India is Pregnant

Oh My God! This is such good news. 

India is more pregnant than ever before.  It is pregnant with 1.2 billion people.  Can it get any bigger than this?

And pregnancy always comes with expectations, like when is it due?; What will be the outcome? What trouble and labour pains will the mother go through during the three trimesters?

The entire attention shifts from the father and the rest of the family to the other like, Is the mother eating well? Is she having any kind of trouble? Are her health parameters in control?

In the recent economic scenario, India is pregnant with lots of hope.  Its children are looking forward with lots of hope to better life for themselves and their children in the future.  The current political situation is generating lots of expectations from the government about new policies that are being framed for doing business in India, for manufacturing in India under the “Make In India” initiative.  The world over business leaders and governments are looking forward to the unveiling of the various policy initiatives that will facilitate the ease of doing business in India and with India.

Indian’s have tasted prosperity and are hungry for more.  There is already a high imbalance between the rich and the poor as well as geographical imbalance between the various states, which is increasing with the passage of time.   All previous governments have raised the expectations of the common people and the new government has raised it to an all time high.  Everyday people are awaiting news of new foreign investments coming into India, new Industries being set up jobs being created, new products being made available.

The question is, when will all this happen? Indian’s have earlier suffered at the hands of the British and then during the licence raj.  Indians had a frustrating time when any kind of business growth was not possible at all. When will we see goldmine that we have all been looking forward to? When will India finally become the land of great hope, that promised land of prosperity?  What kind of success are we likely to see?  Will it be temporary or will it be permanent? Will this further lead to the already wide disparity between the rich and the poor?  Will it change with the change of the government?

India will need to provide the current generation with necessary skills to become entrepreneurs.  Banks and financial institutions will have to do their bit to support new entrepreneurs.  Governmental services will have to improve drastically.  The day every smallest of legal service, right from acquiring a driving licence to getting your sales tax number to banking to submission of your taxes to all other licences becomes online and one does not have to go to a government office will be the day of redemption for the Indians. 

In the current situation, acquiring a graduation degree or a post-graduation helps you to get a job but for any governmental documentation, you have to seek help of touts and agents who are illiterate and uneducated.  They charge you an unreasonable amount for saving your time, for helping you jump the queue (what this means that those who want to get their work done by following the due process suffer) for a process which is as simple as withdrawing money from an ATM.  The process is made difficult because of the connivance of the government officials and the touts.  Incidentally, all processes related to issue and renewal of passports has become easy.  However, uneducated people still have to approach agents because part of the process is done online like filling in the forms and taking appointments.  Each government must have a service centre to help uneducated people.  They may charge a proper fee for that service which will help eliminate agents.

The crux of all this is that the government must educate all citizens (Yes, I did say earlier that educated people need to take help from touts and all education is of no use) but when all citizens are educated, change will come.  With educated citizens, a lot in the country itself with change.  They way we live, the way we do business, the way we treat customers, the way treat our country, etc. etc. .

And that day does not have to be very far.  It cannot be a mirage that keeps going further and further with every step.  It has to have an end line.  The pregnancy has to end.  It has to have a result.   It has to “deliver” else it is bad for the mother.

Best wishes.

Sarfaraz Lakhani

Calibre Creators

www.calibrecreators.com

Education <> Business Management Consultancy