INDIA IS THE fastest growing democracy in the World. Our so-called consumer class will soon overtake US and EU put together. But we must also ponder on the mistakes made by them. India Incs must remember that many people in our country earn less then US$ 2 per day. Thus it is very important that the focus must shift on narrowing wide gaps.

 

For starters, I feel that SEZs (Special Economic Zones) must be established but not in agricultural land at any cost. Why doesn’t the govt focus on waste barren lands available in states like Rajasthan, MP and parts of Gujarat. They should give special incentives in terms of tax breaks for 50 years or so for companies to establish establishments there. Focus on creating infrastructure. This will also help in bridging some divides in the states. Fortunately, these are also states with the highest wind velocities in this part of the world. Why not give incentives for wind farming so that electricity is taken care of. A movement of labour should be increased from big cities to these areas for human capital and also from poor states like West Bengal and Bihar so that economic boom is inclusive.

 

Create water supply through the other states. Inclusive liberalization can only be the way forward. Indian companies need to be very innovative so that they can tap the huge market. Tata for example are creating cars for less then US$ 2000, which is a kind of innovation. Suzlon has created a name for itself in wind power. There are many examples. This is the only way forward for us to avoid the pitfalls of US and EU and may be even China. Our biggest asset is our democracy, which is functioning given all the chaos and diversities in this country. We need to capitalize on it.

 

Everyone in India and US and EU seems to be core focussed on bio fuels and specially ethanol. All this hyperactivity will lead to the reduction of overall land available for cultivation of basic things like rice, wheat and pulses. Already we are facing scarcity of wheat and pulses. The average prices have risen by over 30per cent on an average. Cultivation of sugarcane for ethanol will lead to areas for wheat, pulses and rice cultivation coming down. The world prices of wheat have also risen what with European Union also mandating use of ethanol. On the back of Iran -US/UK standoff rising by the hour, oil prices will not cool off in the immediate future and are bound to rebound at least to USD 70 by this weekend. Specially, in India, this will put a further spurt in already rising inflation. What is the way out? Innovation for energy companies happens to be the key to this. The government on its part should come out with very special incentives for tapping wind energy and recycling wastes in the metros to produce local level electricity.

 

The next step that needs to be taken by the government is to give incentives for the use of electricity powered and solar powered vehicles in the country. The two wheelers segment is already picking up with so many companies like Atlas Cycle, etc in the fray. We have to think out of the box to control inflation and go hand in hand to control global warming due to electricity production by coal based plants. I believe we should divert from coal to tap wind power and solar energy in a big way. As a common man, I understand that solar energy is costly and technology is not well advanced. But if incentives are given, we may well be in a good position to commercialise it. At least the big malls and multiplexes should be made compulsorily to go in for this kind of set-up. They are the biggest consumers of electricity in our metros and cities. This will curtail the shortfall in demand to some extent may be on a small scale but the cascading effects in the country may be enormous. Also by compulsion or whatever, we have to focus on atomic energy, as we need to reduce consumption of oil so that inflation is controlled. That is one immediate source for our power needs. Coming back to original question of bio fuels, bringing more areas under cultivation of basic foods should be a priority. What is successful in US and EU may not be good for India. They have a huge area to support a small population compared to India. We do not have that luxury at all. Soon, we will be the most populous country in the world. So we should devise our own ways of doing things rather then follow them.

Innovation is something we as a nation need to ponder on. The Government should consider ways and means to empower the masses. There should be mass scale automation of government offices and processes. This automation of govt should also focus on one point of contact for all works for a common man. There should be just one point of contact for the customer whether it is police or electricity or Municipal Corporation or other civic bodies. Back end integration can be done along with a process of escalation in case the query is not resolved. Systems and Processes should be built in which the number of escalations should be given a prominent position for promotion of govt employees and if a request is not resolved it should be escalated to the highest level possible. This will greatly reduce corruption and also avoid leakage of revenue for the govts. All offices should be linked together to allow free flow of information.

Growth and expansion of big cities has led to rapid increase in property values in rural areas. This has led to many farmers becoming millionaires overnight. Many of them have sold off the land and got hordes of money. But in the heat of rags to riches of such people, we seem to forget the many millions who are still without proper habitats, without water, electricity and two meals. We need to consider them. One practical way would be to open up SEZs in such areas without any land restriction. This will shoot up the property prices and would take people out of the poverty. There will also be few agitations as Nandigram.

 

I believe we must seriously look at converting energy thereby reducing carbon emissions and also oil imports. As a first step, the government should ban immediately incandescent bulbs. This can reduce the total carbon emissions in the country at least by 4-5per cent as per a latest Greenpeace Report on emissions in India. Then, a big boost should be given to wind energy especially in states with high wind velocity like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharastra and MP. Why cannot we have ultra mega wind power plants. We have the right companies in India like Suzlon. We must focus it in a big way. Major city consumers like malls etc should be compulsorily made to go in for alternative means of power like solar powers across the country. This in a great way will reduce the dependence on national and state grids and optimise power distribution.