INDIA'S YOUTH

ENERGY-POWER AND
POTENTIAL- MY VISION

"It is useless to send armies against ideas."

George Brandeis

It was 15th august. Independence Day. The same old patriotic

songs...playing on all the same FM and radio channels.....

The same politicians......old with the burden of age.....saying the

same words....words that have been repeated a thousand
times......to a very young nation.

I sat in front of the television.. surfing through the channels. One

hundred channels. The same old cacophony.
MERA BHARAT MAHAAN!!

I felt claustrophobic. I needed some air. I stepped outside and

decided to go for a stroll in the nearby park.
Now this was very unlike me. I wasn’t supposed to "waste" time
about all these patriotic stuff....things that have been long ago
discarded by my peers as totally "uncool". After all I am an
electronics engineering student who is determined to pursue
graduate study and research in the USA...and then follow the
American Dream to success and prosperity. I didn’t understand
then... that somewhere deep inside me ...I still cared.

A few days later I went to an exhibition organized by a school of

underprivileged children run by a local NGO ( at the persuasion of
my cousin sister who works there as a volunteer). I am glad I went.
The sheer originality of kids (most of whom were orphans...others
had parents who were daily wage earning labourers) overwhelmed
me. Until then, I had looked at my country with a mixture of veiled
contempt and cynicism. On that day I experienced a totally new
feeling...called HOPE.

The Audacity Of HOPE......

These days when we look around, its hard not to feel depressed.
There's so much nepotism and corruption all around. Even after 60
years of independence....and in spite of the IT boom, each day is a
new struggle for survival for a greater part of our population .All
the institutions that we cherished and felt proud of...the polity, the
bureaucracy, the police force, the judiciary...are slowly moving
towards decadence and destruction. In the horizon looms the
spectre of Islamic terrorism, which threatens to bring the very idea
of India down to its knees.
There is no doubt that all these are very complex issues .It would
be extremely naive to even suggest any short term quick-fix
solutions. But to my mind, the one thing that can go a long way in
making things right...is HOPE. We have to give the common man
hope...hope that real change is possible in this country...hope that
we can achieve the highest levels of excellence. And the only way
people start hoping again is through new ideas.

If we look at modern history we cannot overstate the power of

innovation and the way it can change the way millions live, work
and think.

In September 1998, two college dropouts from Stanford, Sergei

Brin and Larry Page hit upon an idea that would change the face of
the internet forever. It would also revolutionize the way people go
about their daily business of finding information. They named
it...GOOGLE.

In 1981,a bespectacled IIT Kanpur graduate gave up his regular

corporate paycheck to start his own company. He didn’t have any
capital. So he borrowed Rs.10000 from his wife. Now the
company has a market capitalization of over $30 billion and
represents the global face of Indian IT. Needless to say , we know
the company as INFOSYS.

Such stories inspire us. They make us dream. They show us how
one idea has the power to positively impact the lives of millions.
This is the vision I would like to talk about in this essay. In a
country with a population over 1.1 billion and an average age of
under 25,its hard to even fathom the amount of difference that can
be made if only we unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial
abilities of our
youth to the fullest extent. A thousand ideas can bloom....not only
in science and technology but also in business, social
entrepreneurship and even in the arts....if only as a nation we
priorities innovation and develop a coherent plan to actively
encourage and sustain our innovative capabilities.

The Modus Operandi......

But we have to tread with caution. Innovation is never easy.
Neither is it ever painless. The transition from a closed,
conservative society that resists change to an open, broad based
one that welcomes new ideas is a long and arduous process. But
small steps lead to small successes, which can serve as a platform
for larger, more ambitious ventures.

Being a student, I would like to start with education. It’s no secret

that India's university system, including its elite institutions like
IITs and IIMs, have become huge graduate producing
factories....with little scope for cutting edge research and
innovation. Our elite universities do not even come close to
competing with the world's best in this respect. Various reasons
have been cited for this...institutional lack of flexibility, chronic
bureaucratic inertia, shortage of funds… and so on. These are
serious challenges that need to be addressed in the long term with
proper planning. Instead the Government has decided to play to the
gallery by opening
umpteen number of new IITs,IIMs and IISERs. This farcical
exercise would only lead to considerable brand dilution of our
centers of excellence.

Changing the entire academic culture of a country requires an

enormous amount of dedication and patience...not to mention
resources. What we need immediately is a NATIONAL
INNOVATION COUNCIL
(on the lines of the National Information Commission and the
National Knowledge Commission). It should be a completely
autonomous body having its own budget and answerable only to
the PMO. It should have centers in each state and subchapters in
all technical institutions.

Its primary aim should to be to actively encourage new ideas and

spread awareness about intellectual property rights and
international patent laws. I believe this is extremely important. In
my college,3 students built an electronic stethoscope which could
process biomedical signals better than ordinary stethoscopes.
But they had no idea how to go ahead with the project and make
something commercially viable out of it.
The NIC could go a long way in solving this problem. The NIC
should also incubate potentially promising ventures for the first 2-3
years and provide it with sufficient funds required for any further
development.

The money invested in the NIC can be easily recovered. There

should be a clause in its charter stating that the NIC would get a
certain portion of the annual profits of all companies successfully
incubated by it. These profits can be ploughed back into the system
to fund more promising projects.

Another area we must work on is the way scientific and

technological projects are funded in this country.
We must ensure that agencies like the CSIR,DBT,ICMR or the
DAE function transparently and produce
results. They must not be allowed to become an endless sink of
taxpayer's money. Lucrative incentives based on performance can
be a way to stop brain drain and attract world class talent in our
laboratories.
Down with the
sycophants........
The second area where new ideas can pivotal role in growth and
reform is in the domain of social and political leadership. It would
be an understatement to suggest that India faces a huge vacuum of
quality leadership in the political space. The scene is dominated
either by sycophants whose only aim is to extract their pound of
flesh from the highest powers or by cunning political entrepreneurs
who seek to exploit the religious and ethnic differences within our
society for their own selfish interests. Generally, these people
neither have the qualifications nor the required administrative
experience to tackle the diverse and complex challenges that face
our country.

This gives rise to the widespread 'middle class' notion that India is
a country of great people governed by callous politicians. But this
can hardly be termed as accurate. A great country creates great
leaders. A pertinent example can be the new US President-elect
Barack Obama. His inspirational and transformational ideas have
already caught the imagination of the world reeling under the
effects of an unprecedented financial meltdown .He is
comparatively young, Harvard trained and pragmatic....qualities
which make him the ideal person to lead his country in this hour of
crisis.

If India has to make progress, we have no option but to promote

meritocracy in our public life. In a multi party democracy like ours
it is useless to talk of bureaucratic or economic reform unless there
is a political will to carry out those reforms. But unfortunately the
feeder channels that used to supply our political system with new
ideas and perspectives have become severely clogged.
Student politics these days has got much more to do with money
and muscle power than it has to do with idealism. Now we have
professional student netas who are sometimes worse than actual
politicians. I myself come from a state where most leading
universities run by the state government face the chronic problem
of student violence. Classes are held up, frequent clashes occur
between rival political factions and outrageous demands are made
which holds the entire system to ransom. The Justice Lyndoh
Commission recently suggested some constructive changes in the
laws governing student elections, but they were never
implemented.

Our political parties need to immediately start a process of reform

within their youth wings. For sixty years we have seen
sycophants...now we need new ideas which can produce new
leadership. The two major national parties should set an example
which the smaller, regional parties can follow. We must not allow
political dynasties to take deep roots. We don’t need the younger
generation from political families to take the place of their parents.
We need our young qualified professionals...people who have the
vision and courage to bring in change in the system....to join active
politics. We can take a leaf out of our neighbour China's book. A
significant portion of the Politburo, the highest decision making
body of that country consists of scientists and technocrats.

Our political parties have to make sure more such people join their
ranks. Considering the rampant criminalization of politics that we
see today...and the astronomical amounts involved in winning
elections...this doesn’t look a likely prospect .But we have to put
our best foot forward and expect the best results.
Last But Not the
Least..............

Many international commentators have predicted that the 21st

century could be the Asian century. But they also concede that
there are significant challenges that must be overcome to achieve
that end. We must realize that India is not going to become an
economic superpower unless we focus our energies on creating
significant intellectual capital through research and innovation. We
also must recognize the myriad and complex challenges that face
our nation require innovative, out of the box solutions. That is
where our youth is our biggest asset (Economists would prefer to
call it India's Demographic Dividend).

Lastly, we must not forget to dream big. Dreams give people hope.
Hope leads to ideas.
Ideas lead to change.