A Vision

THE KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION- INDIA NEEDS IT





“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up
It knows it must run faster that the fastest lion or it will be killed
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle
When the sun comes up, you better start running”
- An African proverb


Isn’t this the scene which epitomizes the Indian society nowadays? With the tremendous growth , the power packed mergers and acquisitions done by our companies, the increased profit levels and a buoyant stock market, we might be today in a better position to say that the slumbering ‘tusker’ has finally started moving. And yes, I agree with the above proverb that no matter what anyone of us are doing, every morning we wake up with a sense of optimism to create something better. Yes, now we can say that every morning our entire nation starts to jog (not the full-fledged sprint yet). We are a nation on whom the world’s eyes are set upon. To many we are a threat in terms of military or economic, to some we are an opportunity by which they can profit, to some we are the new benevolent and so the list goes on…..What is it that has resulted in our new found spirit? I would say that it’s a combination of our established ideals which were relevant when we got our independence and are relevant even now such as our inalienable fundamental rights of speech, opportunity on one hand and the new found hunger to achieve progress (not merely the daily needs) at any cost on the other.
They said that a nation of snake charmers, magicians, diamonds and dancing women, with ninety percent of its people illiterate, of different cultures, religions, languages, castes, tastes will crumble under its own weight. That’s what they said to our ‘founding fathers’ and they were wrong .Our first rulers after independence set the tone for the country’s development. Keeping out the free market system, and adopting a prosocialist stance was a pragmatic start. It gave our people the time to recoup and reorganize after 200 years of stagnancy. India in the 50’s was in the same situation as America was after the civil war, it was a nation reborn. The vision of our leaders to usher in planned economic development (such as the adoption of Soviet five year plans) with minimum weight age on military and a benevolent foreign policy of non-alignment were to ensure the setting up of a strong foundation. Then came the critical years or the years of haphazard policies, of populist politics with little relevance to actual conditions, which were deteriorating day by day, such as the exploding population, increased fiscal deficit, shortage of food supplies, the license raj. Despite winning two wars and achieving a spectacular turnaround in our agricultural output (India had become a food exporter now), we were plagued by major insurgencies, political scams, changing governments, terrorism. All these problems arose because of an absence of vision which had become clouded after Nehru. So after four decades of economic stagnancy it had become imperative for our planners to think something new. Thus the liberalization policy of 1991, which was a direct result for assuaging the balance of payment crisis, ushered in the much awaited change. Visionary reformers such as Sam Pitroda, Dr Manmohan Singh realized the importance of making the Indian economy multi-dimensional through introduction of modern technology such as computers, cellular technology, investment in space technology, foreign investment, reduction of unnecessary duties and taxes, opening up several public sectors such as banking, air transport for private industries. Thus the exponential growth which we are experiencing now has been the result of 10-15 years of sustained reforms. It appears that this pattern of growth was inevitable for India, which because of its sheer size, strategic importance and people had to register sustained growth. Therefore the current Indian situation rather than being a part of a ‘grand visionary plan’ has been wrought due to reforms and measures that were unavoidable. We have simply reacted to the prevailing situations.
Yet now after all these years of haphazard growth, we as a nation (especially the youth) are poised to finally decide what our country will need to further our interests. According to the latest demographic statistics, the number of Indians living inside the range of 18-35 years is roughly a whopping 400 million (more than the current population of America) and which would increase to 500 million in 2012.Every year; Indian educational institutions produce 2.5 million graduates. A major reason for Indians achieving supremacy and high growth has been its vast skilled workforce. Therefore if India has to maintain its edge over the more developed nations, then it has to establish more educational institutions such as the IITs and IIMs which impart high quality education. We, the youth have to realize that in the future ,power would be measured in terms of bytes or kilobytes or megabytes and so on…of knowledge , data , innovations that a nation possesses. It is the quantum of knowledge that a society possesses, which decides its potential to deliver greater output. The exponential growth of our population has proved to be a boon in disguise.
Youth have to realize that the only revolution which the world and our nation in particular deserve is the ‘KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION’. It’s the panacea for almost all our problems, be it unemployment, poverty, health care, illiteracy, social security. And it will also open up new vistas for us, new innovations, which are the very prerequisites for achieving high growth. For achieving this end it is necessary that higher education along with primary and secondary education is given an impetus. Establishing of more institutes imparting education in fields of engineering, medicine, basic sciences, law, entertainment, mass media, and management and by encouraging research and innovation in these fields by giving tax concessions, grants and subsidies. The reason for Americans to hold sway over the entire world politically and economically over the past 60 years has been its superior quality of workforce and its superior knowledge institutions. Due to the ‘work hard’ culture being pervasive in India, we unknowingly have obtained an edge in terms of skilled manpower.
We, as the youth of India and also as a common individual must realize that, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and education, and employment, and healthcare and also social security to be taken care of, knowledge revolution shall help in realizing this end. Presence of healthy minds in our government, who have realized the importance of knowledge in 21st century, will go a long way in mitigating our problems and sustaining high growth. Such young minds must ensure that the share of education in our annual budget should be increased to around 8% rather than being at current levels of 3%. We should not only increase the quantity of skilled manned power, but also maintain its quality, so that our entire skilled workforce is employable. The universal use of computer has made it essential that in future computer training must be made obligatory.
According to the renowned journalist ‘Thomas .L. Friedman’ we are living in a world which is becoming flat day by day. What he means by this is that the increased and faster means of communication, open government economic policies, stable governments in most places, and to a greater extent and many recent new innovations in computer or to be more specific the internet, has made it possible for private as well as government institutions to source the most effective and profitable options and thus carry out business effectively. In short, the application of knowledge has made this world a very competitive place and this, our Young politicians, professionals, and knowledge aspirants must take into account before formulating a strategy for success. This is a revolution which will be wrought not by demonstrations, marches or battles, but it shall be silent, nurturing itself in some research lab, a classroom, on the laptop or anywhere else. For this will require a change not radical but a subtle one in the way of our thinking. We must envisage knowledge centric family culture which luckily is part of the Indian ethos, for this is where our attitude originates. We must envisage our government policies to be such that attaining more and more knowledge is made as essential as food, air or water. Thus wealth and power will accrue to those countries, companies , individuals, universities and groups who get three basics things right: the infrastructure to connect with this flat world(telecommunications, satellites, broadband connectivity) , the education to get more of their people innovating, and the governance to get the best out of this platform and cushion its worst side effects.
As time progresses we shall lose our status as a low cost destination, because of increasing wages. This will mean that our jobs shall shift to other low costs regions such as Africa. That this is going to happen is a proven fact; take the example of America and the European nations. This will mean that we will have to reduce our unskilled workforce and produce such skills which will not only help design but also add value to our ventures. The vision that we must pursue is to make our people, young or old knowledgeable enough to survive in near future and to a certain extent build a foundation for long term growth.
Knowledge that is ‘GYAN’ will be our bread and butter from now on.