HARNESSING (??

) INDIAS POTENTIAL
Do Indians really know and realize Indias potential? India, as a country, has tremendous strengths in many areas be it working age population, middle class population with HUGE purchasing power, size of English-speaking population, fine adaptability to technology be it in IT or telecommunication, some world-class educational institutions, (hardworking) work culture, the status of largest working democracy in the world etc. Then, why are we not successful in raising ourselves to be a nation of first choice for investment, migration, business development and education? There are financial pundits who will give tons of reasons for this, like absence /slow progress of reforms, lack of consistency in policies, lack of transparency/ corporate governance and so on. I believe there are 2 major reasons for our inability to really harness our immense potential lack of governance on the part of those, who run the country as well as those, who manage the corporates and easy acceptance of mediocrity. Let it be any Government action, decision, law etc., you never find them to be with the real interest of the country or its people in mind. These are always to specifically benefit an individual, or a party, or to obtain a specific benefit by appeasing a group of people etc. We find these kinds of actions being done repeatedly by each and every political party, most of the time. This destroys the total faith in the political and administrative system of the country for the people, as well as external investors and agencies. In the same way, we see that most of the corporates i.e. the management, behave in a manner, which is other than in the interest of the organization and its other stakeholders. This is true, in most of the cases, whether they are in the public sector, or run by professionals or managed by promoter families. Minority shareholders and other stakeholders are blissfully ignorant of what is happening inside the company. Most of the time, the professionals who advise and/or inspect these corporates are either blind to such events or unaware of such happenings and knowingly or unknowingly, tag along. On our part, as the common man or consumer or retail investor, we are also no less in being irresponsible. We all lack discipline and commitment in our behavior, in following the rules. We keep finding shortcuts for achieving our objectives, compromising on systems, processes, quality and above all, values. We are the bigger culprits as contributors to bribery and corruption. The other important requirement for harnessing our potential, as a country, is to strive for and try to maximize our potential. As a nation, we do not insist on professionalism and perfection. We expect and are expected to adjust. We have a take it easy attitude which does not bode well for the progress of the country. We expect politicians to be corrupt and we expect public servants to take bribes to do the job they are being paid to do. It has reached a stage that we do not even think of all this as wrong. We accept it as normal and move on.

What is required is a total attitudinal and behavioral change, which has to happen across the country, across all sections of people, across all age groups. As we all know, old habits die hard. All of us in 40+ age groups are already spoiled in our habits and thinking. The required change is far easier to happen in youngsters who form majority of todays population. We need to pursue that change vigorously. All our efforts should be in that direction. We should not allow the below 40s to reach a similar situation like us. THEY NEED TO CHANGE AND CHANGE FOR BETTER. WE KNOW THEY CAN CHANGE. THEY ARE THE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF INDIA AND THE HOPE FOR HARNESSING INDIAS POTENTIAL.