What my India should be?

BIKASH CHOUDHURY



‘Chanakya’, the great Indian philosopher
wished, dreamt and worked for an undivided India; and, a few million
young people of India join me to second that vision of “Sampurna
Bharat and Samparna Bharat”; if not politically; at least emotionally,
economically and culturally. That should save ten billion USD
approximately, a year; by pruning three defence forces (India,
Pakistan & Bangladesh) to 1.5. Visualise an India that could attract
people from all continents for its wealth in art, craft and culture;
as it used to be, five hundred years ago. India with healthy and happy
people full of intelligence, education and skills that should be
cynosure of World. Indian cities, towns and country side full of
greenery. Rivers with crystal clear water that reflects an India that
boasts of World class infrastructure-roads, rail net work, airport &
seaport and a clean India rivalling best in the World.

How would I change my India today? “Man is born free; but, every where
in chains” said Rousseau. Sadly, that is true for India even today; as
India won freedom since 15 th August 1947 a good 64 years ago; but,
Indians find themselves in bondage; politically, economically and also
socially. The Governance model left behind by Britishers does not suit
a free country and that needs a complete overhaul to embrace the
spirit of freedom, creativity and entrepreneurship. Today, Indian
private enterprise has gained global scale and competence; therefore,
in National interest Government should exit slowly but steadily from
commercial ventures to enhance efficiency and minimize bureaucracy.
That should change lock-stock and barrel. India should retain its
natural advantage in “English Language” but, at the same time must
reemphasise and strengthen its reach treasure of Indian languages to
add to the National integration. We must give “teachers/academician”
the highest place in the society that would subsequently attract
talent into education domain and also redefine the quality of
education delivery.

How we can get there? The spontaneous support of young people in large
number across the country in the movement against corruption confirms
that our young people are aware about the issues facing the nation and
are willing to contribute to the National cause. Youths of today are
smarter lot; who understand that money spent in defence is waste of
tax payer’s money; they would rather prefer a chunk of such resources
deployed in the “developmental investment”; which would have a
multiplier effect in the economy of the region and secure their future
and ensure prosperity. They only look forward to a clean and
transparent rallying point and communication backbone. Young Indian
Leaders would emerge and capture the opportunity. Further, Indian
media would create a platform that would connect the young people in
the University/College campus in the region to bring about a change.
Young people also need to be prepared for public life to offer the
country a young leadership to bring about a change in the “Idea” of
India and the way it should be governed in the future. During the
freedom struggle many rich people contributed resources generously to
fight against British Empire; now, we wish 10% of our rich people to
contribute/invest 10% of their net income for 10 years to create World
class infrastructure in the country, conserving our precious water
bodies and paint the country Green; that should help a new India
emerge, of our dreams.

Gotipua Dance Festival

Bikash Choudhury


Gotipua Dance Festival at Rabindra Mandap has managed to mesmerize its audience.Twenty year old's were seen to be swept off their feet and clapping spontaneously & profusely-not a mean achievement;knowing their taste for rock band & reality shows.The festival has been impeccably organized that ran to full capacity of the auditorium.The secretary of Tourism & Culture was monitoring the festival to its minute details;which apparently made all the difference.Time will come when Bollywood choreographers cast classical dance forms like Gotipua in their movies.

SAARC-Building Bridges

Bikash Choudhury


"Building Bridges" very rightly the theme of up coming summit of SAARC at Maldives.South Asia has for some time drawn Global attention and interest for economic, security and strategic reasons.India could take following initiative in this summit if not done already;to hasten & strengthen the process of 'building bridges'.

1.India need to take initiative to convert SAARC into a military block(in 10-20 yrs time) with an objective to improve the security of South Asia while reducing the total cost on defense in the region by 5-10 % a year 10-20 years and deploy the savings in development & Connectivity infrastructure(road, rail & air) in South Asia.

2.India should propose a South Asian rail9in the model of Euro Rail)-a faster rail network to connect all the important tourist destinations in South Asia to build real bridges among the people of South Asia.

3.Indian Govt. should also encourage Think-Tanks, Industry Associations,Top NGO,Corporates and Eminent Citizens to take active interest in the region and help spread soft and moral Indian power across the region in less than American Way.

Prosperous South Asia

Bikash Choudhury


Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, eloquently spoke about the potential to explore & exploit comparative and competitive advantage in South Asian countries in his speech at SAARC summit at Maldives 9-11 Nov. 2011.It is unclear how the leaders of participating countries consider such a forward looking economic and strategic intent of Indian PM; who is recognized as a tall leader & global economist of repute in international forums. India need to take initiative to study the regional economy and identify 5-10 major items where a 'cartelization' is feasible (identical to OPEC:organization of petroleum exporting countries ) with regional co-operation in South Asia; that could drive better bargain while trading with other countries. A blue print need to be prepared in consultation with Industry to help convince saarc nations to come on board.

Good Politics Precedes Economics

Bikash Choudhury



"Good Politics precedes Good Economics" goes the famous adage. India
is very fortunate to have top economist as top most political managers
of the country;however, unfortunately country suffers from a worst
spell of cascading inflation which does not show any sign of
restraint;in spite of tough & stringent monetary measures of
RBI;which vindicates the hypothesis "Good Politics actually precedes
good economics" as the current turmoil of surging prices are the
result of gross mismanagement politics and governance of the
country.There is actually a limit within which hard earned tax payers
money could be thrown down the drain without pinching the pockets of
ordinary mortals.I guess the inflationary pressure on food items &
other commodities in the basket of (CPI) consumer price index is the
net result or an impact of sum total of cash loss/waste in Govt. and
in the public sector.
1.If govt. version were to be believed " structural changes in
the consumption pattern is the raison d'et'ere of swirling inflation"
then Govt. could have attempted to deal with the supply side
constraints by incentive's "cold chain/cold storage/food supply
chain/logistic"which could have saved daily wastage of perishable
fruits & vegetables and augmented supply in the short term(3-6
months).

2.Further, Govt. could have encouraged urban roof top farming of
fruits & vegetables with suitable technology(Israel type) with an
enabling business model of PPP.
Govt. is in fact running out of Ideas and will and interest to
Govern;at the same time not prepared to listen to saner voices.Thus,
very appropriate time to go?

Chilika Lake Global City

Bikash Choudhury


A thought of “prosperous Odisha developed India and a peaceful
World in a decade” took grip of the mind; a portion of the mind, home, family and the town rise in revolt against the audacious Idea making the limbs go numb, body partially paralyzed and mind restless; where do one find a charioteer who could guide through a uncharted territory. With this thought playing in the mind; saw the charted aircraft preparing to descend when the bird reached less than thousand feet the shellote of the city became visible; it read as CHILIKA LAKE GLOBAL CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT with breath taking beauty of Chilika Lake and magnificent stone statues shooting up from the centre of the lake to three hundred feet into the sky; when the aircraft got closer to the ground the statues became distinctly visible, first one was of Gandhi, second of Madhu Babu, third of Gopabandhu, fourth of Biju Babu. One eight lane Express Highway & a Metro Rail encircled the Chilika Lake. By now the aircraft was taxing on the runway and came to halt near the Aero Bridge number 7; quickly came out to pick up the luggage and straight head for the Tourist counter to collect more info about the City. The beautiful lady at the counter invited to seat on the recliner opposite her and offered a chilled glass of water before starting to narrate about the Chilika Lake Global City. “A brand new city developed in ten years with 100 billion USD for 7 million residents & 3 million floating population annually, with about 75 Km in length and 25 Km in breadth. The principal vision of the city is to attract the top minds of the world, in each walk of life, to collaborate and find solutions for the problems and challenges faced by the mankind currently and for this century. This city wish to prove rural landscape and urban high rise can co-exist in harmony with nature. Here, urban centers are interspersed between rural hubs. Urban districts provide consumers for the products & services in rural farms and in turn consume the technology & knowledge made available by urban centers with lowest transaction cost; while, rural areas thrive with organized farms & cottage industries. Urban districts populated by Education, Research & Development, Industry, Hospitality, Business, Residential, Entertainment, Sports and Religious Enclaves. The city is completely driven by green power-solar & wind and well connected by metro rail. This city has borrowed all good ideas from all top global cities and most attractive tourist destinations; therefore, you would find “Chilika Lake Global City” a very good hybrid of New York, Shanghai, Las Vegas & Macau. You will notice Chilika Lake completely spruced up and protected by a green belt. The embankments developed with promenade, parking bay for Yacht’s of rich & famous, Water sports and Jetties for Cruise. The Islands inside the lake have been developed as rural tourism hot spots while entirely preserving the natural eco-system to attract global tourist spoiled by conventional tourist destinations. The mouth of Chilika has been developed to allow small cruise ships to take a tour of the lake with arrangements to preserve & protect the natural salinity of the brackish water lake. Hostess encouraged me to take a tour of the city in the metro to have a glimpse of the City and the Chilika Lake from the air conditioned comfort of restaurant coach of the metro before joining the co-passengers of Charted Flight at the inauguration ceremony of the City in the evening. Mind you this city is designed by American Architects, supervised by German Engineers and executed by Chinese & Indian Contractors; truly a Global City for this millennium. Parked myself at the metro restaurant coach for tourist and welcomed by two young, beautiful and confident Odiya girls in traditional attire and politely escorted to a window side seat to observe the nature of the lake view and on the other side the brand new elevation of Chilika Global City. Placed an order for a soup and sandwich; and tried to look at the beautiful lake endowed with nature with an ornithologist eye and at the breathtakingly majestic city landscape in turns over spoonful hot soups in between a bite of delicious bread. In the lake side saw very happy faces of young & old in ecstasy on the decks of cruise inside the lake and on the other side Vedanta Global University & Biju Patnaik Institute of Leadership zipped passed in the Education enclave. After some time noticed well designed fishing jetties opposite the rural hubs followed by huge Research & Development Enclave with tall towers occupied by DuPont, GE, Microsoft, Google, Infosys, TCS, WIPRO Technologies and CISR all top end global institutions for research. Business districts populated by office complexes of various size and shapes with huge shopping malls teaming with tourists and shoppers. A tall spherical structure caught my attention in the hospitality district; that was the most expensive and luxurious address for the tourists. Designed with three spherical towers of 55 floors topped by a sky park for five thousand people with trees & flowering plants and complete with revolving restaurants and helipad. (Heard all the descriptions in the public address system of the metro) It took just forty five minutes to cover the seventy five Km. distance of the city from one end to the other; disembarked and took a faster metro to reach the venue of the inauguration ceremony of the city in the Entertainment Enclave; in the auditorium having five thousand seating capacity and took a seat on the front rows facing the dais; soon after, the Chief Minister of Odisha stood up to dedicate the Chilika Lake Global City to its residents and to the World. He said “the city does not belong to the people of Odisha alone; equally, if not more, it is to be shared with peace loving people of the World and would stand for Love, Peace, Innovation, Excellence and Enterprise for sustainable development of the World & Mankind.” A great and powerful thought indeed.