In which direction we are moving the Nation?

In which direction we are moving the Nation?

By:

Vijay Sardana

With imported pen ink, when we draft our national policy to make India economic superpower of the world, what do you think, what happen? We lack conviction and resolve to achieve it.  Is it possible to have such policy and action plan when we know today most of the pen used by policy makers are not made in India or belongs to a multinational brand. The fact is we have not even created a pen which can be proud off. 

Our pen companies boldly write ink is from Japan or Germany or R and D from Japan and Germany.

Why we are not able to produce any meaningful contribution for our own daily life as a nation? Is it that difficult to have in-house R and D for ink of the pen? 

Who failed us?

Government sector or private sector or both? High time to think about it. Who will answer this?  

Which law is stopping us from developing the ink for the pens? Can industry highlight the reason why we are borrowing R&D for ink for our pens? Is this so difficult to develop ink in-house? Why they are sending royalty for ink, if the same can be developed in house. Id they are not sending the royalty, in that case are the misleading the public by telling them wrong information? or they don't like the name of their own country, that is why they prefer to use borrow names. This must be investigated by industry associations. Will they do? I doubt.  

I think it is not possible to have a credible national economic policy in such situations because as long as we are using imported pens and inks to draft any national policies, national interest will never be absolute. Industry bodies will argue what is good for their members, may not be good for India. 

Let us see how many years it will take for us to develop our own writing instruments based on Research in India for pen design and ink production.

When we will be able to export pens and inks based on domestic research?

Let us also see how much time it will take, for our Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembly, Senior Policy Makers, Editors of mass media, Leaders of business houses and industry associations and our NGO leaders, to adopt domestically developed ink and pen.

This is a message to all. If we cannot develop a credible and respectable writing instrument for the country in 65 years, what else we are planning to achieve? This shows we have long way to go.

Gandhi ji used salt movement for political independence. Can we use  Made in India ink and pens only for economic and intellectual independence?

What we have achieved so far?

In the last 20+ years, since economic liberalization started with an objective to make India economically and financially strong, it is important that we should do a reality check as a common man. 

We should know what we have achieved and where we have reached today.

Today, reality of our overall economic scenario is:

• India’s food security depends upon imported food like pulses, edible oils, etc.

• Protein and edible oil security for healthy citizens depends upon imported pulses and oil seeds,

• Defense security of India depends upon imported arms and equipment,

• Energy security of India depends upon imported fuel i.e. oil, gas and coal and now even nuclear fuel,

• Health security of citizens depends upon imported lifesaving drugs, equipment and testing kits,

• Knowledge security depends upon imported computers and software,

• Education security depends upon imported paper, imported inks and eduaction materials for our writing instruments like pen and pencils, including "Akash" i.e. tables for students.

• Communication systems depends upon imported SIM cards, mobiles and mobile transmitters,

• Entertainment industry depends upon imported cameras, editing tools, software, sound systems and film projectors,

• Financial security for common depends on imported ATM machines, imported credit cards, etc.

• Transport security depends upon imported aircraft, imported locomotives, imported metro coaches, imported buses and imported cars (or signed abroad or under foreign brands);

• Public security by police depends upon imported walki-talkies, imported wireless systems, imported bulletproof jackets, imported weapons, imported metal detectors, etc.

• Time keepers of the nation use imported watch movements either digital or analogues, 

• Worst of all, Happiness of our Kids now depends upon imported toys, confectionery,  toffees,  candies and cartoon serials, 

• In fact, now a days colors for Holi festival and Puja items for Diwali festivals are also imported. 

You may be thinking what is wrong as long as consumers are happy. I have no problem with consumers happiness, but the same consumer should not demand jobs in India. If you are using imported stuff, this will shut domestic factories and jobs will vanish. Consumers can's say government if not doing anything. They have to think what is the impact of their action and decisions and consumers of products. Think before your purchase. 

One container of imported confectionery or toy, stops one small scale unit in the country making toy or confectionery. How many containers we imported last year and how many containers of confectionery we exported last year. 

Will the coming budget present an answer to this growing problem? Wait and watch.

Let me come back to my earlier point.

You may say, what is wrong in imported ink and pen. Nothing is wrong in becoming beggar. If that gives comfort and pleasure so be it. It is purely personal choice. But nothing comes free. Money is just one aspect of it. When we are so much dependent on our food and fuel supplies on our political adversaries in international forums like UN, World Bank, ASEAN, SAARC, etc., Can we have a peaceful and secure national life? I don’t think so.

Let me share one example with you all, in order to control the price rise of edible oils in India, we were reducing customs duty on edible oil, but oil exporting countries to us were increasing export duty. They knew it that Indian has no option. India has to buy oil at all costs because beggars are no choosers. We imported edible oils worth more than USD 10 billion in last one year. Is this is good sign for development. Our farmers are not getting proper price in the market because of these developments and falling in debt trap but on the other side we are allowing official dumping.

Time for Development Politics:

On Feb. 6th 2013, Sh. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat state of India, delivered a speech at SRCC College of Delhi and addressed the nation about his desired to take the country forward by changing the parameters of vote bank politics to development politics.

No doubt in last 10 years all political parties have started focusing of development as a political issue but still afraid of making development as an agenda of politics.

When we talk about Young India, which is almost 65% of India population, it makes sense to talk about development. Development means growth. Growth means job creation. Job creating means opportunities for young India. This logic is well accepted and well debated. Every Political party says that if voted to power, they will create jobs, they will eliminate poverty, they will address issues of governance, they will spend on infrastructure, etc. etc. All manifestos look almost same. But, what has happened in last 20+ years. 

Can we file a case against political party for making misleading claims & declarations? Political parties are service providers when they come to power and we the citizens of India as consumers have to suffer because of unkept promises. 

How to evaluate developmental politics?

The bigger question is how to evaluate the development politics and how to assess which political party is making meaningful and honest statement about development in their election manifesto. More important, what is their past track record and what they are doing in the states, wherever they were in power?

In order to understand the meaning of developmental politics, author of this paper has decided to list out important parameters which we should look very carefully.

These parameters can be used to evaluate existing governments as well. These can be used to evaluate proposed agenda in election manifesto and can be easily compared with other states. These parameters will also help in understanding which state is doing better and which political party can be trusted for coming election either at state or at center.

Let me elaborate few parameters for your consideration.

Constitution has given us few fundamental rights. I will prefer to develop parameters around One only fundamental right i.e. “Right to Life with dignity”.

1. Right to life with dignity but without food security… is this possible?

Next to air and water, the third most important aspect for life is food. Hunger leads to crime. 60% income of an average citizen in India goes for food sourcing, that is why we can say, by and large people are law abiding and willing to spend most of their income in earning food with dignity. Every other thing can wait for dignified life. Let us evaluate, under the present central and state governments, what is the food security status for common man.

For comparison of India with poor and food deficit countries, Please see my another article (click here): http://sardanavijay.blogspot.in/2013/01/public-policy-republic-of-hungry.html

It means, food inflation is one important parameter to ensure dignified life. It is better to read the provided data in Economic Survey. You will find many important data dealing with food security are either missing or presented in a manner which cannot help you in understand whether food security is going up or down.

Action Point One: Let us develop Food Insecurity Index for the states. Why Planning commission is not doing it.

This ranking should be released in the parliament by Planning Commission in Economic Survey with Budget. This will tell us about the governance aspect of the political parties those who are asking for vote, what is the ranking of the states ruled by them in last 5 years. If they cannot provide basic food to people, should we vote for them?

Many will say how you can blame the state government if there is natural disaster and food crop is destroyed. Let us take average of three years to nullify these issues.

2. What is the availability of protein and edible oils to citizens to ensure that their healthy and productive life for nation building?

Without balanced food citizens cannot deliver as per their potential. Please listen to the speeches carefully of all Including Prime Minister, Finance Minster, Agriculture Minister. They always talk about cereals only i.e. carbohydrates. They will tell you what country has achieved in wheat, rice and sugar. They will not discuss what is happening to pulses and oilseeds. They will not even tell you per capita availability of pulses and oilseeds is going down. Both these crops can do more good to human, animal, water and soil health.

How focus on oil seeds can transform Indian economy and create more wealth and save subsidies is discussed in detail in my article (Click here): http://sardanavijay.blogspot.in/2013/02/open-letter-to-honble-prime-minister.html

But we as a country we are continuously spending money on fertilizer, power, water to produce carbohydrates, this approach we are destroying public health, animal health, soil health. Only large wheat and paddy farmers are gaining from these incentives, many of them are from political class and decision makers. Many have large tracks of land over and above land ceiling Act in one name or the other. Cash transfer of subsidies to bank accounts ,in place of subsidies fertilizer, water and power,  will expose these beneficiaries. 


Let us check all the economic survey and related documents based on per capita availability of home grown pulses and oilseed production and productivity under the ruling government at center and states. This will tell us whether the government’s priorities are logical or not. Now you have to decide, Should you cast you vote for them or not?

3. How much food is imported every year? Whether food import trend is going up on down?


Beggars are no choosers. If the government policies and programs cannot make India self-sufficient in food, can India have independent foreign policy, economic policy, defense policy, investment policy or for that matter any policy? 

The recent policy initiatives like Nuclear Policy, FDI in retail policy, telecom policy, insurance policy etc. cannot be ruled as independent national policy because opposition parties were not taken on board while framing these policies. Most of these policies were more to attract attention of foreign governments and investors than the welfare of Indian citizens.

We have not seen such aggressive debates by Prime Minister of India on any of the policy issues impacting Indian farmers and consumers. Issues like APMC Act, Police Reforms, Judicial reforms, reform in Education Act, Health Services Reforms, Tax Reforms etc. remains on table but no personal initiative of Prime Minister is visible on these matters to take them forward. Should we route these agenda items through proper channel, I mean White House. 

Few questions which needs serious thinking?

Why PM in office has not taken these issues with the same spirit. Are we, as citizens of India, not as important as FDI in retail?

We talk about poor farmers, but why we don't discuss why farmer is poor?

Should we vote for the government not willing to undertake reforms for the common citizens? 

Is there any sector where we can say that today we are not dependent on anyone… think about it. Think about development of India in 65 years, think about politics in last 65 years and think about what should be your role when we talk about development politics…

Last 20+ years of economic; liberalization model is in front of us. Is this the way for India or we need something else for developmental politics. 

Can you remain aloof and indifferent when our food is not secure in the hands of our policy makers? What will happen if the world market jacks-up the price of edible oil and pulses. Is there any mechanism for controlling food inflation.

If you feel these are very ambitious expectations. Let me restrict my desire to basics. I will wait for ink for my pen made in India based on local R and D.

I will be very thankful if I can get a pen designed and developed in India by a local company under a brand whose brand and technology royalty is not going outside India and which is as respected like Cross or Parker or similar brands.

This will help us in containing current account deficit and trade deficit as well, this may be a small contribution for a good cause. The revenue generated from these indigenously developed pens and ink may help in funding few primary schools, provide mid-day meal to rural poor kids or primary health centers in remote villages to the most deserving.

So for in last 65 years, what was the focus of the country - political developments or developmental politics?

Question remains:  Why can't we make even pen Ink for which we can say made in India with proud? 

Can you identify where we can say, this is made in India and we are proud of it because it is the best recognized world over? 

there is no need to agree with me, but have must have your own opinion for developmental  politics. You must ask yourself what is the future of your family? Your assessment should decide  the decision while casting vote... not name of the political leaders of political family. 

What do you think…