India's core competence is at its Bottom of the Pyramid

Lal Bahadur Shastri: Third prime minister of India
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 32nd president of USA

What is common between the two?

I will give you one more name for the answer. It's C.K. Prahalad. If you are still waiting for the answer, my dear reader, read on.

In 1965, then Prime Minister of India, Lal bahadur Shastri coined a slogan, "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" (Hail soldier, Hail farmer). He realised the essence of soldiers to protect the huge border of the country; and essence of farmers to abate the degree of food scarcity at that time. Also these were the biggest sectors to give employment of a country of 50 crore (at that time). It is well known that after the green revolution India became a food surplus country and Shastri was very instrumental in that. It was Shastri who understood the key strength of the country.

In 1932, then president of USA, Roosevelt said on radio, “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power...that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

Our freedom fighters dreamt of an India with peace and prosperity. We could achieve neither of them even after 62 years of independence. Reaching that goal is an ongoing process and it is due in time.

It is a good time to retrospect what we did in last 62 years and to analyse whether we are on the correct path. In many sectors, we actually are. In some, we have to change our attitude. Here, it is necessary to talk about the fundamentals of Economics. Those who have read economics in some point of time in their life, they can recall there is a part called "Welfare Economics". The essence of the subject is to realize how wealth can be distributed amongst all the citizens of the country. In our country wealth is generated at the top of the pyramid and there is a constant 'artificial' effort to make it flow downwards. This 'artificial flow' faces a huge amount of resistance and a big percentage of it is lost in the process.

Now it is the time to have a paradigm shift in the thought process itself. We can't rely on some third party to make it moving. The essence has to come from itself. Third parties are there to provide process, tools and mechanisms but it is the beneficiaries who have to drive the movement. Microfinancial instruments will play an important role as outsiders but they can not provide a self sustainable solutions.

When I was a teenager, I dreamt of one-rupee-insurance. Why can't we plan and bring every individual of this country under health insurance. I know that insurance is a luxury to the people who don't have food for twice a day. But, believe me, it can be implemented. Take one rupee per month from the people who are in BPL and who can not afford to have medical insurance. Outsource the process to some organization and give the underprivileged coverage of Rs. 30,000 annually. If there is any expense above Rs. 30,000, government will bear that (it's government's liability). It translates to Rs. 3000 crores of premium which can reduce government's liability of that much and make asset in long run.


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You may visit author's personal blog at hopelessnaskar.blogspot.com.

"Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached"-- Vivekananda

In the year 1893, at the World Parliament of Religions Swami Vivekanada had called to the world "Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal"

As if the reverberations of his voice hit the shores of his motherland and the country started coming out of her deep slumber and lethargy. Born were the sons of freedom, the daughters of Shakti. The sons bathed the alter of Mother India with their life blood and the daughters with their silent tears.

In the sky of our national life, we saw the most spectacular aurora-borealis ever witnessesd in the history of civilization. Netaji Subhash Bose, shahid Khudiram, Rash Bihari Bosu, Chandra Sekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh................. the list goes on.

Sixty two years after our independence, we all sigh and ask why not one amongst us is capable of being Netaji or Bhagat Singh? What happened?

Since childhood I too had the same question and after asking it again and again to myself, I think I know the answer.

The aurora boreolis cannot be seen in the morning sky, hidden by the dazzling sun. Even though the phenomena is still taking place at all times, it is not always obvious. So are our nationalistic sentiments. Why do you feel a chill up your spine when you listen to "Khalbali hai Khalbali" in Rang de Basanti? or Why does your heart beat sings "Chak de, Chak de India", when Abhinav Bindra wins the Olympic gold medal? Why does a crowd gather infront of a tea stall to watch India take on Pakistan in a cricket match? Why does every run get cheered so much? What is the underlying sentiment? We all feel it, the nationalistic sentiment runs in the blood of each one of us.

Only they had a clear cut goal, an ideal of freedom which they united to workship. Our tasks ahead are equally gigantic but problems that face us are more diverse. We feel confused as to where we may start.

You see the ragpicker picking up the food u had thrown under your seat in the train compartment and you wish you could do something to help him. May be the person sitting beside you also feels the same way. But we are all sitting quitely and watching because we dont know what difference a lone soul can do on earth.

I go grocery shopping in the US and buy vegetables at more than ten times the price in the indian market. I wonder what difference it could make to the life of an indian farmer if we could figure out how to export our stuff to the US market. The US is flooded with chinese items...from pencil, eraser, bedsheets,lamps....and yet I dont find my country anywhere.

I wish youths with the right expertise step in and do to Indian manufacturing and exports what Narayan Murthy did to Indian IT.

May be the challenges that India faces in fulfilling her national aspirations and living upto her capbilities are far more complicated than that faced by any other country. But as President Kalam once put it :"If we aim for the stars, we are all the same."