The Failed Nation Theory of Development

The Failed Nation Theory of Development - There is numerous definition of development based on the philosophy of the social scientists, but the most prominent were described by the professions who were deciding the fate of the nation. The political class with its objective to propagate their thought till they are in power as every thing is for the national development. Till they attain the position of opposition its failure of the development remarked mostly in the discourse for getting power in next election.

But the parties which came to power after 60 years of the nation history, and being part of the active opposition for three decades, now finds very difficult to take it forward. There idea is to reject the past with its complete trace of development history. The political discourse now a days has moved towards projecting India as nation failed to achieve any thing during past 60 years (a mere political context). The agenda of the earlier parties in power was never acceptable even though its scripted ditto by the current ruling alliance. The leaders were quick to select the points of disagreement but later found nothing can be found justified whether its, rural India, urban, agriculture, defense, foreign policy, finance etc. they found the 60 years of history must be shed to give rise to new India.

As if we have entered into the royalty the end of one dynasty saw the rise of new and changed the direction of the development flow. The groups which were rejected by the political commentators have nothing to do with freedom of India, is now seeded to power with more stronger nation concept. The believers and non-believers concept of political ideologies are promoted with the tizzy cocktail of captialist frame of development. The ruling party now wants to select and change the system one by one for the national development with very profoundly believe in the failed system of development.

Albiet the theory for the development and means or methods remains same it would be only time which would converge two political thought which might talk to integrate India with rest of world. The pain and gain of the citizens now depends upon their voting pattern, the 2016 election like 2014 may not be land mark when the change happened after 60 years of political dominance. The current ruling party in now challenged within two year. What is there in India's DNA politically is non-alligned to an ideology where there is maximum diversity which political parties urge to unite. The plural character of nation is being brought down to desire for singular frame to worship 'Bharat'. The ideal and ideologies have changed but whether the citizens who voted them to power also changed? Do not know. When the 10,000 British men can rule India for long a handful of political leaders ranging from 500-2000 committed leaders can dominate Indian political landscape.

What is expected for the leaders who try to rule (rather to serve) in democracy? A fan following who belive in the character of development, When majority were made to believe in 'failed' nation theory the lack of continuity is expected, But this would also associate the political unrest and change of sub-systems and non-cooperation from the state who do not believe in ideologies of the party who is running the national development agenda. How difficult it would be agree in future?

National Debates on Farmer Suicides: Live Broadcast of Farmer Suicides, Rallies and briefing by political leaders to nations

"A farmer hanged himself in front of 24 x 7 media in a political rally, while a state CM, national media TV and Print, police officials etc. had a decent watch of the process. Evening shows packaged with who should be responsible for the farmer live lost in front of everybody. An enquiry is being conducted and wittness gathered to prove that he committed suicide."

In the post independence India, this kind of incidents are not only shameful but criminal neglect by everybody. The ignorance and indifference of the leaders and political class is very hightned in this incident. The statements by hon. Home Minister and later by PM to condone the incidents may not be enough. The ownership of the people are taken over by them, have become masters to distribute the doles to the poor farmers. The systems have failed to respond in the natural disasters, whats the role of political class in realeasing the funds for the affected farmers. There was huge funds, and legal systems enacted to respond to the disasters, yet none of the state government reacted properly, the hypothetical assumption of the power by them raised concerns about the decisions to be taken by the political class.

The farmers who lost the crops must not be at the mercy of the political leaders, but the systems made to provided immediate relief have failed measirably, we are yet to get quick assessment despite the modern satellite technology to assess the damage. The numerable man power available at the disposal of the district governments could have been used to assess the losses and damages. Yet even after 45 days people have no idea how much compensation they can claim or get. The linkages of bank accounts, aadhar cards and other systems have also not helped in quick transfer of money /financial assistance. The issues are being rallied between the state and central government, who should act fast, why it takes months to assess.

While the nation watched the recent suicide of the farmer live 24 hours the pain of the citizen is very much in forefront. The politics of the national disasters must avoid the system to be enacted for the disaster management. We are so week that the political leaders take their own time and political situation to encash the dole transfer. We must not take these lightly, the world would look at us in peity.

I hope we must strengthen our systems to upgrade the disaster management in the manner as designed in the governance system. Empower the local bodies to take action, and provide necessary relief on time. 

Urban Development: India 5000 v/s 100 cities

The government of India with new leader in place looks for creating 100 cities down the line for the sake of investment. The projected growth of population for the urban India stands 500 million plus in next decade. The existing 5000 plus large, medium and small towns are vying for the investment. Except 68 JnNURM cities and 140 medium size town the country did not see much of investment in rest of the towns and cities. The current population of urban India has more than 70 percent population residing in little more than 150 one lac plus towns. These towns except the metropolitan cities have very shabby infrastructure and poor connectivity. There is lack of housing, infrastructure and transportation the key drivers for the city growth. The million plus cities are readied with metro, mass transit and expanded housing sector for the population, but the reality market has not picked up since most of the expected consumers in the cities vanished during last 5 years. The empty housing stock (mostly priced high) remains the concerns for the developers who are further looking to offer the houses to the needy at reasonable prices.

The thought for the new cities might have been emerged from the multi-national investors who may not be looking for the existing cities for the key investment in infrastructure but may offer investment in new destinations. These new areas are triggered by the industrial investments, express highways and rail/road corridors. The proposed 100 towns are expected to emerge from the thin air without any serious recommendation from the Urban Development ministry itself. The government so much guided by the industrial lobby (not known) that they have given go ahead with allocation of funds for looking at it. The existing towns though trying hard to improve did not find much support from the state governments often look for the central push for the reform (which did not come during first phase of renewal mission). The small and medium where the industrial have been trying to investment owing to its proximity to large urban centres needs serious look for the infrastructure investment often face poor treatment from the decision makers.

The oversized Delhi, Mumbai , Kolkata, Chennai and other select class I towns gets more funds since it remains the power centre in most of the states. Let it be but there is need to invest in second rug towns instead for looking at fresh 100 towns. Who is going to populate the towns, why do we need this approach and why neglect the existing town? etc would be questions asked. Even after six decades we still need a well guided urban policies, the lights emerging from the urban areas of China has been source of inspiration from many of our policy makers but they seldom see the neglect of hinterland and controlled population. The country needs a serious look on its approach at the cities.

The political differences, industrial investments and lobbying by the industrial houses have directed the recent policy shift towards the 100 new towns but we have to set the methodology to improve the delivery of services.  

Minimum government, Maximum Governance

The concept of  'good governance' has reached to a political tone lead by a political party since last 5 years, after 2008 when they realized the importance of unnecessary expenditure by government. The smart governance does not mean doing away with conventional method of governance. The structure remain same, whereas the networks between the offices are improved in order to increase the efficiency. This may not limited to any one state in India, the e-governance change lead by the Government of India, with National Informatics Centre helping the state to have 'e' ready infrastructure in place to have minimum goverment, for the people. The setting up of information kiosks, information centres, service centers by the authorities for the citizens in an approach not limited to a state. There are many state who has pioneering the idea of minimum government including, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The learning from each other is done by the central departments, state departments and e ready organisations to provide the necessary service. There is nothing new in the ideas however the implementation in the smaller states have been better with quick outreach to the maximum citizens. The larger states where the internet penetration is low, the idea of minimum government and maximum governance has not yeilded the desired result.

The citizens needs to take the services with the new hope when the government reaches to them via their mobile phones, where e-services in at the door steps of the people. The governments through their efforts can reach to the citizens, and no state in India is left in these approach, only the time and money required to understake the project varies. The national agencies like NRSC, BSNL & DOT, revenue departments, NIC etc has done tremendous job to reach to the citizens, however the lack of interest at the grass roots have hamphered the programs. These might be due to lack of e-readiness of the people and often lack of trained manpower at the village levels. There are many changes required at the grass root level which are already covered under the national programs but poorly implemented at the state to make effective governance.

The lack of understanding of the concept by people who might tag themselves to an activity in a state is not always right, the national policy are in place since 2006, to workout a reform in the governments to improve the governance across the nation. Some states have lead the change in one sector, while others may have done better in another, but there is no doubt the people needs to be connected to the information segment and to be made available with required information. The technology penetration is weak in the governments decision making where the changes in information technologies are not treated well because of the politicians and persons loosing power to control the same. The easy access to information and rights would bring significant change at grassroots often bringing true era of 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance'. 

When Development is tagged to political parties...

Its good that development as a topic of discussion  takes a central stage in political discourses. But the most important thing which can be noted that the governments in its nomenclature is also termed out to be X parties government. When in democracy we adopted by naming a central and state govt. by parties. The political parties have a limited role to play in decision making exercise, which are supposed to be outcome of extensive research on the policy research, its impact and monitoring. 'Development' which till recently world over is thought about a serious exercise which does not mean going by party line (which often is not an outcome of well researched agenda) but by analysis of the data given through national or state level surveys. During the discourse we are into the position of easily projecting an development ideologies which stands on the political ideology and of course which totally differs from the theoretical bases. The schemes which can be objectively targeted at the development needs of the people emerges to be treating to the political needs of the parties.

The good research output suggestive of a policy which might be emerging from the burning of night oil by the numerous support staff (you may call them researches) often turning to be night mare to convince the political bosses. How on earth development issues can be limited to political parties without institutional backup. Are parties suppose to run a parallel institutional network? Or the institutions also become politicised to give feed accordingly to the political class. The individuals in the recent political arena tries to make the policies based on the their believes which in most of the cases are poorly analysed by themselves. The polarisation of the parties in the national issues is also resulting in the policy polarisaiton on the party lines. To some extent these are good to understand the good and bad outcome expected of the decisions taken by a political leaders. But do we essentially mean to say that the system is not in place to find the problems, discuss with people for verification and solutions. Development to wide spectrum of people means illusion created by the political masters. The populism of the policy depends more on the freebies which in long run may not be fruitful.

There is little doubt about the political parties in asserting their wish to the policy makers, when they themselves become the policy makers by not just discussing it among themselves also creating a no question mode for the people, the problem of acceptance arises. The serious development analysis in these scenarios take a back seat. The state governments now if seen from the political perspectives may stand in front of central governments in accepting the major political decisions or even rediculing the central decisions. Same in the case of the grass root democratic setup a situation of distress arises when the basic policy intentions and guidelines are violated. We are in a situation when more we look into the problems we try to find the quick answers which are of course short lived. Certain conflict in the policy approach or infighting between the political class has seen as loss of good opportunity in sharing the best of all. 

Mahgai Dayan..Price Rise and Urban Agriculture

You all are reeling under the emerging price rise in the agricultural produce in the urban markets. People in metros are severely affected by the price rise mainly in perishable food items such as milk and vegetables. Metros keep on getting agricultural products from distant places and relies heavily in India on its immediate hinterland. But situation is changing fast in your urban hinterland too, they are no more interested in just supplying food to cities. Also their lands are gobbled up by up coming modern townships and Special Economic Zones.

The present vegetable crisis (High Prices) in cities like Delhi and Mumbai is definately due to neglect of urban agriculture practices which was encouraged in bygone era and cities themselves ensured their supplies. Now farming communities cannot afford or would not be allowed to cultivate in the city limits by the land sharks and neglect by the city administrations.

City managers are increasingly required relooking into ways to understand it--both from a regulation perspective, but also to determine what is needed to foster and support these agricultural activities within the ambit of city regions. Some clue can be taken from Kolkata..where the urban agriculture still has retained some form.

The rationale for supporting agriculture within cities isn't immediately obvious--it isn't prominent in modern cities, nor has it ever really been typical, to have food production within urban areas. In many ways, being surrounded by agricultural fields was always a sign that one had ventured outside the city limits--it was a defining non-urban factor.

The urban agriculture is still widely practiced in the small and medium towns throughout the country but it lacks its presence in the large cities. Cities like Delhi and Mumbai needs to comeback on the trail of urban agriculture as an essential uses in their land use plans. The neglect of the important activities have caused crisis in their own markets and causes the city to cry hoarse. The far cry of 'Mahngai Dayan' in film 'Pipli Live' is the reality of urban India, joined by the neglect of the farms for farming and using a peice of land for party and recreation spots.

Till we understand the need for Urban Agriculture in our city planning we would go on and on...saying Mahngai Dayan....Khai Jat Hai...

Looking for Voulenteers - Infrastructure Services Assessment

Green Eminent Research Centre, a private research centre in vadodara is looking for the professionals and citizens who can provide their opinion on the infrastructure services available, deficiency and demand in their respective cities or regions. We welcome participants to provide your assessment of the quantity, quality and nature of services issues in your areas. Please register your name and contact details by writing to us on gercbrd@gmail.com or write in comment box. You can also upload your comments please write in to us we would place on our blog..