If there is one lesson that the COVID 19 pandemic has re-taught the world, it is this – humans are irrelevant to the continuation of life on Planet Earth. So if anything catastrophic were to happen to the world in the future, only humans will perish; everything else will continue as usual. If we continue life as we were living it till date, we are only advancing the inevitable wipeout. It is an existential threat that must be remedied by the present generation of people in the age bracket of 25 to 60 who still have a significant period of their working lives ahead of them. In a sense, we must all become futurologists in the most positive way. Our aim should be to regenerate the earth and our lives and no effort should be too great in the achievement of this purpose. The changes have to be transformational and not evolutionary – we have jumped the evolutionary process with our greed and the only remedy is a reverse transformation. In short, we need a drastic reduction of the mindless human excesses of successive generations across the world.
I will talk about India for the moment – for two reasons. Firstly, charity must begin at home and so must everything we consider important for making this transformation. We are also home to more than one-sixth of humanity and whatever India does will resonate around the world – there is no question about it. Secondly, world governance through the United Nations has failed conclusively and miserably. It is nothing more than a mere discussion forum where even discussions are weighed against money power. If the United Nations must exist, its entire organisation must be revamped. The present system of money and clout of a handful of member nations cannot have such a free run of the world. This is, however, extremely difficult as difficult changes in any organisation are invariably opposed and killed by ‘incumbent resistance’. There is too much at stake and too much money being made – so expect no miracles there. I therefore advocate a concept of ‘enlightened nationalism’ which in time will become contagious and spread to the rest of the world. I know many will write this off as wishful idealism – but at this time in history, India needs a healthy dose of idealism as an antidote to the cynicism and negativity that has come to characterise our individual and collective behaviour.
Here is my 20 Point Programme for India. For several reasons, one of them being lack of specialist knowledge, I will not make detailed recommendations but only indicate areas that will need important policy changes and a fresh look at how they must be done…
#1. Preserve environment and ensure sustainable consumption. Reduce garbage and waste. Become water surplus. Have time-bound plans for clean air, earth and water. Shut down polluting industries.
#2. Move away from fossil fuels to non-conventional, clean and renewable energy.
#3. Rethink investment priorities. Health, sanitation and education should be prioritised.
#4. Freeze infrastructure development in metros and large cities. Any new infrastructure must be strictly regulated with commensurate demolitions. A cap on consumption of services should guide further infrastructure creation.
#5. Create more urban areas so that migrant labour do not need to crowd metros. Take jobs to the people.
#6. Formulate a new policy on the unorganised sector to provide them social security.
#7. Make higher education in India easier. Stop being enamoured by foreign universities. A large majority of those who do not merit admissions in the Indian system go abroad. Let research organisations, government and corporates take ownership of educational institutions to give them cutting edge skills.
#8. Rethink international relations. The pandemic has given us enough indication of who our friends are – and definitely who are not. Keep our intelligence mechanisms two steps ahead so that pro-active and pre-emptive measures are taken to counter any pre-meditated design to create instability.
#9. Look inwards. Be Indian, Buy Indian, Travel within India, Stay in India, Work for India. We have given enough benefit of our creativity and knowledge to the world. It is time to strengthen ourselves internally. Create conditions for this to happen. Revisit traditional customs and practices rather than aping imported ideas.
#10. Do not make India cheap by granting visas to one and all. We are no longer a pushover in the international arena. We must decide who comes in and who does not. We must also regulate which entities can and more importantly, cannot invest in India.
#11. Reduce overcrowding. Overcrowding along with the need for social distancing creates a paradox in India. How we handle slums, public transport, market places, religious gatherings and political rallies will determine if we will be able to overcome the downsides of overcrowding.
#12. Redefine the concept of minorities, their rights and privileges. If minority rights are considered important, introduce minority duties that are also mandatory.
#13. Value people who man frontlines in times of crises. These are the people who will always pull our chestnuts out of the fire. Least of all, pay them more and give them social security.
#14. Live in harmony with Nature. Ban the eating of certain animal species. Nature desires that humans do not interact with certain animal species. Respect that and let both man and animal live in peace. Can we even consider shutting down zoos?
#15. Use technology to the benefit of humankind – not for the sake of technology or one-upmanship.
#16. Reduce competition in every field – individual, team, corporate, federal and international. Focus on bettering ourselves, not on beating the competition.
#17. Identify surge capacities in advance. Have contingency plans for every conceivable eventuality. Create robustness. Black Swan events will still hit us but we may have some ready answers.
#18. Ease the pace of life. Institutionally promote life balance. The lockdown has shown us the extent to which we utilize our time and energy on the most unnecessary things. Recalibrate, breathe, smile, live, love.
#19. Put humans and humanity at the centre of development. Not money and greed.
#20. Provide a philosophical and idealistic framework for our actions. The world existed before we came into it and will continue to exist when we depart. Let us make it a better place for future generations.
In certain aspects, we may need to go ‘Back to the Future’ – and that may really be ‘The Way Ahead’.
12 Apr 20
Thought-provoking and actionable. Needs collegiate action irrespective of age group/ gender/ profession.
A very well articulated 20 point programme for sustainable future for India. Agreed to most of the points but we need to see how we can accomplish these.
-Looking inwards. Well the pandemic will force countries to think inwards and to some extent think of de-globalisation, reduce dependency on other countries or rather reduce consumerism, the basic concept on which the so called the developed countries like USA are sustaining their economy.
– Reduce competition. Do not know, how it is going to be worked out, unless we change our whole system of education and employability of personnel for various jobs.
– Reduce overcrowding. Completely agreed, we need to develop each state with good infrastructure and sustainable industries so that the population need not migrate to metros looking for jobs and employment. Besides this we need to have a very strict policy on population control to reduce burden on this earth with limited resources.
-Preparedness of surge capacities in advance. 100 percent agreed, but to my surprise two of videos which I saw on whatsapp recently, one of Bill Gates of 2015 speaking to some University students that we are not prepared for Bio warfare and second of Bush speaking on the issue of Microbiology and Biological pandemic discussing about what all action and SOPs need to be followed in such eventualities. But unfortunately, USA has been hardest
hit as far as the preparedness for this pandemic is concerned.
Great to see someone stick his neck out and speak about pertinent issues.
Regards
Focus on Pt 1 and all things will follow.
Nice piece. Great thoughts and good articulation. COVID-19 has indeed presented us with profound lessons. Four months back if someone were to prophesy that world would be brought to a grinding halt by an invisible organism, people would have scoffed and ridiculed the very thought. Yet today more than half the globe remains hunkered down within the safety of their homes, with the economy in a dissaray, and only one collective thought foremost on every mind. How do we put this cataclysmic pandemic past us? This is perhaps the right time for us to take a pitstop in the formula one race of mankind and reflect. Let’s use this lockdown to unlock our minds. To think afresh and think through the very purpose of our existence. For a while there will be new normals, and then, pitstop over, the human race will hurtle headlong at breakneck speed towards their illusionary goals. This is indeed a good time to set for ourselves a new set of rules and goals. Our great country has shown great character so far in the way we have dealt with the COVID crisis. It inspires confidence, that if we set our hearts and minds to it we could walk our talk and make a difference. May your 20 point prescription guide the policy makers as also the citizens to bring about the much needed course correction.
Valid points. May be this what is summarised as Dharma, arth, kaam , moksha by ancient folks.
There are some contradictions like “Preserve nature, live in harmony with nature , but create more urban areas” why not create more rural areas that have urban facilities like electricity, internet, good roads , education health care ?(no malls , multiplexes, casinos, etc)
I think family planning is an absolute must, if we want health for all housing for all, dignity for all.
Thank you. Agree, there is a contradiction of sorts. The idea was to suggest decongesting of metros and generate employment opportunities for people closer to their homes/villages by creating Tier2/3 cities. Development is inevitable but whatever must be done could be done keeping preservation of nature in mind. Of course, these are omnibus issues and cannot be seen in isolation.
Hope our greedy politicians have learnt a good lesson too. Nature has given humans a lesson . We are no great with sky high technology. We have to come to Mother Earth. We are too visitors and our race can be erased in no time. Agriculture will prevail as of now and we will bounce back in some long time.
Lot of thinking before u sat down to write the points . I differ with ur point 5. Urban pockets for migrant workers. Let them identify the out out of Agri in each state. Agriculture sector is getting no people to work. Every city is getting larger by day and workers travel to city for work rather than field work.Money for our products is nothing compared to the rate they sell in cities. Total revamp of our Agriculture has to be pen down.
Thanks. Agree entirely with your point of Agriculture revamp. Idea was not to suggest creation of urban pockets for migrant workers. New Tier 2/3 cities may give them an alternative to already overcrowded metros.
Very relevant points. As brought out, the over population in metros needs to be controlled forthwith which will provide breathing space and will be a great step leading to many changes to improve our living. The migrant labour issue , the bane of everything to promote good living will get sorted out on it’s own now that the labour, the state governments and the industry hopefully would have learnt their lessons well. The welfare and progress of people where the means are limited can only be intrinsic to where one’s roots are and they cannot sustain themselves far from native lands especially during such calamities. In addition they create so many problems for the states and cities they migrate to. The state governments would do well to encourage industry in their states as also create employment opportunities within and those cities which take migrants should scout for labour from local populace to obviate such issues in the long run. They should even take advantage of the present turmoil and enact rules to prevent such migrations in future. This implies, we should not be worried about the industry to kickstart its operations once the lockdown is relaxed. Source labour from close by areas and if need be ask for volunteers till the society learns to adjust within the means and resources and not overstretch to make ends meet in the name of profits and industrialisation. This can be a great start to sustainability and green earth.
Very well articulated. Liked the way you have put up the 20 point program for India and if we all take it seriously it can definitely make a change.
Well articulated. Therapies suggested are highly do able but given the majority mindset would be considered utopian.
Very well articulated. This needs to reach the right people who can make policy changes. Right now we all will be in agreement but given a few months of normalcy and we’ll get back to our mean ways , because we are human; one of the most conceited species. If there are laws and regulations which will keep us in check and constantly remind us probably things will start to look up for us in India.
Very well articulated. Makes lot of sense and it needs to be done quickly. I will do my bit.
Good points.
Who will bell the Cat?
Population control needs a mention.