India’s “Deciding Decade”

Two weeks into the new ’10s decade, I happened to read this Indian Express article and its related articles on a printed special edition of the overseas version of Indian Express – about India’s Deciding Decade.

The number of people whose lives will be impacted – for better or for worse – is truly immense.

This got me thinking a lot about my own work and contribution towards the current Deciding Decade (2010 to 2020) for India as well as the broad developing world.

I plan on spending some of my time & energy on two key areas relating to this in the coming decade:
          – Improving School, University and Vocational education using technology
          – Encouraging educated youth involvement in Public service

More on specific ideas later…

India Elections 2009

India is facing two big clouds this year:

       – Biggest Global Economic melt down in more than 50 years threatening India’s nascent rise out of poverty

       – Biggest, most confusing & likely most inconclusive election since India’s independence

Though Indian GDP changes and stock market fluctuations have been less severe than many other countries, the confusion about our future has never been more dire.

There is still a lot of optimism and confidence amongst the youth (under 30 in India form more than half the population). But the recent election news and horse trading is quite depressing to watch:

      – Poll fever masks India’s gloom
      – Gandhi relative’s hate video shocks India
      – The beast that is Indian democracy

“No Internal democracy in Congress: Rahul Gandhi”

Interesting comments from Rahul – read here.

“India is a democratic country, but there is practically no internal democracy in any party, be it the Congress, BJP or any other,”

As I was saying in my earlier post “Next phase of Indian politics“, this is one of the key things that is going to change in the coming decade or two. Just like the Primary Elections in the US, Indian parties need to embrace internal democracy if they want to be relevant.

The Indian Paradox: Death amidst Growth… Just like Unity in Diversity

Two news snippets from “The Hindu” on Jan 31, 2008… The headlines and abstract speak for themselves. The articles are here and here.

Next phase in Indian Politics…

The next phase in Indian Politics is going to see the entry of young, educated, middle class Indians entering active politics. This is different from before.

Either the very richest “dynasties” came to power because of their connections or their privilege to focus on social problems as opposed to being bothered by the daily chores of life. Examples include the Gandhis, Scindias, Chidambaram, etc.

On the other hand, the “lowest class” (economically) of people came to power because they were oppressed for long periods of time and they struggled against this oppression. Capturing political power was a great way to improve their lot. Examples include Karunanidhi, Laloo Prasad Yadav, etc.

But going forward, young, educated, middle class is going to be the face of Indian Politics. Why ? Because the middle class is numerous in number and is becoming a strong political force, though they dont see themselves as such at present. At present, they are quite apathetic about politics instead focusing on their normal lives, savings, childrens education, future planning, etc. But a reasonable number of them are going past those issues already and are beginning to think of the environment or situation around them and about improving them.

They are going global and are able to see how their country could ideally be and are beginning to form a vision… This vision will translate to action. And political action is going to be one of the forces that will make this happen. Some examples of this are already visible – read about Lok Paritran, Lok Satta, etc.

It is going to be interesting…