I would like greater emphasis on alternative energy sources like solar, water and wind power. Let us look at different ways to plan our cities and buildings so as to minimise energy waste and build communities in balance and harmony with nature.

Unlike the economic crisis, the energy crisis is not going to go away. If anything with increasing populations with increasing affluence with increasing energy demands , it is going to escalate. What we need is appropriate technology and better public transport. There are examples that provide a road map like Overturnea and Vaxjo in Sweden, the island of Samso in Denmark, Gussing in Austria, which has cut its GHGs 90% while becoming a renewable energy exporter and creator of green jobs, the "Solar City" of Freiberg in Germany and the miracle of planning that is Curitiba in Brazil. These are the right models to follow rather than imitating the decades of bad planning, overconsumption, greed and carelessness that have created the current crisis. The record of those countries that have proactively pursued greater use of renewable shows increased employment in the economy.

As an agricultural country, we are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Yet, it is India that is blocking Climate Change negotiations demanding that we (with over one billion people) must first be allowed to achieve the levels of consumerism of the West before we can be asked to reform. The question to be asked is, what’s the use of a fancy house or hotel when you don’t have a planet left to put it??. Climate change is an impending reality and potentially disastrous for an agricultural country like India. It is the poor of the world that will be worst affected which is why environmental protection is not a luxury but a necessity.

There has been an increase of 70% in greenhouse gas emissions between 1970 and 2004. Increasing water scarcity is already causing serious political conflict. The current impatience with environmental regulation is shortsighted and needs to give way to an understanding of its benefits like lower air pollution at the local level, higher energy security, higher yields in agriculture, and greater employment opportunities. I should like to see organisations which have national reach such as banks, the army, the postal services etc integrate tree plantation programmes as part of their programmes.

One of the most important challenges in health reform is to design workable systems for rural idea. Given the discrepancy in earnings between private and public medical practitioners, how do we deliver competent healthcare in villages? Primary health centres in West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar cope with less than 20 per cent of the allocated staff. One way might be to strengthen local systems of medicine, like ayurveda and homeopathy. Gujarat has tackled the problem through improved connectivity, creating an ambulance service that responds within half an hour to take villagers to medical help. What I would like to see is a programme of health education targeted at women, designed to prevent diseases like malaria, TB and diabetes, that are needlessly killing us. Medical infrastructure must be provided at the district level so as to reduce the crush of patients in cities. I would like to see an increased emphasis on prevention alongside cure.

Less illness is preferable to more hospitals. Better eating and exercise habits and basic first aid must be taught through the school system. Voluntary service schemes for doctors in remote and rural areas must be encouraged. Medical infrastructure must be provided at the district level so as to reduce the crush of patients in cities. Accessibility to reliable medical care must be increased. Technology is the key to link patients around the country to the best medical care and decongest hospitals. Admission procedures to medical schools need to be more transparent and we need a serious crackdown on spurious drugs and dangerous quackery.

Health is a priority goal in its own right, as well as a central input into economic development and poverty reduction. Health and socio-economic development are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to achieve one without the other. While economic development in India has been gaining momentum over the last decade, our health system still ranks a lowly 118 among the 191 WHO member countries on overall performance. We have clearly not recognised that health cannot be measured by swanky medical hotels for the rich, but how we provide for the poor.

Sometimes, sensible simple solutions will do. In villages, a lot of people who claim blindness, turn out to be just in need of spectacles. Primary health centres have no specialists, so villagers have no access to eye-tests and glasses. One NGO, Development Alternatives has started training teams of village youth, equipping them with eye testing kits and selling them glasses, which they sell further for between Rs 50-100. Imagine this being the price between light and darkness.

Our priorities don't seem right. Every day, 1,100 Indians die of malaria. Yet, our health efforts are preoccupied by international scares like SARs and avian flue and swine flu that peter off into nothing, while our endemic diseases get more dangerous and deadly. Only a healthy nation can be a prosperous and progressive one. Having the security of reliable healthcare allows a society to civilise, specialise and produce Michelangelos and Einsteins. That we see so few new ideas in India is not because we are incapable of them, it is because we simply do not have the time to generate them. With everyone caught up in the everyday struggle of simply staying alive, where is the time to innovate? If we can provide the security of accessible and affordable healthcare, we can find ways to do things differently and better.

I see education as the key to development. We need serious educational reforms to equip tomorrow's citizens to cope with a fast changing world.

It is time to review and replace standard syllabi with more contemporary education that emphasises a more vigorous approach to learning. Better teacher training and remuneration is essential. Vocational skills and practical experience must form an integral part of any qualification. A huge but well directed investment in education is needed to create more and better facilities, revamp the syllabus, recruit better skills and provide learning opportunities.

Officially there are only about 70 lakh children outside the school system. But of the 13 crore children in elementary school, we have a drop-out rate of over 50 per cent. Worst of all, the government education that we provide is entirely meaningless. The syllabus is over 30 years old, the books are written by bureaucrats or their relatives, the information is skewed and inessential.

The debate that the Education Ministry generates is never about the quality of education and whether it equips the poorest child in the poorest village with the requisite knowledge to cope in the outside world. The debate is simply about how many exams we should have in one year, how many schools should be built, whether and what student quotas or reservations should be introduced, whether the midday meal should consist of fresh or packaged food, and whether it is getting past the principal’s family or not. The quality of teachers and teaching material is seen as irrelevant. So our children will graduate from school with full stomachs, but empty minds.

At present of a graduating class, the brightest go to IITs, IIMs and medical schools to become professionals, the next brightest go to business schools to become entrepreneurs, the third level enters government services and, finally, it is the remainder that get into politics. So how does this translate into real life? The bottom of the class makes the rules. The slightly brighter ones implements them over those more intelligent, and the brightest end up being governed by those far less able than themselves. It is time to turn that equation the right side up. And to do so, its important to develop and create a positive attitude towards politics so that more educated and honorable young people are encouraged to join the process and make a difference.

Women are fundamental agents of change. Empowering women through education and employment transforms society.

Village schemes administered by women have a high rate of success. Although dowry, marital violence, female infanticide and other crimes against women are illegal, the law alone cannot end them. It needs strong public opinion and social support to create a climate of confidence and security. A strengthened and well supported NGO sector would be especially effective in this arena. I am for greater representation for women in Parliament but not for tokenism where female relatives are put up to fill the space without actually themselves participating. The way out is for political parties to provide greater opportunities and encouragement to women members.

What will do it is only a strong dose of self-respect and national pride. We need to understand that it is not just our house or office that belongs to us but our colony, our city and our entire country. When we internalise this sense of ownership, that’s when things will change. After WWII the Japanese judiciously repaired not their shattered buildings but their national pride. Everything else followed to turn them into the economic giant that they remain.

Growth of the economy during the current global recession should be the key agenda of a forward India . The tax structure should be relooked at so as to discourage the existence of a parallel economy.

India is not only a base to service our global clients but is a also self reliant economy. Being so vast diverse we have the capacity to invest in our own capital growth. 70% of India lives in the villages and farmers are the backbone of our agricultural economy. Small subsistence farmers can be strengthened through cooperative movements and better distribution networks. Instead of subsidising chemical pesticides and fertilisers, organic farming should be encouraged to improve long-term yields and food safety. Technical training and support should be provided.

It will shift the emphasis from simply making money and calculating meaningless statistics to an awareness of what India needs to survive, and transform into a truly great nation. Years ago when America faced a national crisis, FDR’s New Deal also called for a spirit of sharing. In India, the government’s flagship scheme NREGA is based on the same principle. In theory, its guarantee of a minimum amount of employment to rural India is excellent, but look at what is happening on ground. One, the usual middlemen are pocketing a huge percentage of the labourer’s daily pay. Two, no administration has bothered to find out how to use this compulsory labour, so all you have is crores of people digging holes in the ground and then later filling up those same holes to justify the wage they are getting. All it needs is for someone, anyone, to identify things that do need to be accomplished—whether it is cleaning or building or planting trees instead of so foolishly wasting time, effort and money.

Since most government schemes are similarly mired in corruption and sloth, what we need is more private involvement in nation building. The more our individual initiatives, the stronger we become as a people. The stronger we are as a people the less we need to rely on lazy, inefficient and ill educated administrations.