Indian Dream:Our Chance To Become World Leaders | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY

For long India has been the country of people who have been denied and deprived of prosperity and modern day comforts of life. When we take into account any of the prosperity indices like per capita earnings, per capita consumption of steel, electricity, cement, milk, cloth or for that matter any other parameter, we are no where near even to post world war II figures of advanced nations. This huge gap and magnitude of increase that is required to fulfill the dreams of one billion people is a God sent opportunity to make this country technology leader in many fields. Let us not waste this opportunity by bringing in prosperity through a route which has evolved in this world because of the then limitations in the field of science and technology and material development.

Electricity generation and connected technologies should be topmost priority as its consumption index is the mother of all other economic development indices and we have to increase its production manifold to catch up with the western world. Surprisingly our politicians and technologists both have chosen a path where we will all the time be following the developed nations and be dependent on them. It is not that developed nations do not understand that ultimate answer lies in the Renewable Sources of Energy. These nations themselves will also ultimately  switch over to these sources when their present power plants and plant manufacturing technologies become obsolete and they have squeezed full value by selling them to nations like India. Till such time the use of renewable energy will be kept at exorbitant price. It is for us to seize this opportunity and make power from these sources at prices comparable with power from present day conventional sources through research, technology innovation and scale of production. We should not forget that even with our meagre per capita consumption of electricity we are fifth largest producer in world. Therefore our targeted yearly additions in power production are far more than the yearly obsolescence of American Plants. Since they have all the technologies for setting up of conventional and nuclear power plants available in house they will not be interested in large scale spending on researches in the fields of utilizing renewable energy sources at present.

INDIA'S ENERGY SECURITY : RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY

It was heartening to note that Indian government has finally seen  the reality of clean green energy and this was emphasized by none other than the Indian premier. While speaking at the fourth clean energy ministerial Indian Prime Minister pitches for subsidy to energize clean energy in the context of his opinion on the cost aspects of  power from new renewable energy sources in comparison to conventional fuel based energy sources. His assertions derive strength from the feed back from his experts which he has faithfully echoed . But as the head of the government of one billion plus and a visionary trying to catapult Indian march to prosperity he must understand that all scientific and technology experts also resist change just as any normal human being and additionally they tend to defend their expertise and technology for their own benefit and the benefit of their large following of scientists and technologists. Additionally he should have drawn his own conclusions in the light of the fact that so many global leaders and visionaries have embraced the renewable energy sources in a big way for ultimate energy security of their respective countries.

India is uniquely placed in this quest of energy security as it doesn't have to think that earlier investments will go down the drain as it has barely started its march towards this goal and our yearly addition requirements are much more than the replacement requirements of the developed world. Energy security through renewables is the only way ahead if India has to keep its date with the the great Indian dream of becoming world leaders.

IS INDIA PROGRESSING OR REGRESSING ? | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY

Day in and day out Indian government reels out statistical data on the growth of GDP, per capita income and the consumption of steel, cement, electricity etc., the various parameters of growth of a country. This data brings about the rosy side of government efforts. Some people in the country are satisfied with this pace of growth whereas to a vast majority these are only some numbers and has not made any material difference to their quality of life and the path to poverty alleviation.

The two important parameters, namely the reservations and subsidies are sharp pointers to the failure of India's planning policy.

• Reservations and Quotas: In 1950, the country started with the  reservation policy wherein schedule castes and schedule tribes were given a reservation of 15 % and 7% respectively on the basis of social and economic status. After sixty years, instead of these quotas coming down, the country has reservations to the tune of 50% and some places even much more by additions from newer classes. In fact more population groups are clamoring for additional quotas for themselves. Either the number of people that falls in the quota criterion has risen or it is the boon of vote bank politics. Whatever may be the fact, the answer to ' Is India progressing or regressing ' is clear to any unbiased citizen of the country.
• Subsidies: If India were progressing the number of people in need of subsidies for food, fuel as also the amount spent on doling out these subsidies should have come down whereas the reality is just the converse of this.