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.