Increase in prices for the common Man- Solution


Price increase of basic commodities – Solution

Recently , we heard what Sharad Pawar said . ‘ I am not an astrologer to predict when the prices will come down’. He also stated that, t is the collective responsibility of the cabinet and not just his to take the blame’

With this , two things are clear :

One , he agrees that he has no plan to control prices, and Secondly, the government does acknowledge his wrong policies that lead to increase in prices. The blame must go to the failure of the congress government to take care of the common man. More people may die due to high price of basic food stuff this year

I suggest that we have a State Food pricing Authority in each state to fix the price of Agricultural products and the same should be strictly enforced . This department should be entrusted with the Public Distribution system . All this should come under Central Food Pricing Authority as it will involve imports and exports in some cases. The price for each and every agricultural produce like wheat , rice , pulses and vegetables should be fixed annually by the authority .

No trader should have the right to charge on the whims and fancies, and all the prices should be as fixed by state food pricing authority with the involvement of the Central Food Pricing Authority. 

Food Should be made the Fundamental right . After all , we don’t expect the Hungry person standing up and asking for right to freedom , equality ,etc.. etc….Food first ……………country later……..

Hope it works Rajendra Gupta ————————————————————————

Rajendra Pratap Gupta President

Country First 

 Email: President@countryfirst.org / mail@rajendragupta.org

Babri Masjid demolition- The Real Culprit is ……………..


Babri Masjid Demolition – Who is the real culprit ?  – Rajendra Pratap Gupta

It took seventeen years for Justice Liberhan to deliver his ‘Trash Report’ on the demolition of Babri Masjid. While a lot of finger pointing is being done at Rajiv Gandhi who did the Shilanyas in 1989 and opened the doors to the problem , then it comes to the turn of P.V.Narasmiha Rao, during whose ‘Rule’ the Masjid was demolished and lastly, comes the names of politicians like Atal Behari Vajpayee , Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi and Shri L.K.Advani et al. From different political perspectives , you can blame all of them or either of them !! History is always written by who wins the war !! This time the history was written by Congress !!

Over the last few weeks i have followed the Liberhan Commission report , the discussions and the writings in the media about the blame game on this Babri Demolition . If i were Justice M.S.Liberhan , i would have concluded my report in just three lines .

When trust fails , people resort to justice ,

When justice fails people resort to power,

When power fails , people resort to violence

 My understanding is that ,the  Babri Masjid case has been running for decades what the hell was judiciary doing for all these years ? Had they decided the case , the people would not have taken the law in their hands . History has proven that whenever law fails to deliver justice on time , people lose patience and take the law in their hands . So i would say that , neither congress nor BJP nor Kar sevaks nor the politics of this nation was responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid . It was the failure of the Indian Judicial system that led to the demolition .

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.org

2010- The start of the India Decade


Happy New Year

I wish all my friends a very happy new year and a great decade ahead. I truly wish that this decade becomes the ‘India Decade’ for the World, and we emerge as a great nation by 2020.

 Best regards

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

India Decade Foundation

Email: office@rajendragupta.org

Mobile : +91 9223344542

Address at the Dhanvantri Sewa Samman felicitation function by Chikitsasansaar


Friends ,

Thanks a lot for bestowing me this honour and giving me an opportunity to visit this historic city

I am thankful to the jury for having selected me for this honour though I am not a doctor !

It is a real pleasure to be speaking with such an audience in the land of famed rulers like Chandragupta I, Vikramaditya , Ashoka & Poet Kalidasa.

“The town fallen from heaven to bring heaven on earth” wrote Kalidasa about Ujjain. It is a twin blessing for me , first to visit Ujjain and second to get the award !!

I have been asked by the organizers to speak for a few minutes on

• India’s healthcare system versus the World Healthcare system & the future of the India’s healthcare system
• Retail Chains in India
• Indian Economy and its future

These three topics are loaded ones , and I need to dwell briefly on the same

Firstly,

Healthcare in India & the way forward : All across the world the healthcare systems have failed . In India, we are placed at a point in time when we can chose what we want, as we are about to build our healthcare system. We are here not by design but by default ! I have always said , we must not import failures !! Recently , i have sent out a detailed note to the Prime Minister and our Health minister on healthcare reforms . Imagine , we do not even have a epidemiological survey in India , so how can we build a healthcare policy without it ? We need to build more preventive care then tertiary care , unfortunately , we are doing the reverse . NRHM & NUHM can spend a lot of money but these adhoc schemes cannot build a lasting and a result oriented healthcare system

Health Insurance : People are very gung ho about Health insurance , we need to check if this is the right model for India !!! Government run blanket insurance schemes make people irresponsible and careless and the systems go bankrupt , this is what the failures in USA & Europe prove. Taking cue from this, India must re-look into the entire insurance business

Technology is advancing fast and becoming cheaper day by day and this must be used extensively at the PHC’s and PHC should become Panchayat Health centres with basic telemedicine facilities . India is the youngest nation with an average age around 26.5 years. If we don’t focus on healthy diet , fitness & chronic care , our economy will collapse due to exorbitant healthcare costs and an ailing and non-productive population over the next 30 years .

Retail chains in India .

Retail sector is the key to India’s economy. We have more than 12 million retailers and many times the multiple of 12 million earn their livelihood from this sector . Whilst the media opened the eyes and exposed us to the western world, we have got carried away and are trying the cut , copy and paste model to imitate what happens in other parts of the world , without even caring for the basics !!

I will limit my references here to the pharmacy chains here, though most of what I say applies to other general retailers as well.

Pharmacy trade has to be looked upon from three players perspective :

Independent retailers , organized chains and AIOCD Venture for retail

We have about 20 + retail pharmacy chains and trust me , all are having serious issues with scaling up and profits !! This leaves us with one learning , the current organized pharmacy model does not seem to be working .

Ironically, even AIOCD got carried away with organised retail . Though my understanding is that it will never be successful in getting into total pharma distribution , retail and market research; as their history shows them as a cartel extensively into boycotting and arm twisting pharma companies to accede to their demands. With such a history , and with same people at the helm of affairs , think what will happen if the pharmaceutical companies become totally dependent on AIOCD for their market research reports & distribution !! Also that, AIOCD is looking at private labels , manufacturing , retail chain companies , distribution and market research . Last thing for them to do is to appoint their health minister !! Result is a foregone conclusion

Retail chains have their own set of problems and will take time before they get the ‘right’ funding & the right people which has become the biggest bottle neck for the success of the pharmacy chains in India . If this continues , the organized pharmacy retail will be eaten up the MNC chains that will find a way in India in the next 3 years . Also that, the pharmacy chains are not united to present themselves as one voice and this is telling its tale with AIOCD tightening its noose around them . Overall , the next three years will see more deaths in the trade . Already a few players have started showing up symptoms of Asphyxia

Independent retailers : Two places where no one can defeat them is a sense of ownership and cost advantage !! Most of the organized retailers are losing money in monitoring their business with its supervisory infrastructure . Where you need to gear up is customer record keeping and satisfaction . Add adequate stocks and join hands to do good marketing by adapting to latest standards. Most importantly, please look at offering basic health checks for the part of the population you service . In the next two years , I expect pharmacies in India offering chronic care programs . This is what the pharmacies should be doing in India . Think small , act fast and aim big !!

Focus on basic cold chain infrastructure , join hands and approach the government for putting you in ‘Essential Population health services’ and offer you discounted electricity charges and lower taxes so that you could have the standards to maintain efficacy of medicines or else , ask the government to increase margins to 25 % for retail and 12 % for distribution. We have enormous potential for employment and pharmacies can bring about change that can make the healthcare system more result oriented as it the first and the last point of care for the common man . I see a bright future for small & independent retailers and big MNC chains !!

Indian Economy & Future :

We must not forget that India is a great country and we call ourselves a ‘developing country’. Now we need to change from being identified just as a ‘developing country’ ! We have much more than our economy for the world . The World cannot ignore our contribution to science , spirituality and peace . Ironically, our lack of public activism has given us a self seeking political leadership that lacks original ideas and for years, they leaned on Russia and then USA and in all probability , will lean on China in the next decade. We are trying to copy models from abroad . Even most of our Prime Minister’s advisors come from Abroad or foreign universities . Trust me , we are importing failures . China built SEZ’s , we tried to do the same ………………why , no one asks how many people have exited the SEZ business !! What kind of tax loss will the government have when we are currently under a huge budget deficit by promoting SEZ’s !!

We are living in a country with enormous potential . Just check that 1/6th of India is under naxals , 4/6th lives under less than Rs. 80 a day. So effectively , what you read in the news as growing India is just 1/6th of India . We have started measuring our growth with the growth of the sensex . If the sensex grows , we see growth . Unfortunately , not even 1 % of the population trades in shares . Ground situation is that we have a very high inflation , lawlessness and insecurity, and we push more poor people below the poverty line due to healthcare costs and price rise than we push above the poverty line every year

Go and check a crowded general compartment in Indian railways . People are seated in toilets to reach their destination. Looks like a scene of partition days . Why do we witness such a scene after more than 60 years of Independence ? Can railways not increase the coaches or trains ? Will this not make the lives of a common man better and earn more revenue for the government & add to the development of this nation ?

A few days back there was a hue and cry on Shashi Tharoor and S.M.Krishna staying in five stars hotels. Government announced an austerity drive. This week , government passed a bill allowing ministers to travel with families and relatives 48 times a year !!! Don’t forget , government’s money is not someone else’s , it is our money and we are letting all this happen with our eyes open and mouths closed. A time to get into action . But the government is least concerned as we are . We only speak , government also speaks; when we will act , government will also act! Government mirrors its citizens in actions

Finally , I must say that the government must focus on Agriculture , industrial production and SME’s for making India a progressive nation . All industries can fail but not agriculture & industries into daily needs

Lastly, i must touch the topic all the major nations for fighting for – Climate change

We should carefully commit to emission cuts keeping in view that we are far from industrialized . India must focus on emission per capita rather than ‘committing percentage cuts’. If you see the rough emission trends of the global emissions , India emits about 5%, Europe about 11 %, China about 15 % and USA about 20 %. Compare the population size and emissions and then decide . At maximum , we must stick to standards for emission norms and not commit summary cuts , even self imposed .

Even the World Bank’s study has contradicted the governments claims made that India can achieve an emission intensity target of 20-25 % below 2005 levels by 2020. It wonders how it is possible when the capital costs in setting up cleaner grid power could rise by 15-25 %. Though capital cost is only one of the several cost factors . Government’s claim was based on the home work done by the planning commission .

With this , i must thank you for patiently hearing me and enjoy the speakers ahead

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

India needs massive healthcare reforms – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Dated: November 23rd, 2009 Rajendra Pratap Gupta
President
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Hon’ble Prime Minister
Government of India
7, Race Course, New Delhi

Shri.Ghulam Nabi Azad
Hon’ble Health Minister
Government of India
Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi -110011


Reference: Healthcare reforms – A detailed agenda for Population Health Improvement

Dear Dr.Singh & Shri Azad ji,

This needs your esteem, kind and personal attention. I am sending a detailed note on what India needs to do to build an effective healthcare system. Over the last 62 years , we have increased the life expectancy by 26 years , reduced the infant mortality and morbidity significantly, eradicated Small pox and Guinea worm and almost eradicated polio and Leprosy.

The government of India has taken up a smart fight against HIV, T.B. , Tobacco. The launch of massive programmes like NRHM & NUHM by the government & the ban on smoking in public places is a proof of the fact that, Indian government is committed to the healthcare of its population. I believe that the healthy population is a prerequisite for an economically vibrant & a healthy nation .

At this juncture, with such a proactive government, I must bring to your kind notice a detailed note on how to transform the healthcare system of the nation. To start with, healthcare has to become the priority sector for the government of India. The Indian healthcare system must have a broader scope and a bigger purpose!

Firstly, let me apprise you of the fact that, higher spending does not mean better healthcare. We have the case of America where 17 % of the GDP goes on healthcare. Still 77 % of Americans have at least one chronic disease, 1 out of 2 Americans have a chronic disease and 7/10 people die of chronic diseases. Despite such a high spending, according to WHO, US Healthcare system ranks 37th amongst nations, at par with Serbia; 31st in life expectancy and 40th in child mortality, worse than Cuba and Croatia . So we must not pursue wrong goal of just doubling the healthcare spends as a percentage of GDP. We need a system that is outcome driven and not that is expense driven !!

Even the French Healthcare system which was ranked as the best by WHO in 2000 is losing USD 28124 every minute and is expected to go bankrupt by 2019.

Taking into consideration the global examples in healthcare , where most of the healthcare systems have failed , India is fortunately better placed. As developed regions like USA & Europe are struggling to correct their system backwards, India is just starting to build its healthcare system. We must embed strong fundamentals in our healthcare system. Though India is better placed not by design but by default and faulty policies over the last six decades, we must use this opportunity to build in our indigenous healthcare system and not import failures by copying anything from abroad .

Let me draw your attention to a few important observations of mine regarding the healthcare system:

Payer model: India has the right payer model , where the user pays. This makes the user as the ‘gatekeeper’ in the healthcare system. The global experience shows that, whenever there is a blanket cover for free healthcare, it is likely to be misused, over used and prone to fraud. Global examples have proven that, whenever healthcare is free, systems collapse. So I must request the policy makers never to change this basic fundamental of the healthcare system, though you must provide free healthcare to BPL families.

Preventive care & Recession: My belief is that healthcare was also one of the main reasons why America faced recession. In 2008, U.S. employers paid an average of USD 9144 per employee for healthcare insurance. Over the last few years, increasing healthcare costs have forced American companies to ship jobs overseas as this presented significant cost savings. Imagine that a computer sold in U.S. was produced in China. So the entire process of building a computer created job and income for Chinese but it was sold in the U.S? So while U.S. kept spending on buying products, U.S. lost its earning & income creation opportunities to China. For each product U.S. citizens purchased, salaries and income moved to China for producing such products. No wonder, China became the biggest lender to America!! American recession was in the making for the last couple of years because of the healthcare costs going up.

Why healthcare costs went up in America? In 1970 preventive medicine specialists represented 2.3 % of the physician work force and by 2002, the preventive medicine specialists were down to 0.8 %. America did not take care of prevention, and today it is home to a population that is more ill than healthy and so is the economy. American economy is a mirror image of its healthcare system. U.S. spent USD 700 billion on the troubled assets relief program (TARP) & USD 568.4 billion on fighting chronic diseases in Medicare and Medicaid. India must learn from USA on the management of chronic diseases early on. We need to build a strong preventive care in the Indian healthcare system.

India is a young nation with more than 60 % of its population below 40 years in age but, in the next thirty years; we will become an aged nation. We will grow ‘Older’ before we grow ‘Wealthier’. Moreover, with the rising incidence of chronic diseases, we are heading towards a problem where even after spending 25 % of our GDP on healthcare, we will never be able to salvage our healthcare system.

It is high time we converted our slogan from Food, Clothing and Shelter to: Food, Clothing and Healthcare. Health care needs to become the fundamental right of every Indian

Disease burden in India: India has to first asses the health burden in India. The figures released by the top consulting firms are not reliable given the wide disparities. Let me give you a glimpse of the ‘potential’ disease burden in India.

A. According to WHO, India has 14 % of its population suffering from Arthritis. This takes the Arthritis patients to approximately 140 million
B. According to WHO, India has 10 % of its population suffering from Hypertension. This takes the Hypertension patients to 100 million
C. According to the International Diabetes Federation , approximately 5 % of the Indian population suffers from Diabetes i.e. 50 million
D. India has at least 40 million CVD patients
E. Cancer patients in India are about 2.5 million
F. Elderly people in India are about 150 million

So, by any conservative estimates, we have about more than 400 million patients suffering from one or more chronic disease.

ABCDE of Indian healthcare system . I coined this Acronym , where A stands for Arthritis , B – Blood Pressure , C- Cardiac diseases & Cancer, D- Diabetes , E – Epilepsy or Elderly. My belief is that the prevalence of chronic diseases is such that today every family if India has one or more members of either of ABCDE .

Due to out of pocket spending on health, about 40 million people go below the poverty line every year.

If we see the population dynamics & demographics , it calls for a serious planning and implementation on healthcare reforms so that we don’t face what America is passing through today! We need to build low cost, user friendly & accessible healthcare system so that people enter the healthcare system earlier and leave it earlier and it does not cost more!! I have changed the centuries old saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’ to ‘Prevention is better than death ™’ Since chronic diseases, if not controlled, lead to disability and finally , death

Problem of distribution: India has a serious problem with the focus & allocation of health resources ; we are quite urban centric. A survey by the Indian Medical Society had found that 75 % of the qualified consulting doctors practice in urban centers, 23 % in semi-urban areas and only 2 % in rural areas, where about 65 % of the population lives

Acute model of care: Though over the past 60 years the disease patterns have shifted from acute and infectious diseases to chronic or life style diseases, still Indian healthcare system emphasizes on acute care and medical care model. This needs an immediate correction. The problem of not adopting preventive care is that aging population requires more healthcare treatments with a lower earning and paying capacity. Earnings reduce with age but healthcare problems increase. This will put our ‘Young’ nation of today into a serious economic, social and development crises in the next 25 years. The ‘baby boomers’ of today will become ‘Patient boomers’ of tomorrow.

A study done by Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that, the healthiest 50 % of Americans account for just 3 % of the annual spending; the sickest 15 % represent nearly 75 %. This should help India understand the importance of preventive measure to keep our population healthy.

I believe that we have already been late for this generation, but we must build a robust healthcare model for the coming generation. We need to bring a change in government policies, medical curriculum, medical practice and channels of delivery of care across the healthcare spectrum. Without an integrated care system, we cannot have results, and without preventive care we cannot have an integrated healthcare system.

We must seriously consider that it might be cheaper to provide free preventive care than to absorb the high cost of chronic care. Preventive care must become the minimum standard of healthcare.

New paradigm of care: We must work towards building a strong support system for our healthcare infrastructure to build an effective healthcare system. This calls for a strong:

• Self control & Self care : Individuals must take to self care and self control and become health conscious individuals. This is where the government can play an important part and sensitize the population on health issues , so that the healthcare becomes effective
• Education system: The Prevention must move from the ‘Medical school’ to ‘Primary school’. It should be ingrained in our school text books and Preventive care is more important than the sex education for which too many efforts are being made too fast! Yoga & Meditation should be taught for at least 30 minutes / day from class 1 onwards
• Occupational health: Work place wellness is not established in India. I would expect that the proactive private sector gets active on providing preventive care to its employees at the work site

Why should a person approach the doctor directly for every small / routine issue?

For Preventive care , we must have two goals :

A. Preventive care has to be the mainstay of the stable healthcare system
B. Preventive care becomes the minimum standard of care

Government: Action points:

• The government must set up an inter-ministerial task force under the Prime Minister’s office or mandate the National Knowledge Commission to make recommendations every five years on healthcare reforms needed , based on the fast changing dynamics and demographics of the Indian population. The ministries to be included are Ministry of health & family welfare, Ministry of labour , Ministry of sports, Ministry of finance , Ministry of defense , Ministry of rural development , Ministry of child & social development ,and

Ministry of tourism .We must look at Brazil’s healthcare system where the health provisions are under the state & municipalities , but the Federal government continues to be responsible for the quality of care
• Health should be a federal subject
• Department of pharmaceuticals ( currently under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) must be brought under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
• Central Health Authority : We need a central health authority along with similar state health authorities in every state to focus on Health Risk Assessment , Healthcare forecasting, Health Awareness , Immunization , Mother & Child care , Geriatric care , Primary prevention , Occupational health , Disease management , Organ transplants , Emergency care & Palliative care
• Government must take the sole responsibility for awareness creation about wellness and diseases separately, and both should be handled by different heads with proper coordination
• India immediately needs an epidemiological survey. As of now, there is neither an epidemiological survey nor a health risk assessment index to find the actual disease burden. Without that, anything we are doing amounts to Adhocism. We need to be more scientific in whatever we do to have an outcome. The data given for various disease states are thrown by various organizations and the data is hard to believe! Health Census must be done along with the population census.
• Government must take the responsibility for mass screening and mandate the employers to do mass screenings for their employees based on the guidelines for each sector
• Government must issue industry & sector specific recommendatory daily allowance (RDA) for food intake or calorie intake , health & wellness guidelines for employers and employees. If need be, government must appoint a employee health regulator to enforce the guidelines
• All the admissions after high school should have a basic health check as a prerequisite
• People above the age group of 21 should go for a yearly basic health check up
• Marriage certificate should only be issued after a comprehensive risk assessment
• Those with BMI above 23 should be put on annual preventive check
• Those with a family history of any chronic ailment should be kept on OPC – Observatory preventive checks at an early age ( 16 years )
• Government must come out with a health status report on its national leaders and set up a separate health department for political leaders both at national & state level
• Government must focus more on Geriatric care
• Government must address the issue of mental health deficiencies & encourage TeleHealth in Psychiatry seeing the ratio between Psychiatrist and population being 1:1 Million
• Government must start ‘Day Care’ centers for minor surgeries across the nation
• There are thousands of lives lost every year in road accidents. Government must work out organ transplant centers and frame guidelines for cadaver implants.
• The government must start a 24 hour health channel.
• Local governments must start a IVR – Toll free health helpline for the local population with Frequently asked questions on health put in IVR format

Special guidelines to treat chronic diseases:

• The government must immediately start a Central Disease Registry (CDR). All the
chronic disease patients must be registered under the same by the path labs itself
• Once the person is diagnosed with a chronic disease, the entire family must undergo a health risk assessment covering basic checks like BMI, B.P., Sugar, Cholesterol etc. This will be an effective way to monitor and control the chronic disease incidence. Such families should be advised to undergo a yearly basic check to avoid chronic diseases
• Chronic diseases cannot be controlled by prescription alone. It involves a behavioral change. This calls for counseling. Counseling should be made mandatory for chronic diseases. Doctors , Pharmacists and Nurses should be trained in the management of chronic diseases
• Patient’s family must be involved in the management of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases cannot be managed alone; it needs proactive support from the family members. Guidelines should be issued for the same
• Based on the disease state , the patients must be put on the appropriate disease
management program
• The doctors practicing in the field of chronic diseases should not be allowed to practice without a counselor , dietician , Phlebotomist and a fitness trainer
• The local municipality must encourage the formation of patient groups at a local level to help in the self management through ‘role model’ approach and via experience sharing amongst patients. This can be quite effective in the management of chronic diseases
• Nurses & Pharmacists have not been effectively utilized in the management of chronic diseases. These health professionals should be effectively used. In fact, the pharmacists should become the first local touch point for health information dissemination
• Pharmacies must be mandated to provide instant checking like BMI, Sugar, and B.P., Cholesterol etc.
• Pharmacists must be mandated to counsel all chronic patients
• Government must encourage generic prescription in all government hospitals and allow patients to seek generic substitution at the pharmacies.
• All doctors must seek patients nod before prescribing products other than generics
• The government must implement Disease management in the PSU’s immediately to
study the amount of money & lives that can be saved. Also that this can lead to better
outcomes and increased productivity
• Religious leaders must be used to tackle health issues as they can prove really very
effective
• The government must ban Junk foods in schools
• Special emphasis needs to be on Geriatric care and a separate set of guidelines needs to be worked out on the same
• Government must mandate the insurance companies to pay for routine health checks and
preventive care. Home based self diagnostics should be re-imbursed under insurance
• Gram Panchayats must be starting points for information dissemination for rural India.

Primary Healthcare centers should add Telehealth to its faculties to take the health to the rural population. Building and maintaining healthcare faculties in rural India is not viable. But Telehealth is an option worth trying to provide boost to rural health

Standards & protocols in Medical Practice : Due to absence of medical establishment standards , lack of treatment guidelines and protocols ; substandard facilities are mushrooming and malpractices are leading to ‘Over Diagnosis’ and ‘Over Treatment’ The government must play an effective role for the formulation of guidelines and enforce the same effectively . Also , despite having the best of brains and facilities , we are still
using the JCI / Australian accreditation . The government must recognize only the NABH / NABL accreditation for its healthcare facilities and take it international through support and incentives .

The detailed guidelines are expected on:

• Guidelines for screening.
• Guidelines for diagnostics
• Guidelines for treatment of various disease and the line of treatment along with the diagnostic requirements
• Government must come out with grading norms for facilities based on the treatment outcomes, number of beds , clinical staff, facilities , accreditations offered , town class and treatments offered
• Government must decide the price / rate for various treatments & procedures in facilities based on the infrastructure , town class , outcomes data for treating patients & grade of the facility
• Referral protocols for higher diagnosis and treatment
• Rural health guidelines should be formulated

Financial Incentives for the health sector:

• Rapid or instant diagnostic kits should be entitled for lower taxes & duties. Ideally, it should be duty free. But we must also encourage local production
• Telemedicine or Telehealth hold a promise when it comes to healthcare delivery in more than 6.20 lac villages. Such companies should be given a tax holiday for the next 10 years
• Medical imports under PPP must be tax free
• Clinics & Hospitals in rural areas must be given a tax holiday for 10 & 20 years
• Government must give a tax holiday for 3, 5, 7 & 10 years for healthcare facilities in tier 1.2. 3.& 4 class towns
• Preventive checks should be made tax free
• Currently government gives rebate in income tax for medical insurance. The same should be given for preventive check and the amount for such checks should be Rs. 2500 per family member per year. For senior citizens, it should be Rs. 3000 per member per year. Gyms & Yoga club memberships should be included in the preventive check category

• Health professionals working in designated rural areas should be given 50 or 100 % tax free income based on the regional disparities
• Companies that do preventive checkups for employees must be entitled to a tax rebate on such expenses to an extent of 100 %
• Pharmaceutical & other companies that sponsor health checks in communities should be given 50 or 100 % tax rebate for the amount spent.

Health Minister’s Fund – (HMF). The government must create a health minister’s fund to encourage donations from individuals and corporates with 100 % tax exemptions on donations. This fund must be used for providing healthcare to BPL families

Compulsory Health Savings Account(CHSA) & Health Cess: We need to look at innovative ways to fund healthcare. Levying 1 % health cess on taxes would collect Rs.4000 crore.

The government can draft a CHSA under three classifications and people can opt under the scheme as per their entitlement. The people enroll in CHSA at an age of 25-30 years and contribute a monthly amount for 30 years. Say, for example, a category A person pays Rs. 1250 per month per family for the first 10 years, Rs. 1500 per month for the next 10 years and Rs. 2000 per month for the last 10 years. So in 30 years the family saves USD 31000 and can get free healthcare for the rest of his life. Also, if we assume that the dollar is at an exchange rate of Rs. 45 & an annual interest rate of 7 % is accrued on this ; the middle class which is assumed to be 150 million now, grows to 200 million in the next 20 years and 250 million in the next 30 years. The government will stand to collect USD 1 trillion after 10 years, USD 2 Trillion after 20 years and USD 6 Trillion after thirty years. . The money thus collected can be used to make the best of healthcare facilities.

Indigenous research: We have sent Chandrayaan to the moon and made our own sub marine. But we have not done great research in medical technology and pharmaceuticals. Technology and equipment import constitute a major cost in a healthcare facility set up cost. These costs are passed on to the patients. This can only come down if we can have our own technology. Irony is that, we export our brains and then import technology at an exorbitant cost!! We have the best institutes & best brains to train them but we are not able to retain them! The government must frame strict deterrents to avoid brain drain. Healthcare will only become affordable if the cost of set up comes down. This can happen if we have indigenous technology. Going forward, healthcare will be totally technology driven.

AYUSH Professionals: The government must integrate and effectively utilize AYUSH professionals in mainstream healthcare & rural health. This could be the best way to make use of the resources at hand.

Medical Curriculum: Far reaching changes are required in medical curriculum


• The government must not allow M.B.B.S. to do Post graduation till they spend 3 months each into rural health, telemedicine, pharmacies and Panchayat health centers.
• Private medical college students should also undergo the same internship as is for students of government medical colleges.
• Those health professionals ( doctors , nurses and pharmacists ) working in rural areas for three & five years must be given special quota / guaranteed admission in P.G. courses or given fast track promotion in government jobs
• Government must provide higher pay and perks ( including tax free income ) and more paid leaves to doctors working in rural areas
• Doctors who working in rural areas should be given loans at a cheaper rates from the ‘Central Health Fund’ to set up medical clinic / facilities

In Mexico, absence of proper planning during the 70’s lead to oversupply of physicians in the 80’s. India should avoid the same and plan carefully.

Rural health needs a special consideration. In rural India, whenever a patient is taken to the nearest urban center for treatment, at least two family members accompany him. That’s the reason why even the 20 % beds mandated free for BPL families remain unused. Government must provide for free accommodation to these two attendants of the rural population who travel to urban areas for treatment including free train & bus travel. Telemedicine should be the core to rural health model in India

New Models : The government must ideate and try new low costs model where the primary preventive care can be availed at Rs.2 per day. Imagine, if we get 5000 people to pay Rs. 2 a day , we can have Rs.3 Lac per month per facility .This can be used to have two full time doctors , two nurses , two counselors to provide basic care to the population of 5000 people round the clock. I believe these are the models to be tried and implemented

The government’s role must logically move from a provider of care to payer and a regulator. Though government must be responsible for primary care,disaster management & sudden outbreaks but it must also focus on

• Awareness and education about health & wellness for the common man
• Primary care and prevention
• Rural health
• Regulation and standardization

The government must follow the chart mentioned below when approving secondary & tertiary care facilities in any place based on the population size as the standard for population health improvement. Government must not approve the higher end facilities for a geography till the facilities are existing for the levels below ,for which the approvals are sought. The government must also encourage private players by incentivizing them for providing primary care before approving them for secondary and tertiary care

Level of care Population Size Facilities Services provided
1 1000 Telemedicine, Panchayat level dissemination of info. Basic health services must be provided
2 10,000+ PHC – Panchayat Health Center Trained Nurse Practitioner
3 50,000+ Primary Hospital with 25 beds Primary Care
4 100,000 + Secondary Care Hospital 100 beds Secondary Care
5 500,000+ Multi Specialty Care hospital 250 beds Tertiary Care
6 10,000,00+ Institute of Medical Sciences Centers of Excellence

Private Public Partnerships (PPP): I have been actively involved from the very beginning in the PPP document authored by CII. I have already written in detail about the success factors for PPP in healthcare. The government must enter into PPP only for secondary and tertiary care. There is a lack of trust, transparency, speed and continuity in the government policies. Government does not trust the private players and Vice Versa. All PPP’s must pass the test on the four parameters

• Scientific credibility
• Operational stability & scalability
• Financial feasibility
• Political viability

Medical Tourism: Medical tourism can be a big revenue earner for the Indian healthcare system. But there should be a segregation of DHSP – Domestic healthcare service providers and IHSP – International Healthcare Service providers

Government must provide land at highly subsidized rates or free, at or near the airports, for hospitals and facilities catering to medical tourism ,and take the profits as a sleeping partner

For private players entering into IHSP, for each IHSP facility they set up, they should set up three DHSP.

Government must come up with an insurance scheme for international medical tourists coming to India for medical treatments to encourage and promote medical tourism

We have the best of tertiary care in India but what we lack is the basic primary & preventive care in the country .If we don’t start healthcare with preventive care and continue with chronic care management; one day, the entire healthcare system will become over burdened, under- funded and outdated – no matter what we do !

We have to move from being a ‘Disease focused’ and a ‘Doctor centric’ system to a system that revolves around younger populations, and where nurse and a pharmacist play the role of a health coach

The government has to be careful in our healthcare capacity building. One side, we need to increase the healthcare service providers, on the other hand, we have to work to reduce the burden of ‘Killer’ diseases. A very strong primary and preventive care model needs to be embedded in the system.

Healthcare is the largest service industry in terms of revenue and the 2nd largest after education in terms of employment

‘World Class’ standards in India is not the goal, ‘India Class’ standards for the world should be our goal. We can teach the world how to run an effective healthcare system

I am quite convinced that committed leadership will take cognizance of this note and take measures to implement the suggestions after a debate with all the stake holders in the continuum of care . Should you need any assistance at my end , feel free to connect.

With best regards

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

CC.
Sonia Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi
Dr.Murli Mahohar Joshi
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Shri L.K.Advani
Smt. Sushma Swaraj
Shri Dinesh Trivedi
Sitaram Yechury
Members of Parliament
Sam Pitroda
Secy , Health & Family Welfare , GOI
Dr.K.Srinath Reddy
Chief Minister’s of States
Dr.Salim Hebayeb, WHO
Gerard M La Forgia , World Bank

India’s growth questionable – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


India’s questionable growth story :

While the government’s overall inflation figures remained at record lows of 0 to 1.5 %. The average wholesale price of food items had increased by a whopping 17.5 % in past one year as per the government announcement yesterday

Despite the good growth , the country’s fiscal deficit at the end of the first half of the current year ( April – September 2009 ) stood at 7.9 % of the nominal GDP compared to 4.4 % in the corresponding period last year . It is very difficult to contain the increasing deficit at budget targets . Pranab Mukherjee has estimated the full year fiscal deficit in the budget 2009 presented in July at 6.8% . A sharp pick up in the economic activity will not help bridge the gap as the tax collections remain depressed.

If we strip the government consumption , then the real growth for the rest of the economy was 4.9 % in the September quarter, at 1999-2000 constant prices. That’s lower than the 5.5. % year-on-year growth notched up during the preceeding quarter. The last instalment of the pay commission arrears has already been paid , so no further boost to government consumption is expected. What will happen to growth realising that the rain God were not approving the plight of farmers under the current government and thought it wise to boycott India !!

How will the government fund ambitious schemes ?

What is the plan to bridge the deficit ?

Is selling off or divesting PSU’s a short sighted goal ? After a few years , when the deficit grows . We will be left with nothing to sell except this nation !!

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.org

Lessons to learn- Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Price rise & Inflation: ‘Elecflation’ –i coined this term for ‘election induced inflation’. This is a recurring phenomenon

I see a lot of hue and cry on the inflation and price rise of vegetables and pulses. While the public is worried, government seems to be doing nothing on it. Why???
Answer: Whenever there are elections, the business houses are forced to contribute to election funding or false cases built up to make money to fund the party. So how will the business houses recover the money they have spent for the elections? So very naturally, the politicians are also obliged to allow these business houses to hoard and sell at higher prices till they recover in multiples of the money paid for fighting elections. It is a simple election driven price inflation. Remember , same politicians and business houses will meet again for the next elections

I was recently addressing a gathering and i told the people that we don’t have any political parties in India. The people were quite anxious to know what made me conclude this? To which, i explained that what we have today are ‘election parties’ & not ‘Political parties’. Election parties come up with a manifesto during elections and then forget everything for another five years and spring into action again gearing for the next mandate. If we had political parties or politicians then we would have a long term vision for this great nation. Unfortunately, we don’t have politicians. A politician or a political party cannot run a nation of 1.2 billion population without an agenda for 10, 20 & 30 years. Adhocism has not taken this nation anywhere in the last 60+ years

Also, no politician or party can take credit for India’s growing middle class. What we are today is not by design but by default and fault of failed policies and politicians. Fortunately, it puts India in the right spot at the right time. But we should not brag about it but we must have a long term vision and policies and actions to shape the destiny for the nation

Just think, 1/6th of India is under naxalites, 4/6th of India is poor. So whatever you read or see as India opportunity is just representing 1/6th of India. I.e. 200 million Indians are in a position to afford what you have. This blog will only reach may be 40-50 million people. Isn’t that an irony of a nation with 1.2 billion brains? We are exporting brains and then importing technology. We are not a democracy but a pseudo-democracy for just 200 million Indians

There are clearly three segments of Indian population.
People who vote
(majority are paid or coerced to vote – these are the people who fall into 800 million people living @less than 2 $ a day)

People who make others to vote (town class or semi urban middle class or Political workers.)

People who are voted – run into a few million as elected or rejected candidates who have the best of all available and are above the law of the land)

It is a time to change …………………………..The democracy that is India is for 1/6th of the population. Remaining 5/6th is either under the slavery of naxalites or poverty.

On 25th /11 there was a function organised at the Mumbai police Gymkhana. As a trustee of the United Force of India i was asked to share my views on the Mumbai security after 26/11. I only asked one question to the journalists. If after one year of attacks our elected representatives can be manhandled in the Vidhan Sabha and our journalists can be beaten and their office vandalised. Where are we? What security are we speaking about? We are just waiting for another attack to happen and it will!!

Now coming to Dubai crises: For long, i have believed that we are chasing wrong goals as an economy. In fact, on 19th January, i wrote a letter to our Hon’ble P.M. that we should not build our economy on dollars but it should be built on agriculture and SME’s. Free dollar flow is a sign of future pain!! . See the case of India’s stock markets . The FII’s invest in it raise the index , exit and book profits . Poor Indian retail investors lose when such FII’s exit . But you cannot do anything . The big fish make money . My perception is that , this is happening with the concurrence of the people who are a party to such ‘short money making tactics’. Every politician starts as a humble farmer or a worker and then becomes a ‘uncrowned king’ with schools , charitable institutions , real estate , business ventures unheard and unimagined by people like you and me . We have seen the case of YSR’s son, Reddy brothers , Madhu Koda and the list is end less …………

Take the case of Dubai. Now people have started calling it ‘Doob Gayee’ . Dubai built their economy on dollars and we know their fate. If India does not focus on Agriculture and SME’s. We will cry with pain. I recently read Dr. Manmohan Singh statements that with strong FDI inflows, our economy is slated to grow 9 %. I sometimes, don’t understand why are we still dependent on the foreign money? This FII / FDI are like a refined and sophisticated terms for EIC – East India Company. They will take profits abroad. These instruments have only one goal – Feast on the growing middle class. Do we allow them? The day we make our ’Farmers , the father of the nation , the nation will turn into a vibrant economy’. I wish Dr.Singh to say some day that our farmers contribute to the growing GDP and SME contribute to a majority of dollar inflow .
Lastly, i must quote our Environment Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh – ‘If there was a noble prize for filth, India would get it hands down as there would be no competitors’. I expected our M.P. friends to seek his resignation for officially calling India a land of filth. He is a union minister and he should have abstained from making such a degrading comment on this great nation. Anything he says impacts India’s image negatively. What will people think about India when they read about this ‘noble prize’ eligibility for India? Do we expect more tourism with such statements or do we get more sanitation funds from WB / WHO etc with such irresponsible comments? Is the entire nation full of filth? Mr. Minister, please apologise for your senile statements and resign . You are getting your perks from this nation of filth .
Does it not prick your conscience to bring about a change in the nation than to complain??

Each one of you can bring about a small change in the scheme of things . Think small , aim big and act fast .

Rajendra Pratap Gupta
President
Country First
Email: President@countryfirst.org / mail@rajendragupta.org

Michael Jackson’s death & the Indian Economy have similarities – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Indian Economy Opti – ‘mystic’ about growth numbers- Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Why is an economy of a billion people failing ? why are we fast becoming a junk economy ? I know it is quite good to hear 7.5 % growth estimates coming from the government, with riders that are totally justifiable for our failure to achieve 7.5 % growth or ‘cook’ the numbers to show ‘Illusionary statistic’. The future predictions of 7.5 % growth are dependent on US Economy , Oil economy & Rain Gods . Do you still believe our politicians for the growth numbers ?

Growth in 2008-09 : A large part of our 6.7 % growth in 2008-09 was nothing more than an illusion. 1.8 % out of it is accounted for by a 7 % spurt in ‘community , social and personal services’. Which is the arrears paid to 20 million government servants in 2008. If we deduct this out of the 2008-9 estimate , the actual growth was 4.8 % and not 6.7 %.

Confirming the correction of the GDP data to only the second half of 2008-09 , which is when the pay commission awards were paid out, reveals the GDP grew not by 5.8 % but only 2.2 %. This is the harsh reality. Check the fact that , agriculture grew by 1.6 % and industry, utilities & construction reported 2.4 % growth in the entire year as stated by the economic survey. Did we actually grow by 6.7 % ?

This year could be the worst for the economy. Outlook for industry is more bleak; zero growth till May 09. Agriculture is slipping due to poor show from the rain Gods . Even World Bank’s estimate for growth at 4 % looks optimistic

Now that government has to borrow about 4 lac crore to finance its largesse . If the government is borrowing 4 lac crore , what will happen to such an economy . Are we not already a bankrupt & Junk Economy ? Are we waiting for it to be rated as junk !!

No government or department talks about the ‘Job deficit ‘. Hiring Indra Nooyi or Raghuram Rajan to drive in ideas don’t work, as these people have stayed away from India for long and they themselves are in out of touch with the common man’s problems . So their solutions would all be on financial reforms, and they cannot suggest things that can salvage the common man. Till the common man does not become financially strong , Indian economy cannot take off. NAREGA is not the soultion , it is just a temporary morphine like injection to ease out pain . Indian economy will collapse like Michael Jackson, who died of drug overdose .

The status of the government is better than the citizens who cannot even borrow money to run their finances. We need a miracle to happen to save this nation .

There is more than what meets the eye- Rajendra Pratap Gupta


July 6, 2009

Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi
Member of Parliament
Lok Sabha, New Delhi 110001.

Dear Dr.Joshi,

Thanks for the call. It was a pleasure talking with you again. I have always appreciated your approach of being connected to the common man, recognizing the talent, promoting it , and talking straight, no matter what!

As advised, I am sending my inputs not just for the Economic survey and the budget, but also on the overall situation facing the government.

I have been following the budget & the overall situation in India. Budget is a routine event. As I had expected, budget did not give any answers but only raised a few questions! As always, Congress has been known as pro-rich and propaganda-wise, pro-poor. Common man is just a slogan . Under the new tax structures, people who earn more will have to pay less tax. This is what Congress regimes have done since independence . That’s the reason , more than 60 % of the people are poor and cannot afford to spend more than Rs.20 a day . Budget was just to divert the attention from equally important issues, without addressing any concerns of the common man and this nation.

I must draw the attention of the powers that be, that, recently I read that Pakistan is a ‘failed state’. I must add that, India is a ‘failing state’. Let me put the points why I say this.

Every nation has three weapons ; Economic , political and military weapons, and every nation has three priorities i.e. domestic economic growth & employment , security of the nationals & healthcare , and peaceful relations with the neighbors & good relations with super powers . Let’s examine each

Economy: We are told that the economy is getting better, and that there are ‘green shoots’ because of the ‘Green shots’. I am rather surprised! Rising Sensex does not raise the GDP of the nation! I don’t think that the fundamentals have changed either in the domestic market or in the global scene in the last three months. Whilst, I believe that the current budget is based on ‘Hope’ & ‘Hype’, ‘Ifs’ & ‘Buts’ , but the realities can’t be ignored for long- we will make our condition irreversible .Oil prices have been cleverly increased before the budget. It is high time that people gave up the thought that, Indian population is a good shock-absorber with a short memory that believes in forgive & forget!!

The growth that we saw as 6.7 % in 2008 was due to the government spending and stimulus, and atleast, I cannot rejoice on that as a common man. Prices are still sky high for food items- retail inflation is around 12 %, loan rates are high and jobs are flying away. These three factors are adding to uncertainty and fear. The stimulus are like giving more drugs to a drug addict, so that he lives longer , avoids immediate pain , but weakens with every dose and time passing, and finally collapses’. Moreover, the stimulus that the government has given is in forms of tax cuts and subsidies & and not spending. I don’t understand one thing, why do we need ‘Bold’ steps in every budget despite 60+ years after the freedom? Is this not a failure of the planning commission & our British legacy systems that has lead to Adhocism? Why the hell do we not look at changing the way we envision and plan for our nation? I believe that we are still not independent in our thoughts. We are still bogged down with western concepts of growth and success!! We must see deeper in this statement. Our system is more wrong than corrupt! Inefficiency cannot tackle inefficiency!!

Exports are falling month on a month, companies are paring down the costs and people are losing jobs every day. Uncertainty and fear are the two harsh realities of the current Indian economy. I know that Dr. Manmohan ji is taking of 7.5 % growth, but has three riders; if US Economy bottoms out by September, Rains are adequate and Oil does not give a shock. I think this is a clever statement or trying to pull a fast one. If one of the three or all three goes wrong, then what is going to be growth of the Indian economy? Ideally an economist of his experience should table before the parliament the three best cases and worse case scenarios incase all goes wrong or two or just one factor fails us? We cannot be silent spectators in a time of such an unprecedented crisis. I see that global Economic intelligence; forecasting and contingency planning is clearly missing with our policy makers. We need proactive and pre-emptive policy makers! Thanks to India’s robust banking system and strong fundaments (as we hear often!) that India’s credit rating is currently one notch above junk status at BBB-.

My belief is that, India’s problems have been structural, and with Indian meteorological department predicting less than normal rains, cyclical problems will also add to the woes of the government and the vast suffering population. So India’s problems today are both structural and cyclical, all because of the misguided policies of chasing wrong targets and attacking non-existent problems. India has some ‘high propaganda’ and ‘high leakage’ schemes like the NREGA etc. So the final outcome is not as expected. Execution of such schemes benefits the ruling class and not the working class and remains such a statistics. We have seen in the last 15 days that farmers are mortgaging their lands due to delayed rains. I am afraid that, if the rains are below normal, we will start hearing about farmer’s suicides again. Economic or fiscal management is as important as good governance, which is decimating all the progress. If the measures are missing, we will be back to square one!

The government should act fast, or else, the public would conclude having voted in haste, and we will see the change in the assembly elections that are due shortly

Recent survey from National Sample Survey (NSS) shows that, 60.5 % of the population were capable of spending only Rs.20 a day

National commission on enterprises in the unorganized sector had suggested that 77 % of the total population in the 2004-5 could spend less than Rs.20 / day / person

More glaring to note from the National Sample Survey (NSS) of 2004-5 that, only 24.4 % of the rural Indians used the Public distribution system (PDS) for rice and only 11 % used for wheat! Increasing outlay will not just solve problems.

Imagine this with the following facts:
Today , Tomato costs Rs. 15 K.g , Potato Rs.10 per K.g., Onion Rs. 12 per K.g. Rice cost more than Rs. 20 per K.g , Pulses are above Rs. 40 per K.g. Ginger is Rs. 100 per K.g. Do request our P.M. that BPL (Below poverty line) should be changed as a terminology to FSTD (Families fast starving to death). BPL is a very charitable word today seeing that, majority population of this nation cannot even earn enough to eat one decent meal a day!

I have not seen the recent Economic Survey in detail, but have been following it through media and press. The above stated facts do make one shudder at the thoughts of how many people would have died of starvation by the time you finish reading this note!!!

I am yet to see our learned politicians talking about the global environment in the budget. So I must educate our politicians on that as well. In the month of May, I was in Europe and this is what I discussed with various people.

Germany’s economic output will shrink by 6 %

UK.’s economic output will shrink by 4 %

French Economy will decline by 3 %

Italian economy will decline by 3.5 %

Romania’s Economy will decline by 4 %

Latvia’s economy will shrink by 13.1 %

Slovakia’s Economy will decline by 2.6 %

Of the 27 nations in EU, only Cyprus will grow. European Union expects its recession to last till 2011 & 8.5 million Europeans will lose jobs over the next 2 years.

With unemployment hitting 10.9 % in EU & 11.5 % in Euro area in 2010, EU has revised its GDP estimates for 2010, predicting a 0.1 % drop rather than a small rise.

This data is stated by Jaquin Almunia , Economic & Monetary Affairs Commissioner , European Union.

Germany’s boom has been due to sales abroad. Which reached 40 % of its total output because of China & India buying heavy machinery, but when growth in China & India collapsed due to economic down turn – Germany’s exports collapsed?

Facts of the US economy need not be mentioned – in June 09, US unemployment rate moved highest in the past 25 years US has already lost 6.5 million jobs since the recent recession. We are reading how many companies are going bankrupt!!

Bank of International settlements (BIS ) States in its 79th Annual report released on 29th June 09 that, there is a significant risk that recovery in emerging market economies will be delayed . Further BIS said that, foreign reserves in the first quarter fell to 80 % in Korea and India.

Given the possibility that external shocks could persist, such depletions raise questions about the reserve adequacy. A severe economic downturn and a delayed recovery in capital inflows could produce future episodes of market instability that could lead to a much faster draining of the reserves than suggested by these indicators.

Economic growth in developing world will be 1.2 %, the world bank had said on June 22. Developing nations in eastern Europe and Central Asia will be amongst the hardest hit, the world bank has stated. The region’s economy is likely to shrink by 4.7 % this year.

The World Economy will contract 2.9 % this year, as global trade slumps 9.7 % according to the Washington based Bank.

My belief is that , though the economies may not have a free fall any further, but will deteriorate slowly for two- four quarters. Growth will start only after one year, and that too, slowly. I don’t expect miraculous growth in the next two years . Miraculous growth is nothing but the growth that was at the start of 2007. So there is enough pain for the common man for the next one to two years.

Dr.Joshi, the issue is not of growth alone, it is about uniform growth. High growth and low distribution is not the solution, neither is low growth & high distribution. We are looking at in this budget high growth and wider distribution across all segments. Budget must address this issue .The growth of 6.7 % that we see is from 20 % of the Indian population. Our policy makers are all so glued to Mumbai and Delhi that we forget smaller towns.

What to address: E.g. one of the ‘Gem’s ‘is food processing sector. Of the total agricultural produce, India just processes only 5 % annually. In contrast, countries in the South East Asia process at 60 % of their food produce. This will not only create employment, but also give more income to farmers, thereby, raising their financial status and spending capacity. Perishables would not be lost, adding to the nation’s food bank. This would also enhance India’s share in the global food trade from 1.5 % to 3 % thereby increasing the forex . India has vast natural resources, we need to use them, generate employment.

Also, that we need 92 million jobs as identified by the 11th Plan. A report from the working group on skill development and training points out that 8% growth can create employment opportunities for about just 30 million people and special employment generation programmes can add another 20 million job opportunities . We must take into account that we add around 12.8 million are added to work force every year. Need is not just of job creation but the right skill development. Over 40 % of the government expenditure on education goes towards elementary education!! Will this work to help the nation??

Dr.Joshi, you must tell Dr.Singh that he is driving his car seeing the rear view mirror of another person’s car (China). He needs to look and drive his own car, and carefully look sideways and more importantly, the road below and ahead!! Integrity & good image of the PM is not a question but competence to steer the nation is! . He might be an intelligent Professor , a honest man but not a successful Prime Minister. He has so far failed as a PM . I do not wish to comment whether he is a ‘weak PM’ or ‘Strong’ & that does not matter here. But for sure , India has become weaker under his regime in the last five years . He will not be remembered for what he did in 90’s, but how he steers 09. That is the test of his leadership. You all must realise India is a world in itself & act accordingly.

Now coming to Military: This is our weakest link ! Most of the fighter planes are ‘flying coffin’s- every fort night, we have a crash. Agni missile is a ‘paper missile’, and out of 39 squadrons, only 9 work. Our submarines are in bad shape- top defense officials know this in the heart of heart- To conceal these secrets , the parties appoint army men on diplomatic or gubernatorial assignments . No comments on the nuclear arsenals! India is not at all strong militarily . We have seen Kargil; we see deaths in Kashmir, terrorists attacking. So Military- wise, we are a failed state. It is not that we cannot attack Pakistan; we know that we cannot defeat them! That’s the reason; we only bark at Pakistan and not bite!! Had US been in place of India, Pakistan would have been sanitised years ago for its mischievous demeanor & misadventure!!

How will this government ensure the safety of Indians!!

Security of the nation- Diplomacy :

Neighbors: We are surrounded by all the neighbors who are hostile.

China is raising the issue of Arunachal Pradesh and Dalai Lama.
Sri Lanka is resolutely hostile and we have just seen the end of war against Tamil Tigers.
Pakistan , less said the better.
Burma is known to patronize ULFA etc.
Bangladesh infiltration and our issues in North east is not a hidden issue. It is believed without doubt, that the Muslims from Bangladesh have increased in Guwahati & North east to such an extent that Hindus are in minority compared to Muslims. In the next election, we will not see victory of any other than Muslims – if the issue is not tackled now!
Nepal has already expressed its discontent and accused India of meddling in its internal affairs.
America is not the same as it was before signing the nuclear deal. It is doling out aid to arm Pakistan
Russia : has also agreed to supply arms to our neighbours

Now, having cleared the air about the failure of India’s diplomacy, I have nothing more to tell. Anyone can conclude a total failure!! We have failed to build friendly relations without neighbors.

Finally, Economically, we are clueless about the solution. We are one status above junk , having a huge fiscal deficit , rupee at a new low of Rs.48 to US $, Poverty is 60.5 % of the population , We have not built any shock absorbers in our economy . Defense is doing badly, Neighbors are hostile and we are weakest , waiting only to be attacked and defeated. Our foreign policy is a total failure. Are we not a failing state? Who to blame? The government, obviously. I don’t want to shift the focus due to this budget which is nothing more than a mere ‘Eyewash’.

Dr.Joshi , please do express the common man’s dilemma & pain in these unprecedented times of ‘fear’ and ‘uncertainty’ when you speak in Lok Sabha, and do inform our leaders that , we are not at all amused by the long speeches in the budget or ‘eye wash budget’ to pacify us till the next budget. We need outcomes drawn from each investment (Which is our own money given as direct and indirect taxes ), outcomes have to be measured in a time bound manner. We don’t just need to fix the problems but also fix the accountability. We need an outcomes based budget with a plan that addresses the three issues , Youth , Economy and Security of the nation, and creates enough jobs , eliminates corruption in judiciary and creates social security and safety for all staying within the borders of the nation without any discrimination based on caste , religion or economic stature.

Hope we will not be left to believe that we wasted another five years for a promise

Waiting to hear you in parliament

As always, with best regards

A common man
Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email: rajendra.india@gmail.com

The Government has to deliver – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Manifesto 2009 -2014

Government must Pledge the nation to fulfill the promise of REAL Development.
YES – That’s the only way …
Empowered women – Vibrant India
Cheerful farmers – Progressive India
Educated & Financially strong youth – Strong India
Well Equipped Soldiers – Safe & Secure India

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Contents
Preface
Every nation has the government it deserves:
Congress Scorecard 2004-2009.
India Today :
Time has come : It is the worst crisis ever !
Y-our agenda
Priority areas. (YES) Youth, Economy & Security
(REAL) Development – Rural , Education , Agriculture & Livelihood
Food , Clothing , Clean water and Healthcare for the Common Man
Economic Development
Key issues
Solution :
Youth and Women empowerment
Employment Generation from Different initiatives
Organised -Unorganised Sector
Urbanization of rural areas
Retail trade & Shopkeepers community-
E-Governance
SME
Police reforms , National Security & Terrorism
Education and vocational training
Cultivation & Agriculture (IEC- Irrigation, Electricity & Credit) –
Transport
Banking & Finance
Judiciary.
Poverty Alleviation
New thrust areas for bold actions
Economy of the people, by the people and for the people of this country:
Village Republic Scheme (VRS) & BOARD
Healthcare
Adopt a child, senior citizen, Village, School & PHC scheme
Administrative & Governance reforms
Special abilities – disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute
Urban infrastructure
Tourism
Energy & Environment
Loans & Housing
Goods & Services Tax (GST )
Yoga , Mediation & Sports (YMS )
Labour laws
Population Control
Constitutional & Electoral reforms
Defence forces
R&D
Income & taxes
Defence technology SEZ
Export Oriented SEZ for wine
North East Region
National Task force for Animal husbandry, Milk processing, Food processing and fisheries
Post & Telegraph
Private Public Partnership
Cooperative Movement –
Consumer protection movement
Media & Sting Operations –
Disaster Management
Common Civil Code.
Backward – BIMARU States
Tribal Development
Wool Production
Good Governance
Foreign Policy

Preface
Having reaching here to read, i believe you are concerned about this nation with this, i must take you through my journey of how i wrote this Manifesto 2009-14, and why it is important for each and every concerned citizen of this country.
Sometime in 2003 i wrote a book ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ which was not published for public, but was sent across to all leading decision makers, politicians, influential people and Journalists. Most of them acknowledged and sent me their best wishes. Sam Pitroda wrote back ‘ You must enter politics to change the system from within’, Similarly , many people including the Prime Minister , Speaker of Lok Sabha , leader of the opposition appreciated the content ‘ as good for the nation to follow’ ,and sent me the note ‘to spread the message’. Over the last couple of years, i have written a number of open letters to our Prime Ministers right from Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Outcome, as you all know, a formal acknowledgment follows with appreciation.
Sam Pitroda , whom i have always considered as an architect of modern India through his revolutionary PCO booths earlier , and now as the chairman of the National Knowledge Commission. The PCO’s, i believe, had reduced the distance between geographies, created a rural & urban connect, empowered a lot of entrepreneurs. With his PCO movement, suddenly people used to days of travelling to talk to people or communicate through our lethargic postal system suddenly started talking whenever they wanted, Indians got a new high and India was now a connected nation. I my view, his innovative leadership catapulted India and sowed the seeds of the current IT revolution which has put India ahead on the IT & BPO map. Even today, his recommendations as Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, if properly implemented, can bring an enormous benefit to this nation.
Besides Sam’s comment on my earlier book, three people came out to meet or associate or help. Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam met me, sent me the details of Viksit Bharat Foundation, where he has invested his entire earnings. His office has been in touch for all the years he was the President, and still is reachable at a call. Through Dr.Kalam’s office, i was able to get one important change done – ‘Bilingual labelling of medicines ‘. When only 5 % of the people in India know English, why medicines sold in India should carry the name in English? Dr.Kalam moved this through his office and got it implemented. The other important change i was working was ‘None of the above found suitable’ in the ballot papers. This was sent to the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M.Lyngdoh and Dr.Kalam. I wish he had a second stint; this change could also have been done.
Second person who came out to connect, is a top politician, a former Union cabinet minister, founder of BJP & honoured with the best parliamentarian award, Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, He has always been available to meet me whenever i wanted, and kept boosting my morale for making a

positive contribution to the nation. Last year, Dr.Joshi summoned me to write the manifesto for BJP. This could have been a great opportunity to contribute to the nation. Moreover, for the first time, i was being asked to write the ‘Vision document – the Manifesto’ for a leading political party. I wrote from a ‘common man’s’ point of view. Off course, all was not accepted by BJP’s parliamentary board .But still, they took a major portion from my original draft. Also, i must say that Dr.Joshi is rare politician, who practices highest standards of ethics, which is difficult in today’s political environment. I am left to wonder sometimes, how he has survived politics in today’s tough and highly corrupt and institutionalised system. Third personality who has been like a God send gift is a world renowned business guru and acclaimed author, Shiv Khera .Who shares the same passion for the betterment of this nation. He appointed me national President of the organization he founded, Countryfirst. Despite his busy schedule & sessions, he is always reachable and hopefully, one day, he will see the nation changing during his lifetime.
All these people have been a real boost to my activities, and gave me ample opportunities to speak & share my ideas with a whole lot of people.
Back to the manifesto: While the manifesto written for BJP was shared with the parliamentary board of BJP and they decided to pick and choose what was politically helpful and could add to the to the vote bank. Since a lot of research and hard work was done for writing this document of national importance , i thought , it would be good to publish it for a common man to see how the common man’s vision and party’s vision could be aligned . I had a chance to go through the earlier manifestos of both the parties (Congress & BJP); it is shameful that most of the promises are not kept by any of the parties after taking the reins of power. I sincerely hope that the government in power will go through this, and use whatever it considers useful. I am sure that this time, the party will try and implement most of the points mentioned in its manifesto. Though, it is not possible for any government to implement all that is promised in the election manifesto. But still, if 80 % of the promises are delivered upon, it is not doubt, great performance for any government. I also wish that the common man takes the responsibility for change to ‘himself’.
My view is that, the government’s agenda should not be election oriented. It should be drawn from the requirements of the grass root level public. We all saw that Manmohan Singh’s government sacrificed the support from the Left front to get the nuclear deal through; it was at the cost of the government. Finally, we have seen that he is back with a thumping majority, and Left is reduced by its humiliating defeat. This in itself proves that good work cannot go unrecognized. So, the current government must pay more attention to the steps that lead to employment and income generation. The government cannot clap with rising Sensex, as rising Sensex does not raise the GDP of the nation. We also cannot build a lasting economy on dollars only. We need an economy that focuses ‘value creation’ of about 80 % from domestic sectors and for the majority of the population. Exports must never exceed 20 % of the GDP, if we want to create an economy that can grow 10 % for the next 10-15 years.
Sadly, in the last 60 years, 60 % of the population still lives below a dollar a day. Think how they can survive when rice is above Rs.20 a KG, Pulses above Rs 60 a kg, Ginger Rs. 80 a kg? We need to

Convert these people into earning and spending class by imparting them basic skills. We need basic skills at the base of the population, higher & specialised skills at the top level in the population for taking this nation ahead on a faster growth curve. Every year, India must aim to lift 5 % people above the poverty line, and then India can truly become a developed nation in the next ten years. We need to create new income streams; NAREGA is not a solution for such a massive population, the only way these people can grow is by hard work. India has the best of brains but lacks the generation of leaders and will power to shape an actionable road map to harness the potential of the people. We have seen wrong policies being implemented; only Delhi and Mumbai get the most focus and funds. No wonder we are facing migration from smaller towns to these two cities. I have always heard people talking of making Mumbai as Shanghai. Why do we not convert ten smaller Indian towns into Mumbai rather than just looking at already over burdened towns like Mumbai becoming Shanghai? I would also like to see some paradigm change in the tax structures, why do we have an income tax for individuals at all? Tax expenditure! Let people pay taxes only when they buy goods and services and not on their income. Why can we not have such a system?
Now to recession: What everyone is calling a global recession is not a recession. The world has pressed the ‘Reset’ button. With this, a new multi polar world is going to emerge; it will end the uni & bi polar world. Now we cannot dream of independent economies but a truly connected and an interdependent world, full of surprises and opportunities .It is a fact that America has lost all its innovation and it is coming to India and China. Every recession has shifted the power. Earliest recession shifted the position of global power from U.K. to USA & USSR. This recession will finally shift the power from USA. It may be quite unfortunate, if we cannot use this opportunity. Indian Economy is like a sleeping giant, the day it gets up and starts running, no one can stop it. It is a force of a billion brains, and we know what ‘charged’ billion brains can deliver. The current government has to wake up this giant and charge it. Here is the key:
Youth , economy and security are the three key issues before the nation and that is why the acronym ‘ YES’ , and the action of the government need to be towards REAL Development .i.e. Rural , Education , Agriculture and Livelihood . So this acronym REAL. We cannot afford to lose time and focus. Also, the current leaders need to include more common people from the public and a younger generation to lead the nation for the next 25 years.
Our scientists and youth have struggled a lot to reach where we are today. Those who can struggle to survive are the best people to innovate. We have so many opportunities to create jobs, money for the people that we cannot just count our success on increasing FDI or WPI based inflation control to pump the economy or the NAREGA scheme. People are losing jobs & hope with every hour passing by. We need to set our own limits and set out achieve them. It is time for the current government to deliver on the economy by focussing on SME’s and Agriculture. This can lift the economy into to a new orbit.
Foreign money is never free, it comes with its own riders and when it exits, it causes unbearable pain. It might be prudent to divest some of the PSU’s or all and deploy the money into the development schemes. Black money economy is a parallel economy, and is more than our real GDP.

This must be checked and brought back into the system for development. It is time to re-look at our policies, priorities and politics, and do an introspection to evolve out a new growth paradigm. Fire
Fighting and re-construction are two set of activities on the same place and need to be handled by separate teams.
So far, election manifestos have always remained for the media and not for the public. I wish the concerned citizens to review this manifesto , work out their local manifestos based on the local agenda, for each district and approach their local representatives to adopt that and work for the constituency . Politicians have to work for us and they are just public servants and not our masters! We must take India ahead of the world. I will call it ‘India Ahead’ campaign.
We have to come out of our shells and become assertive individuals not only for ourselves but also for our nation. Today, we should not talk about ruling party and the opposition, but of ruling party and the watchdog party but work constructively. Together, positive changes can take place not by criticising, boycotting, opposing and disposing but by participating proactively. I am sharing my vision for what the current government needs to do. We all need to wake up and participate then only, we can change the nation for the better. India has always addressed problems that are non-existent. For examples, we are finding out what is wrong, what is missing in a nation of a billion minds? Trust me; India has all that can make it a strongest, progressive and a powerful nation in the world. Just two things are missing; Honesty and courage. If we all decided to be assertive with our honesty and courage and don’t have dual lives, no one can stop this nation. We talk about corruption but we are active partners. I have always seen that people blame our system of administration. With my personal experience, i can assure you that, we have the best administrative system, no one follows. Today, if you complain against a government employee, an action is certainly taken, but how many of you complain?
The key for the success of the government lies in its active citizens. We have a passive electorate so we have outdated leaders, the moment we participate and start questioning the politicians about our rights and money and how it is used; we will never have to read this book again! Inefficiency cannot tackle inefficiency!

Best wishes,

Rajendra Pratap Gupta
E-mail: rajendra.india@gmail.com
mail@rajendragupta.org

Every nation has the government it deserves:
Congress has ruled this nation for more than fifty years and other governments have ruled for around 8 years let’s examine what they did to this nation?
In the last sixty years, the leaders have contributed immensely to deteriorating the economy and suppressing the rights of the common man, by denying him the right education and running the economy on the ‘Self serving’ license raj. It was only in the 1990’s that the policies led India towards Bankruptcy, and the economy had to be liberalised on the directions of the World Bank. We should not forget that, a single party running the nation for more than 50 years, it did not let the common man to get proper education, as ‘The Common Man’ would have protested for change. The self serving leaders never wanted. A huge Population under the misrule has just remained a mere statistics and a vote bank to be used during elections and abused thereafter. Respect for talent and merit has never been a norm in the any political party. No party practices democracy at home, how can they practice democracy in the nation? Respect for democracy and talent is still to emerge with the politics of this nation maturing.
We are still talking of Indo-US nuclear deal forgetting that, with or without the Indo-US nuclear deal, India should have become a self sufficient state – A Self Reliant India by now.
Leaders have in the last few years built an economy aimed at serving the developed world only, and reduced India to a body shopping country. People have always talked of strong fundamentals in Indian economy. If at all, the Indian economy is strong, then why it is sliding day by day as the developed world sinks deeper into recession? It was never built on strong fundamentals. On the contrary, fundamentals were never addressed. The moment the foreign economies got into trouble, we got into a deeper trouble. This proves the shallowness of the economic principles and that Indian economy was not build it was sold to foreign economies and now that these economies are in trouble, we are in a deeper trouble. None of the political leaders understood what India needs to have to build a robust economy. Today, we are saddled with the burden created with myopic policies of the leaders, and the whole world is adopting protectionist policies and we are going to head for a painful 2009-11. USA will be saddled with trillions of dollars of deficit and will find it difficult to come out. India must avoid that path.
Inflation hurt the common man by taking the prices of daily needs sky high. Though, leaders have manipulated the numbers, it is hard to believe the cooked inflation numbers, as the prices still remain high

At the time of budget, Congress talked of constitutional propriety and refused any stimulus in this financial year. Suddenly, Congress let loose everything throwing the economic principles to the winds. Such Adhocism is only a sure shot recipe for disaster and conveys that Congress knows how to capture power and not how to empower India. Even senior congress leaders like Mani Shankar Aiyar have written, that economic reforms have led to lopsided development outcomes- 836 million Indians haven’t felt the benefits. It remains a big challenge to see how the same people can deliver different result.
Below is an ‘Eye Opener’ on what political parties have contributed to this nation: Key democratic institutions have been used as weapons of vendetta or denigrated. Credibility of the institutions is eroded beyond imagination.
A Failed Judiciary:

On Feb 6, 2009, the Supreme court said that , the Criminal justice system has collapsed – Making the chilling observation, which too many only confirmed the widely held perception of the erosion of the system, a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam also said that the lower judiciary had decayed. “The courts of magistrate and munsif have ceased to be an option for the common man,” the Bench said and compared the lower courts to ill-equipped and ill-staffed public health centres (PHCs) in rural areas.
Only those people go there who have no other option,” said the Bench as an apparent indicator of the low measure of public faith in these courts, which are the first points of dispute settlement for the masses.
While the last Election manifesto of congress in 2004 quoted ‘Immediate measures should be taken to drastically cut the delays in courts, particularly in the high court’s and in lower levels of the judiciary’.

Central Bureau of Investigations: “Only God can save the situation”.

On Tuesday 11th Feb, 2009, the Supreme Court said the CBI was acting at the behest of the law ministry while investigating the disproportionate assets case against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members. An exasperated Bench said, “Only God can save the situation”.

“You are acting at the behest of the law ministry. You are not acting on your own,” said the bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Cyriac Joseph ‘

Ironically, the last election manifesto of congress quoted ‘An administrative reforms commission should be established to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public

Administration system completely so as to make it more performance oriented and accountable’.

Divided Election Commission: Fading hopes!!

The Chief Election Commissioner’s recommendation for removal of Election Commissioner , Navin Chawla ahead of the general elections brings to the fore the differences among the three-member body which has often been marred by clashes over crucial decisions. This is the second pillar after the Judiciary that safe guards the democracy. Under the current s rule, The Election commission’s decisions cannot be trusted anymore. Apparently, looks like, that the system has lost its credibility. Whereas, the Election Manifesto of Congress quoted ‘Congress is deeply committed to electoral reforms’. I do not understand how come the last election commissioner became a union minister for youth and sports affairs? Same happens to most of the people occupying the posts of judges and officers who get elevated to Rajya Sabha or as diplomats or get nominated in different government bodies.

Congress is not in favour of Aam Aadmi??? Poor accountability on spending:

The CAG (Comptroller and auditor general) report released on 20th February 2009 said that the centre’s Aam Aadmi Bill was highly inflated. According to CAG, the funds meant for social and infrastructure development were diverted to celebrations and giving aid to NGO’s and other expenditure rather than creating infrastructure.

Remember Rajiv Gandhi saying, out of every rupee meant for the poor only fifteen paisa reaches the common man. This is what the leader of party said, whose family ruled this nation as its fiefdom since the very independence! On 26th April 2009, at Gangtok, Rahul Gandhi went a step further to say now on 15 paisa reaches out of Rs.100. If so is the case, what have the successive governments done!!

We are living at the mercy of the terrorists.

The less we talk the better. This government has failed utterly against terror. We had all kinds of attacks at all the places – Air, Land & Sea. It is not just Kashmir, it is all across. We are totally at the mercy of the terrorists. Successive governments have let the nation down badly. Congress accepted its failure to act against terrorist in the form of sacking the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil. If politicians don’t act fast and decisively on terror, we are readying India for another partition.

Financially, our economy is at its worst:

The fiscal deficit for 2009 would be in around 11 %. The Fiscal deficit budgeted at 2.5 % of the GDP this year, Should end up at 6 %, to which should be added another 1.5 % of the GDP for the off-budget items like dues on oil and fertilizers companies. Throw in another 3.5 % of

GDP of state government deficits and India Should have a consolidated fiscal deficit of 11 % in 2008-9. Remember, during the CITIZENS led NDA, Revenue deficit never crossed 4.5 %. Congress took over an Indian Economy growing at 8 % every year and after five years; we are just a step away from being rated as a ‘Junk status’ under the current policies and misrule with growth numbers less than half of what we had in 2004.

Current policies led to unchecked inflation. Even we are not sure, whether the low inflation numbers we see today are correct or cooked up. Economy is sliding day by day. Companies are getting into voluntary shut downs, expected job losses till March 09 have crossed two crore. Last Election manifesto of Congress reiterated “its firm commitment to eliminating the revenue deficit of the central government in five years time” & actually gave India the worst ever revenue deficit since its independence . According to S&P’s ( Standard & Poor’s ratings ) , India’s fiscal position is unsustainable in the middle term, reduced the outlook on long term debt from stable to negative for four government entities , and , in turn, the UPA government . In the 3rd Week of Feb’ 09, even Fitch ratings had called India’s finances in to question.

Urban Poverty:

According to the ‘India: Urban Poverty Report, 2009’,The poverty in cities is not an overflow of the poverty in villages but has happened because of the faulty nature of urbanization in India, says the country’s first report on Urban Poverty released in Feb,09. According to the study, an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalor, crime, disease and tension, but not all slum dwellers exist below the poverty line.
They have been marginalised because of the poor city planning and poorer urban land management and legislation.
The urban poverty was not about only nutritional deficiency but deficiencies in the basic needs of housing, water, sanitation, medical care, education, and opportunity for income generation. As many 81 million or 25.7 per cent people (2004-05) subsist in urban areas on incomes that are below the poverty line. Eighty per cent of their meagre income goes towards paying for food and energy, leaving very little for meeting the cost of living in an increasingly monetised society
Congress Election Manifesto of 2004 quoted ‘The Congress is conscious of the havoc that corruption at all levels ads to the harassment of the common man’.
In fact, sixty years of misrule is a naked, sordid & ruthless saga of Gareebi, Bhrashtachaar and Aantakwaad and not the Roti, Kapda aur Makaan that has just remained a slogan after 60 years of rule.
Overall, the governments have failed on all fronts. What all we see as growth is incremental growth that happens on its own. . We have totally forgotten the sacrifices of our freedom fighters. We are at loss of words to express our anguish to forget Bhagat Singh

, Neta ji and Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Maulana Azad and others as well who contributed to India’s freedom struggle.
Sixty years of misrule has certainly achieved one thing; ethics has been eroded in politics and no one trusts a politician. Citizens should be committed to change this by participating actively in bringing about this change and creating an India for the common man. Criticism alone does not work; we need a solution oriented approach even from the opposition. We must support the current government. Though, in the current elections and the new government, we don’t have the actual representation of the common man. All that we see as next generation leaders are the second generation leaders of the existing politicians. Though, there have been some bold statements by Rahul Gandhi for reorganising the congress. Which has been unheard of from the Gandhi clan till now, but still we need to see watch closely what Rahul does going forward. It should not remain just rhetoric. I hope that the congress does not repeat the score card that it had in 2004-2009. The good part is that congress has a clear majority to implement the key plans. Following is Congress scorecard based on the last manifesto.
Congress Scorecard 2004-2009.
This is taken from the congress manifesto for 2004-2009. Reality is shocking.
No. Key Result areas What Congress promised in the last Manifesto What it did
1 Agriculture Annual growth of less than 4-4.5 % is unacceptable Agriculture Growth in Q3 2008-09 is Negative -2.2 %
2 Intensive agricultural development program Should be started in 100 districts ???
3 Farmers insurance Farm insurance schemes for both crops and cattle Should be implemented ???
4 Employment Accelerate employment Generation More than 2 Crores jobs lost till March 2009
5 Fiscal Policy Committed to eliminating the revenue deficit of central govt. By 2009 In Feb 09, the revenue deficit reached at 11.4 % , highest ever since Independence
6 Growth Growth of below 10 % in industry is simply unacceptable Growth figures in Q3 2008-09 was around 5.3 %
7 Education To spend 6 % of GDP and set up Education Development Finance Corporation ???
8 Khadi & Village Industries to be modernised ???
9 Block level Establish at least one industrial training institute in each development block of the country ???
10 Annual Rozgar report To be released every 1st May ???
11 A great thrust on Exports of textiles , handicrafts , Gems & Jewellery , leather , software & engineering Painful slowdown in all this sectors and the government is clueless on what to do? Units are shutting down and much more than one crore people are expected to be out of Job by March end in these sectors
12 Farm labour Ensure the fullest implementation of wage laws for farm labour ???
13 Landless Congress to Redouble its efforts to distribute surplus productive land to the landless ???
14 Women Congress pledges to press for the constitutional amendment to reserve one third of seats in Lok Sabha and in Vidhan Sabha’s for Women ???
15 Healthcare Congress Should raise public spending on healthcare to at least 2-3 % of GDP ???
16 Reservation Congress pledges to extend reservations for the economically deprived persons belonging to communities that are at present not entitled to such reservations ???
17 Weavers & artisans New middle level technical institutions Should be started in places where for example weavers and artisans are concentrated ???
18 Food scarce areas Grain Banks in chronically food scarce areas Should be started ???
19 Girl Child Nutrition program for the girl child particularly Should be expanded on a significant scale ???
20 Organised , Informal & Unorganised sector
Urban Poor Every initiative Should must and Should be taken to expand the proportion of employment in the organised sector, congress Should ensure the well being and welfare of all workers in unorganized sector Only job losses have been reported in the last few years in all these sectors and Congress has remained a silent spectator
21 Congress to establish a National Commission to examine problems facing enterprises operating in the unorganised sector ???

22 A national fund Should be created ???
23 A single , simplified law Should be enacted to set out the obligations of these enterprises to labour and for safety ???
24 Congress Should create legal space in towns and cities for hawkers , vendors , food sellers etc……so that they are spared the risk of extortion , eviction, confiscation and harassment ???
25 Social housing schemes Should be launched to meet the needs of the urban poor ???
26 Security of the nation Congress Should strengthen the intelligence network Most gruesome 19 attacks. A record of 63 blasts in 35 days. Assam, Oct 30, 2008 – 63 people killed, Imphal , Oct 21, 2008 – 17 people killed , New Delhi, Sept 13 , 2008- 26 people killed, New Delhi, Sept 27, 2008 – Three people Killed , Ahmedabad , July 26, 2008 – 57 people killed after 20 bombs went off in two hours, Bangalore , July 25, 2008 – One person killed, Jaipur, May 13, 2008 – 68 people killed in serial bombings, Faizabad , November 23, 2007- 15 people killed in Court bombings, Hyderabad , August 25,2007- 42 people killed in two blasts, Samjhauta Express , Feb 19, 2007- 66 people killed , Malegaon , Sept 8, 2006- 40 people killed in two blasts, Mumbai , July 11, 2006 – 209 people killed in seven blasts on sub-urban trains – the lifeline of Mumbai , Varanasi , March 7, 2006- 21 people killed in three blasts including one at the temple and another at the crowded railway station, New Delhi, Oct 29, 2005- 61 people killed in three blasts on the eve of Diwali

27 Judiciary Immediate measures Should be taken to drastically cut delays in courts , particularly in the high court’s and in lower levels of judiciary On Feb 6, 2009, the Supreme court said that, the Criminal justice system has collapsed… A Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam also said that the lower judiciary had decayed. “The courts of magistrate and munsif have ceased to be an option for the common man,” the Bench said and compared the lower courts to ill-equipped and ill-staffed public health centres (PHCs) in rural areas
28 Manufacturing Sector Congress Should establish a National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council ???
29 Yearly report card – Jan Dastavejh Every year on October 2nd , the congress pledges to present to the people of India a Jan Dastavejh on the progress of the implementation of the manifesto ???
India Today:
India is a land of a billion talented brains. Over the last 62 years, we have proven to the world of our people’s strong determination and capabilities. We are blessed with a rich cultural heritage, natural resources, intellectual capital; world’s best human resources and our ability endure everything & still reach the moon! No wonder, the world looks upon us for the best people. There has been a lack of direction and right atmosphere at home. This has led to brutal crushing of our talent and enormous wastage of our resources. We have contributed to the whole world. But at home, we remain a frustrated population & a struggling nation. Today, we stand at the cross roads to take stock of what did we achieve in the last 62 years of freedom from the foreign rule? Why we were never allowed to flourish and how we can end this?
Time has come: It is the worst crisis ever!
Friends, we can keep hoping things should change and sit back. But honestly, we cannot afford to lose time. We either participate and change or let it go. Time and again, it has been proven that, common man has not participated in nation building via elections. How can 1.03 billion people not wake up when 500+ people are taking them for a ride? Don’t frustrate yourself. Till undemocratic politicians remain at the helm of affairs, nothing can be expected. This is not about an election but our determination to participate and change the nation; it is the question of changing the destiny of this nation going forward. It is not just an appeal to politicians, but to all who wish to see a different India, an India which stands tall above all.
Y-our agenda
All have equally been suffers to the same atrocities and misrule of the political class. Let’s pledge for a better India, a country where a common man has a say, and it addresses the issues that you want to be addressed. This is how we can transform this Nation. All of you are hoping that things will change on their own. But the fact remains, that hope is not a

Strategy. The ruling government will look into this .We say our agenda is nothing but your agenda. Our priority and path is summed up below in YES, REAL Development
Priority areas. (YES) Youth, Economy & Security
(REAL) Development – Rural , Education , Agriculture & Livelihood
Food , Clothing , Clean water and Healthcare for the Common Man
Government needs to immediately attend on our national plan of action to bring about a reform process that starts with addressing the urgent and important issues related to youth, as youth is a ‘Golden Demographic advantage’, with a special focus on empowering women . Women power alone have the strength to change the nation !Putting overall economic development mechanism leading to creating an equitable allocation of resources aimed at creation & distribution of wealth in both rural and urban India , agriculture & non-agriculture , manual & Hi-tech, small scale and large scale industries and aim at security -social , Economic and military ,with the base focus of ensuring Food , Clothing and Healthcare to the common man. The government must earmark 60 % of the plan funds for and effect public investments in REAL development – Rural , Education Agriculture and Livelihood generation .

Economic Development – There is a difference in Economic growth and economic development. Economic growth is purely GDP but economic development is a broader concept that includes not just GDP but also indicators like social justice , income distribution, political freedom, pollution , Equality of income …………GDP captures average national income , but do not reflect how that income is spent.. Even increase in aids and cancer incidences in the country Should add to the GDP expenditure on health services , Also, calamity Should lead to the increase in GDP due to increase in reconstruction activities. Moreover, GDP growth rate is inadequate measure of growth as it is calculated largely on the basis of rate of growth of income of the upper 20-30 % of the population who receive disproportionately large share of income. It calculates only money transactions and leaves many important activities and social measures and conditions like adult literacy rate, life expectancy and HDI rank. The government must move towards transforming the Ministry of finance to economic development so that the real effect of the economic measures can be validated against the goals. There are three sources of growth for an economy, increase in capital, and increase in labour force, and improvement in productivity, Government should impact all the three in its pursuit to make India a stronger nation
Key issues
1. An Equitable, sustainable and stable growth environment needs to be created. The current policies of the government have brought the economy back to its knees.

2. Jobs need to be retained and a massive push is required for employment generation in retail, education, agriculture, Healthcare, infrastructure, Education, technology and tourism sectors on a war footing.
3. IT & BPO sector is under stress , and the current government must create opportunities within the nation to keep up the growth in the sector
4. Vocational training and re-skilling needs to be taken up on war footing to keep the momentum in job generation and growth at all levels in the job hierarchies
5. Agriculture needs new impetus as more than 65 % of our population is dependent on agriculture. More value has to be added to agriculture to increase the productivity and profitability
6. Communication is the key to growth and the government should strive to reduce the tele-communication cost by 90 %.
7. Security of the nation needs a total re-look with a action oriented approach and need to make this system more result oriented and accountable & more freedom be provided to operate without any political interference . A zero-tolerance policy on terrorism should be enacted. Defence forces need a booster.
8. SME sector needs a fresh vigour to make India a developed country. The current government must take all necessary steps to achieve this goal with priority and equal thrust
9. Rural India needs a completely new focus. Despite all tall claims in the last six decades, rural India still remains underserved, underfunded and an outdated system.
10. Judiciary needs to be ramped up to restore faith in the law and order
11. Innovation , entrepreneurship and new emerging opportunities Should be attended in a focussed manner
Solution:
We have failed as a nation. Today the country is facing a severe crisis. People are losing jobs by every hour, faith every kilometre and hope every day. Rising stock market does not raise the GDP of a nation, and this, the leaders must understand. We must do a quick fix for this economy but work out a short term and a long term solution for the economy and society. The mistake every government has done is to address the economic issues without including the social perspective

The detailed road map and action areas are as follows.
Youth and Women empowerment:
• There are 34.8 crore youth in the age group of 15-34 years. Of these, about 10 crore are in the 15-19 years of age. Of these, 7 crore are rural and 3 crore are urban. Of the urban youth, more than one crore are living in large cosmopolitan towns and the more than one crore are living in small town’s less than one lakh. Of the 3 crore urban youths, only 1.3 crore youths have completed their matriculation or higher secondary. These youth need to be guided & incentivised to study and undergo compulsory vocational and on the job learning. They should be a priority area for forming the policy on ‘Earn while you learn’ program.
• Another 24.8 Crore youth are in the economically active age group of 20-34 years. Amongst these 7.6 crore are in urban areas, more than a third of them in small towns of less than one lakh. Only 3.6 crore of the 7.6 crore have studied till matriculation or above. And there are only 1.3 crore graduates. If we count total number of young graduates (Urban & Rural). It should add up to 2 crore.
• These youth of this country are talented and responsible but lack the right guidance, skills and opportunities to tap their potential. The current government must immediately address the issue and how to channelize the power of youth by providing them suitable employment opportunities. Education today is lacking monetary value and the goal would be to ensure that educated people don’t sit idle. Special schemes for women education and empowerment should be launched within six months. Special scholarships aimed at promoting higher education and entrepreneurship in women should be introduced. The government must make the conditions conducive and bring up laws to introduce ‘Earn while you learn’ scheme for employing students to do part time government jobs in shifts.
• The government must work out a policy to allot government tenders wherever feasible, to only unemployed / employed youths limited to running or operating different facilities or housekeeping in government establishments thereby, throwing open 10, 00000 of jobs across to the first timers.
• The hawking zones must be set up with vendors getting legal status to ensure that they have a source of livelihood on prominent public places where the foot falls are high and can create income for people and also serve the public. This should once and for all end corruption and harassment of small business owners. This should create at least 1 crore vendors who can legally earn their livelihood by servicing the needs of the common man in urban and semi urban areas.
• Government must do its best to start reservation in jobs for people from economically weaker sections of the society, eunuchs and especially for orphans. If one is born handicapped or becomes an orphan ,does it mean that government leaves them at the

Mercy of the creator? It is a matter of real shame for the all the governments whether BJP or Congress that no one has taken any steps to give reservation for such children
• Academic and research institutes must also act as incubation centres for meritorious students and , as a norm , Government must make the framework to absorb 1 % of the best brains to be absorbed in the mentoring at the incubation centres. These incubation centres must be funded by the ‘National Innovation & Incubation Bank program’ which should be set up
• Gross enrolment ratio in higher education stands at 11 %. World average is 23 %. Government must put in all efforts to reach the world average in the next four years.
• SHG – Self help groups (Swabhimaan Plan) must be launched in the next six months at the taluka level. Government must form a frame work to organize women self help groups at block level for making them financially independent, and at the same time serve the society by different tie ups from corporates and government. The group must offer services exclusively and not through other channels to ensure success and self sufficiency. The government must create 50,000 SHG’s every year. This should create employment for 1-2 crore women across the country. Same should be applicable to unemployed youth. Government must give a formal legal frame work to SHG’s. A suitable law enabling micro-credit operations and nurturing them to be scaled up must be enacted.
• The government must also encourage & impress upon various corporates and government offices to give special lower rates to students for different products and services which should be 30-50 % lower than the normal market rates like telecom ,hard ware , travel etc.
• Special girls hostels and working women hostels should be established in every town
• Youth hostels should be set up on railway premises which should make cheap accommodation available to students travelling to various towns at actual costs. This Should create employment for 100000 people in the next five years
• 40 Technical institutes especially for women should be set up. 10 in each zone.
• NSS & NCC should be made more broad based & integral part of curricula for people to get involved on a compulsory basis during schooling, understand the rural set up, and also contribute to the development of the same via the NSS / NCC.

Employment Generation from Different initiatives
No. Initiative Total number of jobs generated
1 House-keeping and in house service tenders for youth 10 Lac
2 Legalization of Vendors 1 Crore
3 Self Help Groups for Women 1-2 Crore
4 Youth Hostels 1 Lac
5 Khadi & Village Industries –KVIC
For weavers, Handloom workers etc. 10 Lac direct
50 lac indirect
6 E-Governance , SMART Districts 50 Lac direct
25 Lac indirect
7 SME 2 Crore
8 Government jobs like Police force , Judiciary etc 6 Lac
9 Vocational Training Institutions 1 Lac
10 SOFZ –Special Organic farming & Food processing 10 Lac
11 Local manufacturing units of Global tender suppliers 1 Crore
12 Healthcare 30 Lac Direct
20 Lac Indirect
13 New Townships 25 Lac
15 Tourism 1 crore
16 Energy Sector 10 Lac
17 Yoga , Meditation and Sports centres 1 Lac
18 N.E. Region 5 Lac
19 Cooperative organizations 10 Lac
20 Electricity Meters 10 Lac
21 Post & Telegraph 10 Lac

Organised -Unorganised Sector: According to Sen Gupta report, in 2005, the total employment in Indian economy was 45.7 Crore. Of which, the unorganized sector accounted for 39.5 crore, or 86 percent. This unorganised sector has reduced the poverty by lifting people above the poverty line. The report also mentioned about the socio economic plight of workers from unorganised sectors. Low level of education and poor access to land denies workers access to good jobs in organised sectors.
Commission also found that 40-50 % of the men and 81-87 % of women get wages below the standard minimum wages
The government must commit to radical changes in the handling of this sector that is crucial as we not only need to create more employment opportunities but also create fair payment systems to these 45.7 crore population .
Urbanization of rural areas: This must aim not just to connect rural hinterlands to the urban belts but to provide the basics of urban India all across the country. The goal should be that in the next 10 years, there should be one India and rural world should cease to exist. PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural areas) would be the thrust area of government
• Education, healthcare and infrastructure should be available within every five kilometres across the nation. Clean water and electricity in rural areas should be a top priority. Clean water is a must for rural areas as it causes 80 % of all diseases and ailments.
• Sanitation: 67 % of the rural population and 22 % of urban population has no access to toilets. This should be addressed in the next five years
• Help should be just a call away. The government should set up toll free numbers for connecting with the rural brethren in the times of need. Government must set up Private public partnerships to make this viable model giving the PPP a matchless opportunity in urban and rural India together. Government must evolve a framework so that no urban PPP contract should be allotted without a rural service clause. So urban and rural India should grow together.
• Further, the Golden Corridor project should be completed quickly. Now we need to add a new dimension by identifying and starting townships or economic hubs along the entire corridor

• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) movement should be upgraded with better technology and the product portfolio should be extended to increase employment in rural areas. Weaver community, Power loom, hand loom, handicrafts and other untapped opportunities must be added to KVIC that is passing through hard times. Government may issue guidelines to the government staff to buy a quota of the official dresses from Khadi and Gram Udhyog to ensure the profitability of the sector. KVIC must be franchised to educated youth across the country in small and medium formats financed by the National Youth Bank .Handloom exports should be increased from today’s Rs.3000 Cr+ to Rs.10, 000 crore in the next five years. India’s strength in being the largest yarn producer should be innovatively harnessed. ‘Khadi’ as a brand should be globally positioned. All this is likely create employment for 100,0000 youth
Retail trade & Shopkeepers community- Retail is a big employer. According to RAI – Retailer Association of India, the Retail sector is estimated to be Rs.130000000000000.00 (Rs. 13 Lac Crore). There are 12 million retailers in the country. Every 200 Sq.feet of retail space employs one person, Specialty retail employs four people per 100 sq.ft and Hypermarkets employs one person per 300 Sq.ft. and these twelve million retailers actually support at least 8 times the same number in the associated industries like marketing , advertising ,logistics , house-keeping , packaging etc…

• Government must look at giving industry status to retail
• The entire thrust should be to get the best practices from all over the world for making the domestic retailers globally competitive and protect the domestic retailers
• The government must promote modern trade and set up a single window for clearance to ensure smoother functioning of retail. According to a 2003 study, a new shop needed, on average, 15 licenses from 11 government bodies and securing them took an average of six months and cost up to 500,000 rupees.
• Incentives Should be in place to set up world class supply chain infrastructure

In the matter of consumer articles of daily necessity, it is observed that despite adequate supplies available in the States, movement of goods from one state to another is still restricted. This policy, apart from creating artificial scarcity in some States also leads to rise in prices prejudicial to the interest of consumer. Harassment is also caused to traders on account of setup of Check Posts and barriers besides technical formalities of Road Permit and entry forms etc. The government must ensure that there is no barrier to the free movement of goods. System of entry forms & check post should be abolished. Time has come to withdraw, amend or drastically restructure all laws to facilitate smooth inter-state and intra-state trade, which is a prerequisite for a strong domestic market. Formation of ‘Trade Review Commission’ to look into, review and suggest measures to help make the environment conducive to traders and consumers

E-Governance – Today the world over, the public is becoming literate. Mobile phones are becoming the first computer. The mobile connections in India are close to 400 million. The density of mobiles has reached almost 40 %. It is high time that E-governance now converge to the next level in E-Governance. With 3G becoming a reality, the government should move closer to the public.
I believe more the number of offices to visit; more are the opportunity for corruption and bribes. SMART District program should eliminate the harassment of the common man. He / she would not require at all visiting multiple government offices but having a single window nearer to his home
• By issuing digital ID cards and also enable futuristic technologies that can be used to connect to the government departments via mobile and get the basic work done. Why should a citizen visit a government office unless necessary! If at all one needs to, the SMART District kiosks should be the first point to procure all forms, government records etc.
• Government must launch ‘SMART Districts’ program and set up government service kiosks across till the block level. People should go through these kiosks and not to offices to get the work done, so that they don’t even meet the officers, forget paying bribes to get a small certificate.
• These kiosks should only be awarded to economically weaker sections of all societies & unemployed youth. The government must plan to open about 10,000,00 Kiosks in the next 3 years employing at least 50 Lac youths who can read and write . Besides, the setting of the Kiosks should throw open another opportunities for at least 25 lac jobs. IT sector that is passing under a painful period should be used for domestic requirement. So that we can counter global slowdown with inward looking policy. Some of the services like government forms & collection of bills, Photo copy, and fax, STD / ISD should be serviced through these kiosks to ensure relevance and viability. Half of these Kiosks should be exclusively reserved for women. Who might find it convenient to work nearer to their homes?
• E-governance should also make government records digitalised and accessible to citizens without hassles today, people fear treading into a police station or a government office. Mechanism should be set in place to ensure accessibility nearer to the community. All government related permissions and works must become time bound, so that people should not have to wait indefinitely for a petty job to be done in the government office.
SME: Globally SME’s contribute more than 90 % to the manufacturing output in the developed world. In India, it is just 39 % and employ 1.3 crore people.
• The guidelines for units should be re-considered. Eligibility for SME’s should be revised upwards and re-worked to a limit of Rs. 5 Crore or more
• Government must pass strict guidelines to PSU’s to clear the payment due to SME’s within 30 days of the work being done or levy the market interest rates as penalty

• Government must seriously consider that a portion of the store purchases in defence and railways be reserved exclusively for SME’s
• Government must check the feasibility of exemption of earnest money and deposit security for SME when applying for government tenders
• The Government must revisit the criteria to be considered for audit limit as set up in 1984 from Rs.40 lac to Rs. 1 Crore.
• TDS process for SME’s should be revisited and re-looked
• More incentives should be granted for the SME with the goal to make SME sector contribute to more than 75 % of the total manufacturing output in the next 5 years.
• SSI Bases SEZ’s should be considered for every state. More so, near to the ports.
• A separate bank dedicated to serve the needs of SME (National SME Bank) should be considered. Besides introducing a national level institute that should special in SSI education leading to a BBA / MBA in SME.
• The Government must strive to create SME’s employing only women. There should be 25 SME’s in each zone ( North , East , West & South India ) fully funded by the ‘Progressive India venture fund’ set up to promote Women and youth empowerment . . All these efforts from the government Should lead to creation of atleast two crore jobs in the next five years
Police reforms, National Security & Terrorism: Lapses in National security has cost countless lives & we are at the mercy of terrorists today. Lawlessness is a norm and ordinary people to high and mighty are the victims in one form or another. Years ago, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had spoke about the fact, that Terrorism is not limited to geographies. We are under the evil shadow of lawlessness and terrorism and we should have to fight it out and finish it off. I have met up with people personally in North Eastern part of the country. If we fail to take immediate steps, country should be partitioned again soon. Assam is becoming a hot bed of Bangladeshi immigrants. AUDF is getting stronger only banking on Muslim votes of immigrant Bangladeshi’s. This has to end with a stern hand from the center.
It is glaring to note that;
• Last five years witnessed the most gruesome 19 attacks. A record of 63 blasts in 35 days. Assam, Oct 30, 2008 – 63 people killed, Imphal , Oct 21, 2008 – 17 people killed , New Delhi, Sept 13 , 2008- 26 people killed, New Delhi, Sept 27, 2008 – Three people Killed , Ahmedabad , July 26, 2008 – 57 people killed after 20 bombs went off in two hours, Bangalore , July 25, 2008 – One person killed, Jaipur, May 13, 2008 – 68 people killed in serial bombings, Faizabad , November 23, 2007- 15 people killed in Court bombings, Hyderabad , August 25,2007- 42 people killed in two blasts, Samjhauta Express , Feb 19, 2007- 66 people killed , Malegaon , Sept 8, 2006- 40 people killed in two blasts, Mumbai ,

July 11, 2006 – 209 people killed in seven blasts on sub-urban trains – the lifeline of Mumbai, Varanasi, March 7, 2006- 21 people killed in three blasts including one at the temple and another at the crowded railway station, New Delhi, Oct 29, 2005- 61 people killed in three blasts on the eve of Diwali
• The tribunal reviewing the ban on SIMI threw out the Government’s case because of the shoddy preparations and argued half heartedly. This is despite the fact , that SIMI activists have been behind the blasts in India
• Speedy trail of parliament attack was a deterrent to terrorists. There has been a failure of the government in its ability to understand and tackle terrorism.
• Today, India faces multiple threats to internal security from separatists in North East, Jammu & Kashmir; Maoists in 156 districts in 13 states; and Jehadis and terrorist sleeper cells all across the country.
• Prime Minister defined Maoists as the ‘Single largest threat to India’s internal security’. But did nothing beyond that. We need to take them heads on and throw them out.
• There is a strategically planned infiltration of Bangladeshis and Pakistan’s from Bangladesh’s borders.
• There has been no successful prosecution of terrorists in the last five years under the existing laws. On the contrary, Prime Minister equated Pakistan as a victim of terrorism. Whereas, Pakistan is the considered the most notorious nation and the cause and creator of global terrorism. We must declare Pakistan as a terrorist nation. Why wait for USA or UN to do that. We don’t need any proof.
The government must work on the possibility of the half yearly defence review to ensure the security, territorial integrity and unity of India. I mean it, when I say; we must take all necessary steps and exercise all available options in the interest of the nation.
• National security establishment should be well equipped with latest intelligence gathering techniques
• Super surveillance should be set up for checking ‘porous borders’ to avoid infiltration. Fencing of Bangladesh and Pakistan borders or equivalent measures should be taken
• NSG should be stationed in four zones in the country with their own fleet to reach any spot within 3 hours across the nation
• Special toll free number 2611 should be dedicated for complaints and information relation to terrorist activities. 2611 is in the memory of attacks that happened at Mumbai on 26 /11/08

• Special courts should be set up to try cases related to terrorism. Parliament attack convict should be hanged immediately
• The government must pledge to enact stringent legislation to combat terrorism. The New anti-terrorism act must incorporate measures recommended by the recent Administrative Reforms Commission and U.N. Resolution no.1373 on the subject
• The government must take effective steps for scrutiny, detection and repatriation of all illegal migrants from the country
• Defence must be re-looked and reinvigorated with a new vision. The goal should be to make India develop its own defence R&D and manufacturing capabilities and reduce the dependence on foreign procurement.
• By 2030, India should not procure rather supply arms and ammunitions to the world at cheapest prices. The automatic surveillance systems would be installed on all borders. India Should start the R&D center at Futuristic Weapon technology institute
The government must take all measures to ensure a better functioning of the police force & National security. Today, India has one police personnel for every 10,000 population this needs to be attended as it is crucial for a safe society and prerequisite to economic development.
• Police and armed forces should be equipped with latest ammunitions
• IT enabled, citizen centric police system should be put in place in the next two years. One of the ways it can change your experience is, that you can register a complaint anywhere and get it transferred online to the area of its jurisdiction automatically – Why should the victim run from pillar to post to lodge an FIR just to figure out the area of jurisdiction for registering an FIR? Functional and infrastructure reforms should be done ASAP
• National biometric Identity cards should l be issued to avoid infiltration and check extremists
• Watch your community program should be initiated at every community level to check any suspicious activities and people.
Education and vocational training. Educational goals should start with the basic premise that every child should go to school, every school must impart meaningful education, and everyone who is educated gets employment. One of the systemic failures has been the collapse of the education system. Once we had the Nalanda’s and Vikramshila’s of the world. Australia has 400,000 foreign students, Dubai has 50,000 and India has 27000! Today, people are going abroad to study. We need to reverse back this trend and start centres on the lines of Nalanda’s and Vikramshila’s again. I believe that six decades after independence is a time gap sufficient to review the educational system. We must re-look and envision the new education system keeping in mind that ‘Education and training is the fundamental right that should not just create employment & income for Indians, but also shape their character’. It is glaring to note that 2/3rd of our universities

And ninety percent of the colleges are said to be functioning at a ‘Below average level’. Further, with regard to the higher education, the National Knowledge Commission in 2006 stated that the participation rate of the population in the age group 18-23 is only around 7 percent. It is far below the developed countries and is only one-half of the average for Asia
• The government must strive its best to raise the level of the education system & appoint a National Commission of Education to formulate the new national policy for Education. Capacity building should be one of its major responsibilities .Today, degrees are being scattered and there is not much value attached to this, the same must be addressed. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan must be strengthened and the Mid-day meal scheme be improvised
• The government must operationalise the constitutional amendment of Education as Fundamental right. The promised allocation of the GDP percentage should be strictly adhered to
• Capacity building should be one major thrust area
• There are 2800 diverse trades in India; each requires sound domain knowledge and good skills. Vocational course loans must be started for students undergoing a vocational training without any guarantee.
• In the next five years, we must set up and upgrade at least 25 world class universities across India. This Should transform our AIIMS to IIMS ( International Institute of Medical Sciences ) , IIM’s to ( International Institute of Management) , IIT’s to IIT’S ( International Institute of Technology ) to raise the bar and position them as Global institutes of excellence and research. We must upgrade the REC’s , RMC’s and Regional Management Institutions to the level of IIT’s , IIM’s & AIIMS to ensure that people don’t have to wait & forego education despite talent due to lack of seats
• The focus should also go beyond IIT / IIM’s. The government must set up four International Institutes of Nano Technology (IINT) one in each zone (north, east, west, and south).
• More importantly, government must set up 100,000 vocational training institutes across the nation and this itself should generate employment opportunities for 1 crore people directly as staff of these training institutes. Provision must be made for certification of skills acquired traditionally or through private initiatives.
• The government must set up National Skills Development Authority to oversee the requirements for various skills in different regions from time to time
• The government must dedicate four International centres of excellence and innovation for low cost technologies in all four zones across the nation.

• Scientists working in all R&D labs must co-own the patents so as to reap the monetary benefits of commercialization of such patents. This Should be a big incentive for getting the scientists back to India
Cultivation & Agriculture (IEC- Irrigation, Electricity & Credit) –
Everything else can wait but not agriculture – Jawaharlal Lal Nehru
Food is an important weapon in our arsenal. We can use it for bargaining – U.S. Under Secretary
I believe that this Nation is a nation of ‘Rishi’ and ‘Krishi’.
Agriculture must remain the basic fundamental of our economic strength and core focus of our plans. More than 80 % of the farms are smaller than 5 acres. Moreover, between 1971 -96 the average size of the farms have reduced from 2.3 to 1.4 acres. The input costs have risen dramatically and the cost of living in rural areas have gone up substantially adding to this, are the high cost of loans thus making agriculture unviable for most the farmers . Agriculture needs to grow at 4 % for the economy to grow at 9 %. Currently, it is under negative growth as per the Q3 2008-09 estimated at – 2 %. I believe that there are four prerequisites for a good yield, profitable prices, availability of Irrigation, Electricity and timely credit besides,
• Currently, Governments investment in agriculture is miniscule 0.5 % of GDP. This must be increased to 5 % over the next five years.
• Agriculture must be supplemented by Seri-Culture, Animal husbandry & Poultry, Fisheries, horticulture, Floriculture, Diary and cattle breeding to enhance the income of farmers. There should be special attention in framing the micro policies for the rural sector empowerment and growth.
• Agricultural profitability needs to be addressed by providing newer techniques, higher yield varieties and new farm practices like organic farming.
• Setting of SOFZ – Special Organic Farming zones on the lines of SEZ. At present only 8000 Organic farming exists in India employing 30000 farmers. World over, the use of organic foods is on the rise. Countries like Europe, North and South America, Finland, Canada, Denmark and Sweden have a great demand for organic food. It is expected, that the world market for Organic food would be between 35-40 Billion US Dollars (175000 -200000 Crore rupees). The Organic farming revolution has to spread swiftly and the government must set up a special Task force to oversee the growth of organic farming. The processed organic foods , Should provide employment to atleast 100,0000 people
• MSP- Minimum Support Price for agriculture produce must be fixed on as recommended by the National Farmer’s Commission .i.e. 50 % profit over the cost of production. But this

Should not be the right approach, unless the correct parameters for fixing the cost of production are arrived at like the notional cost of land, labour, opportunity loss.
• Direct Selling direct to customers to get better price for their yield
• Food processing of the agriculture produce. Today food processing is below 3 % of the value of our agriculture produce. The action plan must be set up in place to increase this to 10 percent within 5 years. This should lead to the creation of another 25 lac jobs. The foremost task of food processing in India is to reduce the distance between production and processing points.
• Farm credit based on average yield for five years need to be worked out and rolled out at the earliest.
• Focussed steps must be taken to better irrigation facilities and promote rain water harvesting at every Panchayat level.
• Nationwide irrigation program ‘varsha’ must be launched
• A “National Farmers and Micro credit bank” must be established to cater to the needs of Agriculture sector should be set up.
• A technology up gradation team should be set up with concrete time bound goals to bring modern farming and food processing techniques to India and spread them all across for increasing the output and decrease loss of crops.
• Agriculture and food processing ministry must be merged into one.
• A case study approach should be the responsibility of the government to improve the conditions in the sector.
• The union government must set up a National Agriculture Improvement Centre with branches in all five zones to cater to the farmers for their specific issues.
• The farmer’s development council must be set up in each state with set goals for improvement and implementation of plans.
• Farmers must be connected to technology & cold storage hubs for easy access of information
• Plan would be in place to give credit to farmers based on the credit rating based on the last five years produce. This should be simple and transparent process.
• The small farmers should be entitled to interest free credit for one year.

• For irrigation the government must launch ‘More crops per drop’ campaign to encourage drip irrigation to increase the yield per hectare.
• SHG should be extended to the female members of the farmer’s family to increase the income of the family.
• Each district should have a Chief Agriculture & Irrigation officer to oversee and proactively support the farmers in the district.
• Agriculture focus should be micro managed with special departments under the ministry to oversee , vegetable production, cash crops, Wheat and rice, Pulses, organic farming , Agro food processing
• Agriculture labourers need to be paid on hourly basis
• The government must create in four regions special zones for manufacturing Agriculture implements. For implements not manufactured in India , they can be imported without duty
• Coconut, Palm, Coir and rubber boards should be established in Tamilnadu and Assam.
• Namakkal is the main center in Tamilnadu for supply of Eggs to other states and foreign markets. A central Poultry research center should be established in Namakkal.
• National River interlinking project can only address the issue of floods and draught and the government must implement it without fail so that the dependence on weather Gods becomes a little less.
Transport: India needs cheaper, faster and safer connectivity to smaller towns and between smaller towns to bigger towns. Students, women cannot be travelling with the office goers and vice versa.
• Government must ensure that women, students & office goers have separate buses and trains in towns where and when they need most. The same must apply for handicapped category. The life becomes mechanical spending hours of daily travel in jam packed and suffocating environment. Government must try addressing this issue on priority basis. An average Indian suffers most of the health problems not because of work but because of the poor conditions to travel to work. Government should seriously address this issue to make life and India better. Mumbai locals should be started for students and more ladies special trains should be started. Same should be applicable to other towns
• Government should also work with the state governments on a plan to upgrade the hand cart rickshaws to peddle rickshaws, peddle rickshaws to electric or fuel driven tempos
• Those with old taxis should be given tax breaks and low interest loans to upgrade to fuel efficient cars as taxis. Most of the towns have yellow and black taxis. The government must

Take all possible steps to modernise them for better earning opportunities and comfort of the travellers.
• India needs also needs better airports. But despite newer airports, the congestion has gone up and so have the congestion tax and other taxes and also the risk associated with air accidents. Government must work out better conditions and value for people who spend a lot of money on air travel.
Banking & Finance: is the core to India’s growth story. Government must look to start a few innovative banking initiatives besides strengthening the existing banking and finance sector.
• Government must look at a National Students Bank. Which should be managed majorly by the student’s community and work for providing new opportunities to unleash the creative power of the educated youth and harness the entrepreneurial instincts of students? This bank should work closely with the incubation centres established in various educational and research institutes
• The role of development banks and financial institutions should be enlarged to provide necessary funds for the projects critical to the achieve 8- 10 % growth rate.
• The following new banks Should be set up
No. Bank Sector
1 National Innovation & Incubation Bank Researchers & Entrepreneurs out of Universities and colleges
2 National SME Bank SME
3 National Farmers & Micro Credit Bank Farmers and farm related heads
4 National Students Bank Managed & run by students for their needs

Judiciary. The United Nations Development Program says some 20 million legal cases are pending in India. The High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its work that it could take up to 466 years to clear the enormous backlog, the court’s chief justice said in a damning report that illustrates the decrepitude of India’s judicial system. Chief Justice A.P. Shah of Delhi high court said in the report that “it would take the court approximately 466 years” to clear the pending 2,300 criminal appeals cases alone. Independence of judiciary does not mean that it is not accountable to the people, the ultimate sovereign
• Government should take this as a top priority to enable speedy judicial system by filling all vacant posts within two years of taking over the government.
• The criteria and system of recruitment of judges needs to be changed
• Also, it should attempt its best to ensure the system is overhauled at the earliest possible.
• Digitalization of records should be taken up
• Witness protection plan should be worked out
• Whistleblower bills Should be introduced
• Cases related to political and bureaucratic corruption should be tried on a out of turn basis or special courts should be set up for the same
• Civil and Criminal procedure codes which are over hundred years old should be suitably amended for speedy justice
• Family courts and fast track courts to be increased.
• Alternative dispute redressal mechanisms though Lok Adalats and tribunals must be expanded and strengthened
• Government must ensure that a corpus is created to an amount of Rs.5000 Crores to modernise the infrastructure of court rooms with proper seating arrangement for attendees and lawyers.
• Judicial data should be published every year. This should not only help in reducing delays, but also make the legal system more transparent and accountable to the people, and enhance the image of judiciary in the public eye.
• Government must take all steps to work out a system so that the criminal cases can be disposed within two years and judgement pronounced within two weeks of completion of arguments
• Punishment of economic offence should be made more stringent with imprisonment and exemplary fine
• Jail System should be worked out on ‘top priority’ to prevent over-crowding of Jails
• Judiciary discretion wastes a lot of time. Government should look at introducing guidelines for use of judicial discretion
• For serious offences, the government should work towards speedy justice to restore the faith in the system.
Poverty Alleviation. According to the World Banks release mid 2008, there were 421 million poor below USD 1.25 a day in 1981. Now that number has increased to 456 million in 2005. This clearly shows that the programs of the government have failed to deliver on the socio economic growth. According to several reports, almost 600 million plus people survive on a dollar a day. This is

After 61 years of freedom. The true and sustainable economic development of India is possible when these people become the earning and spending class. No one can stop India that day from becoming an economic super power. I have not seen any government giving a correct solution to create an earning and a spending class out of the 600 million Indians. We can really become a super power if we just focus on this class of people. We need to address the basics
• Government must start programs at the lowest ladder in the society to create self employment opportunities to them and push them out of poverty by providing them FOOD, CLOTHING AND HEALTHCARE. Urban poverty is worse and this is not just an inconvenience to the urban infrastructure but also is a menace to the society, as all evils spring from these slums.
• The government should come out with a time bound policy to phase out slums across India by 2015.
• This must include construction of low cost housing facilities. The government should make laws to make renting easier by providing a strong, simple and easily enforceable legal frame work to protect the interest of both the tenants and the land lords.
New thrust areas for bold actions
Economy of the people, by the people and for the people of this country:
Model envisioned by government must
• Make Indians proud of their products
• Make Indian brands internationally acceptable
• Make India politically and Economically strong so that it can never be ignored in international arena
• Provide adequate levels of consumption
All the programs undertaken by Government Should be guided by one goal,
To provide Food, clean water, Clothing & healthcare for all.
• The Public distribution system must be strengthened to ensure that the people don’t go to bed empty stomach. No matter in which part of the country they stay , they must have access to clean and hygienic drinking water ,
• The khadi and Gram village must be integrated with PDS to provide cheaper garments for all seasons

• Government must work for making primary & secondary healthcare be available within 5 & 10 Kilometres maximum to all across the nation We must be proud of our technology , scientists , competent work force & the Quality of products.
• Government must work towards making this an integral part of all Global tendering processes. Anyone, who qualifies for a tender above 1000 crore needs to have a manufacturing unit in India or set up the plant in India as a precondition to apply for the tender, This is one sure shot way of making India a hub for manufacturing . Also, why we should not derive value locally for the work done for domestic requirements? This Should be passed with taking necessary approvals .This has the potential to create one crore jobs for skilled and educated professionals
Village Republic Scheme (VRS) & BOARD. Till the villages become self sufficient, India can never dream to be a developed nation. This is fundamental to government’s vision. The BOARD (Base organisation for agriculture and rural development) should work alongside Panchayats for making each of the six lac Indian villages self sufficient. The composition of the BOARD Should be of the two local Panchayat members ( One male ,one female ), MLA’s representative , BDO, ASHA, Patwari and two – five members from NSS / NCC / NGO’s / Local Police representative . The BOARD should set the vision and target to make each village self sufficient in every manner in the next three years.
Healthcare – India is sitting on a ticking time bomb when it comes to healthcare. It is now fact the India is infamously moving towards becoming the ‘Diabetic’ and ‘Cardiac’ capital of the world due the highest prevalence of these chronic diseases. Currently ,There is an average of one urban primary health facility for about 150000 urban population, with only 2-4 health workers, There are a total of 22,370 primary health centres functioning across the country, and the shortfall is of 4,833 PHCs, there is a shortage of 2,525 CHCs across the country, 1.5 Lac people get ESRD failure per year. Only 3500 undergo kidney transplants, about 6000 get dialysis, rest die. 2 people die of TB every minute; 1000 every day, 4 million children die due to pneumonia on an annual basis in India, 6 % have access to Ambulance service, and the bed to population ratio is 0.70. Per 1000 population, to reach a 3 bed: 1000 population, India needs 3 lac beds. An average rural Indian walks two Km’s to reach a chemist , 6 Km’s for a blood test and 20 Km’s for a hospital, almost 25 % of all the drugs sold in India are fake or sub standard.

• The GDP spend on healthcare should be doubled by 2014
• Government must take all the necessary steps within its frame work to logically develop the industry with thrust into reduction of duties / levies on medical equipment
• Bringing pharmaceuticals within the health ministry to ensure proper co-ordination
• Focus on preventive diagnostics and chronic care management & geriatric care. This has the potential to save billions of rupees and millions of lives.
• The focus must be on tele-medicine and tele-diagnostics

• Increase rebate on preventive care and not just on health insurance to really benefit the stake holders in the continuum of care. All working class people are entitled to rebate of Rs.15000 for expenses towards medical insurance. The same should be increased to Rs.10, 000 for preventive check-ups and Rs.15000 for medical insurance. This is one major incentive for healthcare sector to grow at a faster rate, and will make it worthwhile for people to invest in the healthcare sector
• I believe that one of the critical areas that need attention is saving lives by Organ transplants. We intend to set up 100 organ transplant centers across the country and start a national registry for donors with proper incentives. 78000 people die on road accidents every year. Even if 25 % donated the organs. It would be a death leading to birth of someone; means adding a new life to someone who needs an eye, liver, heart, kidney transplant. This should be covered under ‘Rebirth’ program started by Government with a lot of incentive to donors
• Healthcare along the roadways and air ambulance services should start for rural India where tertiary and emergency care services are not easily accessible.
• Clean water is one of the pre-requisites for good health and the government should implement a time bound scheme to implement clean water scheme in all Panchayats areas.
• India has to have a world class healthcare infrastructure. Government should work towards making primary healthcare at your doorsteps a reality and emergency care at your call.
• In Next five years, government must ensure that people will not have to travel more than 50 KMS for serious illnesses.
• Government should start 100 institutes of nursing across India. There is a shortage of 32 lac nurses and we should strive to fill this gap.
• Government must work for recruiting 100,0000 health workers to spread information about various chronic diseases and help people to keep fit through information , education and communication.
• The government must enter into PPP to set up 100,000 day care centers across India for minor procedures and immunization. All these should be the nodal centers to issue the Electronic health records and for basic preventive checkups.
• Government should also set up 100,000 chronic care centers across the nation to address the issue of chronic care.
• These initiatives should create about 31 Lac direct jobs & 20 lacs jobs associated indirectly for setting the infrastructure in the healthcare sector in the next three to five years.
• Government should enter into PPP for low cost healthcare model to drive healthcare nearer to the people and diseases away from people without compromising on the quality of care.
• FSI – for hospitals, the FSI should be doubled or trebled compared to the commercial property. PPP hospitals must be allowed to build residential and commercial space within its ‘zone’, and appropriate FSI should be allocated for the same

Adopt a child, senior citizen, Village, School & PHC scheme – The society cannot be happy if the senior citizens just depend on government schemes and lead lonely & isolated lives. They also need to spend time and mix with people and contribute to the society with their experience.
• The government should open senior citizens home in every town.
• “Adopt a senior citizen scheme” should give certain relief to the family who adopts a senior citizen. Hopefully, it should bring smile to a senior citizen.
• The same should follow for a child. Government should also set similar schemes for adoption of villages, schools and PHC’s by professionals , industrialists and NGO’s to bring about a revolution at the ground level in the society
Administrative & Governance reforms – Government must initiate a review of the outdated systems and implement the best practices in governance and administration to ensure speed and efficiency of the system and eliminate unnecessary procedures and simplify others. Efficiency, accountability and pro-common man attitude should be hall mark of the administrative system in the years to come.
• The recommendations of the joint consultative group should be implemented without delay & in total
• Civil service system Should be reformed
• New cadre system and modern service code should be adopted to enable professionalism at all levels in the administration. Senior officers Should be suitably empowered to take timely and bold decisions
• Responsibility and accountability Should be fixed for the fulfilment of goals and targets
• Officers should be allowed to work in private sectors. Similarly, lateral entry of talented professionals from private sector at senior levels Should be encouraged
• Objective criteria Should be laid down for use of discretionary powers
• Planning commission Should be reformed and re-organized in light of the changing developmental needs of the country
• Post the Satyam Scam, it has become imperative to strengthen the entire supervisory and regulatory mechanism including SEBI, MCA etc to ensure best practices and fair return to investors. This is also important to keep the faith in the system and for attractive image of the corporate world. , Government should revisit and revise some of the laws related to corporate governance in companies (Both Private and Public) to ensure that the facts are placed before and acted upon. Unless, private companies become more transparent in their

Internal processes and external dealings, scams will keep happening and people will continue losing money, faith and this will adversely impact the image of the corporate world. Needless, to mention that all private companies only become public at one stage. Government should address this issue seriously.
• Government should undertake a review of all the laws and regulations relating to industry so as to free it from bureaucratic control; institute a system that ensures compliance with the law including speedy redressal of the grievances
• Government must abolish the rules providing protection to bureaucracy from enquiry and prosecution for corruption.
• Revamping the municipal system Should be one of the thrust areas for a citizen centric approach

Special abilities – disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute – Disabled people constitute 5 % of the country’s population. Destitute and beggars are never a part of any government schemes nor are they covered by the census properly. In an all inclusive growth, all these categories have to be taken care of as the total responsibility of the government
• Government must work out a ‘Real India Plan’ that should take of the special needs of the disabled, BPL, Beggars & Destitute. We understand the plight of these people. Their needs are small but they have tremendous ability & potential to work hard and contribute to their upliftment and growth of this nation’s economy.
• The needs of these special classes of people like transport – food, clothing and healthcare Should be taken care of by the ‘Real India plan’ that Should not only provide them the basics, but also train them to become self sustaining community. When they earn, they would be provided with peddle cycle, carts etc at government subsidized rates. Travel via general class rail would be free for all these card holders.
• Special provision would be made to relocate and train them to places where they can get employed and earn respectfully without relooking into their past or special abilities
Urban infrastructure: I believe that the faulty policies of the ruling governments have created 2-3 towns with best infrastructure and all most all towns do not have even decent roads. Migration is encouraged as the entire focus is towards two or three towns only. Everyone wants to transform Mumbai into Shanghai but no one talks about converting Shahjahnpur , Hardoi , Nampalli or Ballia into Mumbai !!
• On one side we Should create more towns and allow new units to be set up there with long term incentives and

• On the other side, work towards decongestion of over populated downs through well planned measures.
• Government must set the pace for at least 25 new world class towns in India in the next five years so that our next generation does not have to struggle for the daily chores and the job related travel.
• This has the potential to create 25 lac jobs
Tourism – India should achieve the status of being the spiritual capital of the world
• Government must promote this tourism– Cultural or spiritual tourism in addition to medical tourism. This has the potential be the third largest employment & revenue generator after retail and the government should make the best of it.
• Regional centres of tourism should be started in five zones across the country along with institutes to impart specialised education in these sectors. The goal would be, to become a global center for tourism both medical and non-medical. Government should ensure that all hurdles are removed in achieving the goal within the next five years
• Tourism has the potential to create 1 crore jobs in the next five years
Energy & Environment – The Global warming is a Global warning for all of us to get serious about the future of our next generation. We all love our children but we are not blessing them by leaving a healthy environment. Government must take all Steps including drafting of stringent legislation to protect the environment, save it from pollution, degradation and ensure a greener earth. Also, the future of entire economy depends upon the clean and green energy. Government must acknowledge the importance of both and should leave no stone unturned to make Energy and Environment an ‘Urgent & Important’ issues to be addressed
• Advanced institute of green technology should be started
• Afforestation, social forestry and agro- forestry should be started all over India
• Re-cycled product industries should be enjoying special concessions in tax structure.
• Same should apply to solar energy and alternative fuels.
• Electric vehicles should be made tax free and the government should use the best of resources to provide them incentives for growth and profits.
• Ethanol production should be incentivised
• New towers more than 2 storeys should have to be green buildings. Green buildings should be given the necessary fast track clearances within 30 days on priority.

• All the government buildings that can be converted to green buildings should be converted within the next three years. A special Green fund should be set aside for this.
• New buildings should have wind mill or solar panels for passage lights
Energy: With a focus to provide uninterrupted electricity to all parts of the country in the next 10 years. Government should lay an action plan that encompasses the use of nuclear power, wind energy, solar energy, Hydro power, enhanced exploration & Bio fuels to make India self sufficient to meet its power & fuel needs.
• If need be, PPP route should be taken to achieve the goals.
• Smaller dams , Hydro electric plants Should be one of the principles in shaping the vision for power sufficiency
• Government should work within the framework and help formulate a policy to replace all the electricity meters across the country to digital meters starting with Metros. The electricity bills should be visual with photo to avoid tempering with the bills. Only youths should be employed to take the meter readings. This Should throw open opportunities for at least 10 lac jobs
Loans & Housing – This sector needs serious actions from the government in terms of more number of houses to be built. This sector has a cascading affect on growth because a whole lot of sectors are associated with its growth like this sector employs 25 million people, and associated industries like cement, iron and steel, finance etc taken together employ much more
• Government should pursue the agenda of affordable housing at affordable interest rates that are fixed for the entire duration of the loan tenure to ensure that the common man’s budget does not get hit due to frequent changes in the interest rates
• The government must build a large number of houses for rental purpose only and not for sale to drive the cost of the flats down for the common man
• The government should appoint a housing regulator within one year to protect the interest of the home buyers on the lines of IRDA, TRAI.
• For two wheelers and small cars, the loan rates would be lesser than medium and sedans or SUV’s.
• Corporate loans should be at a reduced rates for SME’s and start ups below 5 years in operations

Goods & Services Tax (GST ) – I believe that the government should ensure that GST is designed and implemented flawlessly, it would ensure that a substantially common , yet cumulatively much bigger tax base for the center and state, so that the center and states Should benefit from a much bigger tax base. I believe in the Ability of the GST – enabled unified pan-India market to reduce burden and produce huge macro-economic dividends – It is estimated that the economic value of GST would be half trillion dollars or half of India’s GDP. This would enhance the buoyancy of the states revenues as well. Today 40 % of the government tax collections in the country go to the states even as centre and states share annual development expenditure in the ratio of 2:3.
• The government Should remove tax and duties on by cycles , peddle rickshaws to enable economically weaker sections to use this as an incentive to grow faster
Yoga , Mediation & Sports (YMS ) – A national YMS promotion task force with a dedicated fund of Rs. 1000 crore Should be set up to promote the same across India in a systematic manner . This has the potential to create one lac jobs & drastically improve the well being of its citizens
Labour laws – According to the Sen Gupta report , ninety one percent of the total work force of around 39 crore is in the unorganised sector .Government s should make labour , both organised and unorganised , an equal and proud partner in the production of the nation’s wealth and in its progress . Laws relating to equal pay for equal work for men and women shall be strictly implemented.
Population Control – The real issue for corruption, lack of good governance and poor economic growth is its huge and ever increasing population. We need to address this issue ASAP. None of the government has focussed on the issue seriously due to vote bank politics. A suitable and judicious mix of incentives and disincentives for population control should be presented early so that national commitment on this critical issue is obtained
• A people’s movement should be launched to realise the goals and targets set in the National Population policy. States lagging behind should be focussed more.
• The Government should introduce a set of non-coercive disincentives for a two child norm, and incentives for a girl child. Two child norm Should be made a qualification , on a prospective basis , for contesting any election
Constitutional & Electoral reforms: The Government should set up a Constitutional reforms commission to review the constitution of India in light of the experience in the past 60 years and to make suitable recommendations
• Government Should introduce necessary electoral reforms on the basis of the recommendation of the Goswami committee so as to deal with glaring issues that might reform the politics and ultimately , the governance of the nation

• Consensus Should be evolved to prevent entry of criminal elements into politics
• Government should seek to work towards raising the standards of parliament and state legislature
• Government should work towards holding the Union & State elections together
• A national institute for training elected representatives Should be established
• Currently, we have the M.P.’s and other representatives based on the census of 1970’s. We must realise that the population has grown tremendously, and we need to increase the number of public representatives based on the 2001 census. Every ten years, we must match the number of representatives to the population ratio. Today each M.P. represents a population of 1.9 million. It is humanly impossible to reach out to such a huge number of residents. So there is a complete disconnect between the representatives and the populace. No wonder, the voters are not enthused to come out and vote. It is not about not being serious about voting, but an average voter does not know his M.P.’s very well. If it is not so, how can you expect one to vote? If need be , we must build a new parliament house to seat the increased number of representatives and same in states for legislative assemblies or use teleconference to do the proceedings . Anyways, both the parties have talked of taking the broad band to villages.
• The salaries of the public representatives should be enhanced as they have a big responsibility on their shoulders. Why should a President, Prime Minister, Ministers and other public representatives not draw salaries better than the corporate world? When they draw 8 figure salaries , then only we will have the best of people drawn to it and people will also question their contribution
• I had raised in 2003 an issue of giving an option ‘None of the above found suitable ‘in the ballot paper. This way, we will be able to incentivise the concerned citizens to come out and vote.
Defence forces: Dignity, status, Respect and attraction of the defence forces has reached the lowest level, with people returning the medals back to the government. Government must recognise the importance of Defence forces and should ensure that they not just treated as security men but the custodians responsible for the safety of the Nation.
• Removing bottle necks that lead to delays in decision making for defence establishment
• On priority, latest arms and ammunitions should be provided to the force.
• Parity in status with other services at appropriate level
• Betterment of career prospects and service conditions of all ranks

• Revamping and strengthening the existing mechanisms to resolve individual and collective problems specially of personnel below officer rank
• One Rank one pension as recommended by successive governments
• Government should commit to make the salaries of defence forces better by giving them additional tax incentives
R&D: The government should encourage and rewards innovation and R&D in all sectors should special incentive for milestones in each and every step. The government should incentivise the regional educational centres to be become the incubation hubs at the institute levels itself. A special fund of 1000 Cr should be set up for this purpose. Scientists should be able to co-own the patents with the institutes to monetise it in case of commercialization of the patent
Income & taxes: The slab for deduction for LTC, Children education and meal vouchers should get enhanced substantially based on the current spends level to give relief to the earning class. Today the meal vouchers and education allowance are not comparable to what the citizens actually pay. Though the government is charging taxes comparable to the United States, but the public services are not even 1/1000 part of what US does for its citizens
Defence technology SEZ: the government should work towards making India as worldwide supplier of defence uniforms, parachutes, small arms, night vision devices and bullet proof material. India already has capabilities for the same
Export Oriented SEZ for wine – India produces world class grapes and wine Industry can be a good revenue earner as there is a great demand for good quality wine worldwide. This can bring in good income for wine orchards, farmers and processing units
North East Region – the problem with the North eastern states is, that the government has failed to understand and act on the needs of these regions. The biggest issue there is that there is no source of employment created for the youth of those states.
• The Government should take all measures within its framework to dedicate special infrastructure and employment plan that can be implemented within the next three years. All this is likely to raise the earning potential of the region many fold and take the region to heights of prosperity.
• Development of communication infrastructure to overcome the constraints of physical distance
• The plan should encompass setting up a North Eastern tourist grid

• Settings up industries which are based on the natural resources of north east like the herbal medicines and bamboo based industries.
• Further IT industry should be given impetus as that can ideally work in hilly areas.
• Setting up small Hydro Electric plants in North East region
• North East has popular traditional folks culture, if marketed well, can drive in a lot of new opportunities. Government is expected to make it happen.
• These efforts Should create 5 lac jobs in North East
National Task force for Animal husbandry, Milk processing, Food processing and fisheries Should be set up with time bound goals to make India amongst the top three producers in the world. The frame work to achieve the goal should be in place within the next three years. This is the best way to increase the earning ability of the rural & coastal India.
Post & Telegraph – Post and Telegraph have a matchless network covering all the pin codes in the country. I believe that post offices present a matchless opportunity to increase services to every nook and corner of the country and to create at least 10 lac jobs via PPP with Telegraphs and posts network. The government should use this opportunity to not only modernise the post offices but also create value for the public and the government with a special focus on rural India
Private Public Partnership – So far, most of the private public partnerships have not done much over a long period of time, we understand that government has limitations but also has the responsibility to deliver on the expectations of people. Government must appoint a PPP Regulator. An autonomous body to identify implement & monitor the PPP. This should ensure a smooth roll out in all sectors
Cooperative Movement – Cooperative movement is crucial for the success of rural economy. I believe that cooperative movement must be radically reformed to make it more relevant at the taluka level to India’s growth story. This has a high employment potential. If property reformed, this can create fresh 10,000.00 jobs across the nation. The cooperative movement is not just limited to milk production, but also to oil and Beedi production
Consumer protection movement Should be strengthened and proactive steps should be taken to protect the interest of consumers. Also, that the consumer protection is not just about products and services
Media & Sting Operations –
Media should be given more teeth. Sting operations must be made legal and a special court should be set up to look into the exposes made out of such operations. The journalists should be given security for ‘high level’ expose

Disaster Management apparatus should be reviewed and strengthened
Common Civil Code. All the parties should be taken into confidence and a common civil code should be adopted.
Backward – BIMARU States: Government must focus on special projects to take the economy & employment to the next level. Though, in the last five years most of the Bimaru states have notched good growth, still a lot needs to be done,
Tribal Development – 7 % of the Indian population is tribal. This needs to be attended with sensitivity and a planned needs to be evolved for their development and getting them into mainstream. Which includes?
• SSI for tribal’s
• Industry based on local natural resources
• Promote tribal and traditional folk
• Special quota in police and armed forces
Wool Production – India is the world’s second largest wool producer. However, the wool industry is by and large at a low level of quality and value realization. An action based time bound plan should be placed in the first year to modernise and expand the wool production
Good Governance:
• The government should review all its commitments and progress every six months and review the same at the public vigilance committees (PVC) appointed at every district / taluka level.
• The public vigilance committees should consist of citizens from all walks of life. This should ensure that we stay committed and on track when it comes to fulfilling in our commitments. The PVC Should serve as a watch dog on our time bound action plan that we Should release on all Priority issues within 30 days of coming to power
Foreign Policy: Government should pay the highest attention, to not only enhance Indian role in international affairs, but should, also, ensure that India’s vital national and security interests are fully projected and protected, so that it can contribute meaningfully to the global community and deal with the challenges of the future and boldly assert its position on key issues. Few contours of the Foreign policy:

• UN- India Should support all efforts at a further democratisation of the UN structure and system and Should pursue to Secure a permanent seat in the UN security council
• Out a more Work closely with G-8 , to bring about a more balanced economic order which would seek to ensure that the current global disorder is overcome at the earliest so that the developing countries in particular , are not disadvantaged any further
• Strengthening the SAARC Process
• China. While the normalising relations with China Should retain and eminent position in foreign policy, it is , at the same time, expected that China too , Should display sensitivity to India’s position on various issues which have plagued our relations over the last 50 years. India also expects China to avoid any future violations of NPT.
• Pakistan: Peace is the precondition to the development of both the countries. Somehow, Pakistan has not been able to convince India on its track record to ensure peace in the region. Government should be supportive of a widening of contacts and ensuring peace and stability in the region, working with Pakistan on resolving land standing and urgent issues in the interest and as per the will of the people of India
• Europe: The EU is a valuable source of technology and investments. Relations with EU should figure prominently in the foreign policy initiatives. We Should do everything possible to further strengthen our relationship , consistent with our national interest
• Strengthen our bond with USA nuclear and seek revision of certain clauses of the Indo-US nuclear deal which adversely impact on India’s nuclear program and profile
• Relations with Russia needs to be further consolidate
• West Asia and North Africa: Government should rejuvenate our old ties and traditional bonds of friendship with the Arab world, as well as intensify our cooperation with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).
• Bangladesh: Government should convince the old neighbour that harbouring N.E. Insurgents and terrorists should be highly counterproductive. A positive response to India on cooperation in the economic filed, including transit, Should be beneficial to both countries. Bangladesh must also pay urgent heed to and extend full cooperation to India to check the illegal influx of Bangladeshis to India in case it is keen to have cordial relations with India

• Sri-Lanka. India supports a united Sri Lanka in which both the communities can realise their aspirations. The India –Sri Lanka agreement of 1987, provides an important & immediate starting point for the peaceful resolution of the problem. We note the successful implementation of FTA and favour an early conclusion of the CEPA ( Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement ), to the satisfaction of both the countries
• Nepal: Indo – Nepal relations are age-old and are based on ties of geography, history, culture & religion. These Should be maintained and further reinforced
• Japan and Korea. Both economic as well as political relations with the economic power houses of Asia, namely, Japan and Korea Should be further developed
• Afghanistan. Indio’s relation with Afghanistan has been traditionally close. We Should continue to firmly support the present government in that country , and at the same time , take all steps to further enhance the security around Indian projects and the Indian embassy and consulates in that country
• Iran. We value our strong economic ties so far. These Should be sustained with positive fallouts to the mutual benefit of both countries
• Africa and Latin America. Relations with Africa and Latin America should be enhanced with great vigour. Further groupings like IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) should be encouraged to the benefit of all countries concerned. Further cooperation Should also aim at energy self sufficiency
• NRI & PIO’s. The role of NRI’s and PIO’s in the qualitative enhancement of India’s image abroad and their investments in India are warmly acknowledged. They should continue to be accorded high priority.