VISION FOR 2014 - 2019

Vision 2014 - 2019

A nation building requires vision, it should come inherently by virtue of experience of life. In the factory of event managers, many people can spin a web of vision every year!!. Vision with lack of will is a born dead infant. Our nation requires vision and along with vision a WILL to carry that VISION.

1.    Defense sector –

(a)  Procurement.      To cut the procurement time, the following is needed :-

(i)            Increase the financial limit of the CFAs. Increase to be linked to the inflation and at regular intervals automatic increase of the limits.

(ii)          All revenue procurements be brought under the service HQ and MOD should not be CFAs for that as the revenue procurements are generally used to sustain in service eqpt, fast procurement is required.

(iii)         Capital procurement upto 50 Crs be given to Service HQ where MOD need not be consulted.

 

(b)  Indigenisation :-

(i)            Ammunition. Indigenisation of NATO standard ammunition which is relevant to the already inducted weapons be started so that dependency upon foreign countries during war is minimized. An example is that of 70 mm  rkt ammunition for ALH (WSI). This helicopter is designed by HAL, Bangalore but the armament is foreign, the ammunition is being imported, it is a standard NATO ammunition and could be indeginized in ammunition factories but a holistic view has to be taken and concerted efforts in that direction has to be applied.

(ii)          UAVs. Unmanned Air Vehicles is future of warfare. At present we are importing these costly UAVs from Israel. We must have a plan of making the UAVs in bulk. ADE, Bangalore is designing the UAVs but they don’t have a grand plan, the vision is limited and there are no plans to manufacture it in bulk. It is more of a research project, just to keep these organisations alive.

(iii)         DRDO Labs. Like pvt companies do restructuring and shed non profitable businesses and concentrate on core businesses, DRDO is reqd to be refocused. We should make it professional and stop unproductive or low tech activities. Low tech activities could be easily passed to pvt partners in Indian industry. DRDO should not be looked as an employment giving organization but it should be totally result oriented, it should get that earlier sheen which Dr Abdul Kalam gave when he created integrated missile development programme.

 

2.    Urban Areas.                        The problems in urban areas are many fold. One of the main problems is ever ballooning nature of the city. Take any city, its city limits keep increasing. We must have a vision and concept of limiting the area of the city. Thereafter the next city should start and get developed. For example take the city of Bangalore. Why should its city limits be extended at all? Instead plan a city of Yelhanka. Which over a period of time should equal Bangalore in name, fame and net worth. Plan a city of Mandya. Over a period of time should equal Bangalore in name, fame and net worth. This would have following spin offs :-

(a)  States would have more number of urban areas.

(b)  Limited areas of the city would then be managed and planned well. The planning would then get more focused.

(c)  Over a period of time the cities would have home grown culture and identity.

 

3.    Take a Road and Re Do it.             With the limitation imposed in the geographical area of a particular city, if the following tips are employed by the municipal corporation of the city, then the city roads could become model roads in 5 yrs. If the municipal corporation re do one arterial road per two months and it is repleted to other city roads then in five years time most of the roads in urban areas would become pleasant and presentable.

(a)  Place vats at the garbage points. Pick the garbage in the night.

(b)  Bring down the stray dog and cattle menace.

(c)  Make effective width equal to the actual width of the road.

(d)  Mark the roads properly. Remember people have inherent respect for anything written, printed or marked. The first reaction is to follow the instructions. People would think twice to jump the marked line. 

(e)  Make overnight parking of the public carriers and goods carriers, not in the city but outside the city.

(f)   For GOD’s sake don’t work in compartments. Have coordination between different departments.

(g)  Have the roads broad, neatly lay out and focus on its beautification.

(h)  Make the specifications tighter, standardised and uniform.

 

4.    Take a Market and Re Do it. With the limitation imposed in the geographical area of the city, the number of markets would be limited and they could be developed by focused attention over 5 yrs. The other day I was in KOTLA MUBARAKPUR (same is the case for Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazaar market) market. The market has answers for everything in terms of commerce. One has to imagine in his mind and the product is available there. It has variety of stores dealing with plethora of goods. But – here ends the story of a market. The roads are bad, the sanitation is worse, traffic sense is nil, numerous cables, TV wires pass overhead in haphazard manner, and the road is so narrow that it is impossible to travel on it. This is the scene in every market. Vision is to change this. More than vision there requires will to change this. Take it to next level by making it beautiful rather than only satisfying the basic needs for this make the specifications of high standards. There should be good roads, nice kerbs, specification should have beautification aspects, the mkts should be bustling but should not give a shabby look. Sanitation and cleanliness should be of very high standards. All overhead electrical wires, TV wires, and cables need to be neatly routed. If a dictat of supreme court through a PIL comes to reroute the wires, the government obeys and does. Then what is the problem in doing by themselves. Why wait for supreme court imposed will? The government should garner the will. Remember earlier in the case of Delhi, when the supreme court imposed a directive that the old buses should be phased out and CNG buses should be used, it was implemented by the government then who stopped them in implementing ab initio?

 

5.    Youth.            Make them take RASHTRAVRAT ( for further reading on concept of Rashtravrat, click on this http://www.rashtravrat.blogspot.in/p/rashtravrat.html )along with it, improve their skills. There has to be a major national mission to improve the skills of the youth. The energy of the youth, has to get channelized by making them develop skill. It has to be some skill and the youth should be so proficient in that skill that he should be able to command a price for his skill. Unless skill of youth is encouraged and developed, quality consciousness would remain a distant dream. Once the skill is developed, youth would turn enterprising and the commerce would improve, improving per capita income and making the youth an important contributor to the GDP growth of out nation.

 

 

6.    Education. We all know about the present syllabus which has been adopted by all the schools in India. We all complain about loading our child to no limits in pursuing the syllabus. We also criticize the present system where in the teachers are always burdened and thereby they cannot keep real check on the performance of the child. Present teachers can’t give enough time per child because of crowding of classrooms. Increasing the number of divisions in each class results in burdening the teacher more and to top it the teachers themselves are required to undergo never ending participation (which is more or less compulsory) in various conferences, meetings, workshops. To top it there is always the duty of invigilating various competitive exams held on various Sundays. With the Right to Education (RTE) becoming a reality, the burden is going to increase more in the coming days. RTE is a positive step in providing ‘Sarva Shiksha’ to the under privileged children and should be welcomed by everybody with open hands and individual proactive contribution is required towards achieving it. To make this happen and to maintain and improve quality of education, time has come to revisit and review the syllabus which we are presently following. We should usher ourselves in thinking differently and try to impart real and practical knowledge to the aspiring child by weeding out unnecessary activities which load the child. At the same time some relevant aspects of civic sense should be introduced which can help make their moral fabric stronger. ………..For further reading click on this http://www.rashtravrat.blogspot.in/2010/08/syllabus-for-primary-school-children.html

 

7.    Specifications. Very new concept but very relevant. Specifications are important and there should be a specifications directorate which lays out specifications which cater to our nation, which are close to international standards and should have ingredients such as high class, tight tolerance, presentable and ergonomic. If they are laid out it would be easy to get things done fast. For example, if a road has to be laid out, then the specifications are there laid out, the tenders should be based on this standardized specifications. If street lighting is to be carried out, it should be as per the standardized specification then only the standard would be maintained and development would get noticed. If a name plate has to be made for the road, then tender should be floated against a standard specification. Once the specification is set, it would control corruption as whenever a standard work is to be carried out, the standard high quality specification is available and there is no need of making one to suit any one.