India 2007
60 Years have passed since we got the right to decide on our own collective destinies. A lot has been achieved and a lot more could have been….
The Prime Minister's speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort has much of the usual rhetoric.
The key points can be summarised as,
1. Rs. 25,000 Crores infusion into agriculture
2. Rural infrastructure and connectivity through Bharat Nirman
3. Urban infrastructure augmentation
4. Planned Industrialisation
5. Universalising of secondary education
6. Increase in the number of IITs, IIMs and IIITs
7. Social security for senior citizens below poverty line
8. Conservation of natural resources and concern towards global warming
Overall, it was a reiteration of the UPA government's policy initiatives and the usual quotations and two from Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and ofcourse, Rajiv Gandhi. The text of the speech glaringly omits even a mention of the 123 nuclear deal between India and the US.
This being a special independence day, I decided to give my shot at some of the events that might happen between the diamond and platinum jubilee of our independence.
I hope that whichever of my predictions are gloomy, I am proved completely wrong and in the ones that look good, I have a gross underestimate.
India 2007 - 2022
The following are some of the key events that might happen between today and 15 years from today
1. The Government will keep pumping in thousands of crores of rupees under the name of agriculture under a minister who will spend his time in the offices of the BCCI in Mumbai or the ICC in London, while the farmers will keep commiting suicide in Vidarbha and Andhra Pradesh. Atlast, by around 2015, when farming becomes impossible for most farmers of India and our food security is threatened, the Government will call in for the private sector participation in agriculture. Large companies will enter farming and take over thousands of hectares of land. This seems to be the only way a second green revolution will be ushured in, unless the Government creates SAZs (Special Agricultural Zones) as adviced by Dr.M.S.Swaminathan.
2. The political structure of the country will not undergo much change, except maybe for a little more federalism and splitting up of a few states in the Hindi heartland towards governable smaller units.
3. The private sector will continue to flourish and remain the largest employment creator, absorbing large number of people displaced from agriculture.
4. Education and litreacy will spread. Hopefully, secondary education will be universalised before 2020.
5. College education will spread, foreign universities will set shop in the country, making careers in teaching remunerative and good teachers to be sought after.
6. More and more conflicts will be seen in the transition from agriculture to industry, like the latest one being witnessed for Tata's Titanium-di-oxide plant in Tamilnadu. This should settle by around 2012, when comprehensive regulations on rehabilitation should emerge.
7. God forbid, we will have a confontation with China, with the sort of resources they are building up in Tibet and coming very close to our backyard. Hopefully, UN will intervene and good sense will prevail.
8. India will win 2 medals in Beijing 2008 and 5 in London 2012, and hopefully one cricket and hockey world cup in between.
9. India will become a nuclear powerhouse and get closer to US as a strategic partner as we are the most trustworthy in Asia.
10. We will bid a sad adieu to a few great species that inherit the wild of our country. I hope it is not the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Asiatic Lion.
11. India will send an unmanned mission to moon in 2010, manned space mission in 2015 and manned moon mission in 2020.
The times have never been more exciting to live in India.
I hope to revisit this on 15th August 2022 and be happy to find myself totally wrong in the points 1, 6, 7 and 10 and 3, 4, 5, 8 and 11 being grossly underestimated.
Jai Hind !
2 comments:
A good read with some predictions, which look attainable. The 2nd bit on politics seems far fetched though. No political party in India has cared for the masses and to expect a miracle in 15 years time would be a joke. My 2 - 3 additions to this list would be the curency appreciating to an extent which would indeed catapult us to an economic superpower. With the agreement of both sides, Kashmir may really have a solution that is the best for the region than for the people in either of the countries. Our culture (presently in the change over state) would have converted to a more western kind of setting in which nudity and pornography may well turn into a full fledged industry with an official approval.
I just 'hope' we make goood the best parts and avoid the bad onez... though that doesnt seem to be the trend from the charts.. lets c..
on a personal front, you have missed a few points.. like India a will c a bright and successful man in K Ramadas paving the way to help achieve some of your good predictions.. best of luck..
Jai hind
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