, road transport & traffic control, air traffic control, railways and important persons/ organizations and local administration, that are vital in the crisis control/disaster management system. By design, these shall be non-blocking, full availability systems for congestion free service at the switching centre level as well as at the access network levels. Interconnects to Public networks could be available on normal situation, but it would be capable to filter or block these to avoid flooding of calls from other networks during emergency situations. With these systems and network set up across the country in place, it would be possible With these systems and network set up across the country in place, it would be possible to keep up fail proof communication between the vital points to receive information and pass on orders immediately from central control to various points to take appropriate action in case of cyclone, flood, fire, earthquake, terrorist activities, bomb scare, mob violence or major traffic hold up situations. It shall be possible to access the communications systems of Suburban railway and road transport from this network to contact and pass orders for immediate actions. Bomb scare alarms and announcement system shall be available in every railway compartment.

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The network and systems in different cities shall be linked for integrated action of security needs and events and crisis of national importance. It is possible to have centralized database and control servers in one of the systems and shared by other networks. In addition to such private GSM Network, other infrastructures for crisis management also shall be in place. Vital things are: i) A centralized administrative body to take over and exercise over all control and coordination. ii) A research and consultant group to constantly improvise the systems in every sphere, ii) A research and consultant group to constantly improvise the systems in every sphere, technology, strategy, administration etc., according to changing needs. iii) A contingent of specially trained persons in every city. iv) Necessary infrastructure such as modern weapons, armor and ammunition. v) Protected vehicles, helicopters, airplanes, fire tenders and etc pre-loaded and fully equipped in operational ready condition. 12.5. Implement Advanced Automatic Personal Identification system. Personal Identification of every inhabitant and visitors in the country shall be done. With so much IT capability and techno-savvy environment in India, it shall be possible to develop and implement a system which can generate and provide identity cards with an intelligent chip with DNA map and finger print code embedded in it and once activated it will remain logged in to a GPS controlled network. This could be done by ISRO setting up geo stationery satellites for GPS network needed and networked across the country. up geo stationery satellites for GPS network needed and networked across the country. As the humanity advance, this chip could be further developed as a capsule that could be placed inserted in the body of every living person and every new born. The capsule will remain logged in to the GPS system during the life time of the person. The information is loaded via GPS link to into central system which gets updated periodically. The data is deleted from the system at the death of the person. Safeguards against tampering can be envisaged by various inbuilt features. Tamper or removal of the capsule will permanently damage it as the permanent discontinuity which will be detected and reported by the system. With this the identity of any person could be verified directly by a blue tooth device and cross checking it with the database. Utility of this system is enormous. This can best method to detect possible terrorist activities and help eradicate terrorism from internal and external sources. In built features and applications safe guard against fraud, non-compliance, misuse and tampering. The system envisaged will cover every person in entire country. The system envisaged will cover every person in entire country. A ready method to have the record of day to day Census, scope for automatic updating it, collection and use of various information, which could be used for ensuring full scale voting, payment of taxes. Every visitor entering the country shall be given a temporary ID card at the point of entry. This can in the form of a tamper proof wrist band sealed over the wrist and removed at the time of exit. Removal or tampering of this will generate and send information to the internal security. Senior citizens shall be given special cards that can

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be worn as badges so as to distinguish them for providing certain privileges they are entitled. 13. Have control on the media. Currently most of the media thrive on speculations and continuous bashing of hate messages uttered by one group or other and many meaningless bickering. The media is powerful and play a big role in nation building. The media is resourceful and have big network which has the capability to have first hand information of every happenings across the country. However, Most of their actions are aimed in self glory. Most of visual media organizations just gulp what the self serving politicians and other vexed interest groups exhort and throw it out with frills on the face politicians and other vexed interest groups exhort and throw it out with frills on the face of the viewers without doing any study, research or analysis of the issues involved. There shall be control on percentage of media time for advertisement at the cost of viewers who pay for the channel time to channel service providers. It is necessary for the Media to collate the information they collect and channelize it to the right agency as quick as possible. Media should act with responsibility, in analyzing the situations impartially, and judiciously handle various information giving right suggestions to mould public opinion, in a positive and productive manner. 13.1. Strengthen the Government Communication Media: India need to continuously do better PR work to effectively convey our intentions and policies internally and across the world, especially to the younger generations to prevent them from getting brainwashed by various groups of fundamentalists, extremists and religious fanatics, and un controlled media activities. un controlled media activities.

Government should invigorate the state owned media to interact with the people the way private channels do. If managed well, it is sure that many of these media networks will go out of business as people are fed up of the continuous and repeated and boring media bashing hate messages, gossips and speculations, anti establishment bickering, dumb and indecent advertisements and mostly self glorifying public discussion programs where most often the basics are lost. The state owned media should be strengthened to collect analyze and supply information to Crisis control and Disaster management and internal security agencies.

14. Safeguard democratic process: Last but not the least, it is very important to restrict authoritative excesses, inter-administrative problems and to ensure sufficient safe guards to prevent the Army from over riding the bureaucracy and the democratic fabric leading the country to dictatorship and chaos. and chaos. To conclude, I fully agree that in country like ours, it is very difficult to bring in a major change in a short period of time through democratic process. I have full faith in the youth of this country and hopeful that in next 10 years, things would be far better. It is for the politicians to decide their own destiny, and the time for it is now. ========================================