Vineeth says:

Hello Gurudev & Members,

I had been an avid reader of most of the blogs posted by Gurudev..Dude,you really are kicking those grey cells out in each of us.. I agree that I don’t read all the articles but I was able to easily sift through the contents and still get a gist of it.. For the last 3 months, I had been a silent reader of this particular topic.. There had been very thought provoking discussions, links on whats going to happen, whats not going to happen and so on.. there are solutions also from some members as to how India should be and what the government needs to do.. whats the reason for US $ getting weaker and why some of us dont like rupee becoming stronger (I am still puzzled to comprehend why some of the members dont want to see a stronger Indian rupee )

Anyways, thats not the point what I am trying to make.. Instead of hoping for others(like governmentUS he ministers etc) to change and create the model of India(in the true sense)or say come up with innovative products( fair enough if there are talented people out there who can do that as Gurudev suggested), why cant we do things that under our control??? Like the suggestion from Mahmood…100rs by say 50 folks..5000rs is more than sufficient to meet the educational needs of 30 kids in govnmnt schools for a month..and believe me, there are many, many such kids who badly needs help,if you can provide them..

small drops of rain makes a big ocean.. its gud to go with the final dream in mind, but it all happens with the first step..To quote from my own personal experience,myself and couple of my friends(working in different IT companies) started something like this 2 years back and now we support close to 3 homes and caters to the need of 20-30 scholarship requests a month.. It wasn’t easy and there were many who were preaching high but when it came out to be actions, u couldn’t find the preachers any more..

So all that i am trying to say is instead of worrying what govrmnt can do or coming up with innovative ideas(plz dont get me wrong here,,we need to dream and have the ideas if India is going to be self depenedant.. no denial on that..but thats a long term goal.. u cant just have an innovative idea and implement it straightaway), do your part in whatever small ways you can.. Its YOU that can change the course..and when each of us are able to make that choice ..of being able to respond rather than passing the bucks… then we would see a new india coming up.. where synergy exists..

amreekandesi says:

Nice post. A bit too optimistic..but yea someday India will get there.
And yes, for now our IT companies need to change their focus somewhat. They cannot keep doing things the same way forever. Without innovation, the current model might not last too long.

Mahmood says:

Thanks ursri for a wonderful and informative and thought provoking link.

ursri says:

Dear Mahmood

Thank you and Gurudev for your feedbak.

I happend to watch part of CNN IBN special program on “”India and Next 60 Years”" yesterday -the 15th Aug.
Participant were Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji and a Central Minister(forgot the name).

Link: http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/46913/.html

Highlights
- Urban economical groth is gradually increasing but as that of rural area which constitutes highest percentage of country is just 2%.
- Agriculture is the one sector which needs attention but quite tough to implement changes.
- India is just 60 yrs young in next 60 yrs it will have a large pool of potential educated human resource also consumers.
- It was mentioned that there is a need for changing way of thinking and attitude in spite of claimed stability and growth.
- The young India needs to take opportunity of current favorable situation, take step after changed attitude in this direction.

It was summarized that “The country should be at the world head-table in next 60 years”.

Gurudev says:

I agree with ursri.
Mahmood has a good intention of building a stronger India, but we need to build stronger Indians for that first.
Mahmoon my suggestion is that instead of donating the money to poor, what we should do is give this money as interest free loan to the poor, so that they can set up their own small businesses and then return it back once they are self sufficient. And then the same money can then be used to help other poor family to become self sufficient, etc

But see how governments are behaving stupidly.

The current Tamilnadu government is a dumb one, I sometimes feel how on earth can such people win the elections, while actually these candidates should be losing their deposits!
What a crappy stupid thing of saying we will gift a television to all poor houses if we win, a cheap electoral gimmick.

Government is not a charity organization. Its aim should be to make people self reliant, not make them dependent forever on the government. What about fridge? bike? car? AC, washing machine? etc

The government should instead be creating programmes and improving social health where poor people of tamilnadu will become econonomically strong and will have the buying power to buy a television on their own with their own earned money.

Stupid government and a stupid finance minister called Chidambram who supported this bribe for votes.

Krishna Kumar says:

Posted a reply to your article at http://krishami.blogspot.com/2007/08/rising-rupee-dollar-ratio.html. I had got it in email through a friend.

Mahmood says:

Hi All,

I am back i am very thankful to guru for creating such a important and valuable blog and now when the youth of india have together on one platform discussing stronger rupee stronger India , I think its time to come out with ideas and lets c if we can make it to a end product i have seen so many times you saying we have to come with innovative ideas ie we have just identified the problem so now if we all can come together and discuss what all innovation can we do no matter in which field it can be in agriculture, IT, Infrastructure etc IM NOT much in to economics but lets try to analyse how the stronger rupee will affect the mass and how they can benefit from these as its the responsibility of youth like us to take initiative to eradicate poverty though its a tough task but still we possess the largest of biggest pardon me for the grammar youth generation though this is sidetracking from the main point but im sure its worth given a try.from my point of view if everymonth we can contribute say 100 rs thats cost of a biryani and accumulate it and create a fund for the poor and professionaly managed im sure it would make a difference in the lives of few people as i belive development should be of people along with the economy,and i put my view in front of everyone i truly belive in the power of 100 ie 100 rs per month from every youth wil make a difference but the problem is managing and seeing that the money is used for rite purpose.

Muneer says:

Take the case of Japan,which is one of the developed countries in Asia.

1 Indian Rs = 2.89894 Japanese Yen (Courtesy http://www.xe.com)

This means that , Indian Rupees is stronger compared to the Japanese Yen?

But, Does is it mean that innovative products , technical solutions & next generation technologies are not coming out from Japan?

Does it mean that , the Japanese can’t afford Foreign trips & expensive cars?

The fact being the opposite, we need to think differently.

Sainath says:

to extend further with simple eg : most of the people other than india (% wise) eat meat and what not…what is it in them that makes them feel so cool or dont feel ashamed of cutting animals whereas we feel the gilt or dislike…why there thinking is different than us…I dont want to say if there thinking or our thinking is right or wrong…just i feel theres something that they take very casually and we dont…i feel there GOD must not be telling them to eat non-veg.

Gurudev says:

Sainath

I am in complete agreement with your views.. you are absolutely right…
Since you said that you were trying to see what is the difference between Indians and the nations that are developed… I was just trying to give a part of my view on that about how attitude matters, passion for what we do, thinking big, etc..

Oh Yes, my real name is Gurudev, which is why I have a photo of mine in the blog here

Cheers
Guru

Gurudev says:

PV and Dev,
very well said..
the journey has just started.. a long way to go..
we will definitely get there as long as our sight is bang on target..

Sainath says:

Hi Gurudev,

I was looking for something, since the thought that how the people in west are happier and have easy life than india, was going in my mind from some time. What they have (or think) in them that we indians don’t have and also about the rupee appreciation…..and came accross this blog of yours…..

The first thing came to mind when I read was
“”Speaks mind out, but the path is yet unkown “”.

I would like to add on india being stronger if we are self sufficient by an example of our Music and Bollywood..
We are self sufficient in these areas and dont depend on west for the knowledge hence we are amongst the Top in these areas in the world….similar thing is required in other areas…which i am sure slowly and steady younger generation will make way to…but sincere respected teachers and sincere respecting students are required like the old days….

I have also read other articles on your site..and are good.
Your site is really good knwoledge source…thanks for that.

Hope to see more and more information on your site and hope you dont get borred on reading and providing information.

I am also some what surprised on your name Gurudev..is this real name or given to you

Thanks and Regards,
Sainath

PV says:

My 2 cents on the topic:
If India doesn’t use the new found wealth in improving it’s infrastructure & in spurring innovation, that time won’t be far away when there will be countries able to provide the same off shoring services at a lower cost than us. We need to be putting all the brilliant minds into moving towards being a self sustainable economy. Look at China. They’ve been investing the wealth they make in low cost manufacturing, into infrastructure, education & even buying chunks of US private equity firms.

Gurudev says:

Oh My God!!
Andrew, now that’s a real big list
Thanks for searching the web on that! You have done a good research..

Well, America is a superpower not because all 300 million americans are brilliant people with original innovations.. but because of the top few hundred world class innovators from America..

Similarly to make India a superpower, the top few 100 would be enough!! Even if you exclude the above mentioned list of people from the Indian population there are still more than a billion people left in India

Satish Krishna says:

great blog, very thouhgt provoking, thanks all for ur contribution. thanks thatskannada.com, through which i got link to this blog.
as some body mentioned about child and milk theory we cant still depend on this low end service based economy. need move forward.
After IT we went for ITES(SORT OF DOWN GRADING, FAIR ENOUGH) we shall try moving upwards.
Is it cheap labour or weak currency which made US superpower or is it the same thing which made other euro countries inspite of being completely ravaged 2 nd world war(infact british economy was so weak b”"cos war they quit us, this was one of the main reasons we got(should i say they quit) indepedence, amongst all other struggles for independence.
It is their managerial skills, ability to extract best from the great talent pool from 3rd world countries,and marketing those products devoloped by these so called talents and getting whatever price they want.
Nothing is a rocket science(those of u know who are there in these countries, about their science and maths abilities)
I work in one of these EU countries I wonder how they have achieved this devoloped country status inspite of having so much of ageold world war survivers,who work less than 40 hrs(now it is 37.5 hrs, their current target is to get it 35hrs week) a week, take off sick at their whimsies. Inspite all these things they are growing at 3% of their GDP(which is really fantastic for already devoloped economy).
If we are wondered about this we need to start observing structure of their economy, business strategies, psychological manipulations and host of other things. so that we can put stuctural and organisational changes in most of our institutions(certainly no change is needed in our institution of marriege or family value system)
We shall not blame it on corruption, though it is an hinderence, It is even higher in these countries, big economy=big money=big social problems=big corruption. better not talk about it.

coming to the point. as one of respondents pointed very fast change is always dangerous, we had better be slow.
As they say u can prediict hollywood not wall street. same applies to economics. It does not need great economic thoerist but a practical(simple) economists(see how our ullu(lullu) turned our railways in to productive one, where so many decent,educated railway ministers like T M A Pai, Dasappa and Kengal Hanumantaiah (though, i acept that, all these were very old timers) failed.

But we cant agree to this self proclaimed genieuses of IT industries to weaken our currency only for their profits sake.

Innovative People always grow out of challenges. so is greatest(maximum benefits) achievements are the product of great challenges. go ahead and do it.

Last but not the least, we are talking abt economy, innovations and infrastucture, we shall not forget investment in our social infrastucture, b”"cos the benefits outwiegh investments( eg. we need study west europian economies in the past 50 years, inspite of their laid back and limited working hrs and to make matters worse their debts incurred because of wars, they are still sustaining, investment in health, envoron ment, social securities(though it is being misused to the core now a days) are few of the reasons they are still sustaining).

Gurudev says:

ursri
I completely agree with you.. 100% with your thoughts
A good family background is very essential for social health..

A child brought up in a joint family thinks beyond him/her for the benefit of the entire family and on similar lines for the good of the entire society
A child brought up in a small family usually ends up being self centred, egoistic.. thinking only for one’s own good..
Which is why in villages of India we can see how the whole village knows each other.. helps each other etc..
where as in the cities, people dont even know their neighbours!!

ursri says:

It is a wonderful experience to read through the thread. It is amazing that I am also part of such thinking.

Mr. Gurudev, the article is thought provoking. It is been circulated even in our office itseems. I came to know about the link on reading thatskannada.oneindia.com article.

I am in IT field from past 11 yrs. I have seen the family values deteriorating and current generation hardly has anything to pass on to next generation except money. So the money has become the back bone of life. It is essential but it shouldn’t be made vital element for living and winning. Dr. Abdul Kalam thinks big but never looks for his personal financial achievement if I am correct. Can we put a bench mark to our needs? Can we draw line and define what happiness is? This may answer for our apprehension what if we loose job/we are paid less?

Well, it is also mentioned about social and economical conditions to build stronger India. People may think I am of old school of thought. But I strongly believe in many of the systems like A) Joint family-for financial, emotional and moral strength and unity also a great shock obsorbers during adversities. B)varnashrama – for equal job/labour opportunity, curb imbalance due to competitions(definitely I do not support dominance of any caste) etc…

These all combined together right from a family base contributed to society’s strength in turn state’s or country’s.

It is my opportunity and my passion to learn Sanskrit – led to know from my teacher about city/town building guidelines in Vedic period. Every child of any caste trained 64 arts which includes self defence, law etc.. but they were trained by their family on their specialization. This system made India self sustained and sufficient country. That time no Europe, no US existed for our economy. Now we need to adopt these guidelines for the apply as per current situation to become self sustained and also be part of world growth.

Even Gandhiji taught us how to be self sustained eg: cloth weaving, simple living.
Interesting URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India

Praveen Madan says:

Hi
One more thing I would like to add — I have studied in US for my Masters and I was amazed to see amount of money companies put in for research in various universities and that’s why we had huge labs all over — example –I think most of the universities here have nanotech labs and m not sure most of the engineers back in India know about this upcoming technology at all — so the point is right now Indian companies are just minting money on “”BODY SHOPPING”" — r they ready to put money in vaious technical universities for the research students to develop newer technologies?? or they just wanna earn in short span and not invest for the future?
I think most of the guys in this blog are in IT field so ask your company what have they done in this regards? let us all know how big is thier investment?
Guys I am not in IT at all but still I am concerned.

Regards
Praveen

Gurudev says:

Thanks a lot for pointing out this Chinmay..
I also saw your comment there.. but then after few minutes I saw that even your comment had been deleted…
I was not able to comment either..
These are the heights..

The least I would have expected was a link back from the site…

I have sent a mail to the oneindia.in team
Hope they will take action and respond on this..

Gurudev says:

A really wonderful link Ram.. Thanks a lot for that!

Gurudev says:

Shrikant

If rupee becomes stronger and if we earn less, how does it matter as long as we have inflation under control.. for that less money you can buy the same things that you bought earlier for more money when rupee was weak.. because now rupeee will be strong

Yes, nobody is saying we should simply appreciate rupee and make it strong or weak.. in fact the rupee slowly becoming strong is a natural byproduct of our growing economy and we should now change direction away from low cost service oriented approach and should instead move towards innovative approaches for our economy which will remove our dependency on a weak rupee for exports…

Gurudev says:

Ram

Thanks a lot for letting me know about this

Divya says:

Hi Gurudev,

I totally agree with your thoughts..Its time we move ahead and start concentrating on product development and manufacturing sector. A country’s growth can never rely on it ‘sweak currency value..its not meant to last!! It s time we Indians realise it.. We have enough Indian brains, as of today we dont have such big opportunities to showcase our innovative talents..To do the established Indian companies should begin to come out from their comfort zone of service and take risk by investing in product development ..take calculated risk and truly provide India the edge to perform and innovate along with strengthening rupee value.. A well written blog !! Its disappointing to see Indians feel bad about their strengthin currency ..Hope we move away from the myth and realize our dream for developed Nation..

Gurudev says:

Nishant,

Really liked your thoughts .. the key to success is to first think and dream big as Kalam said…

NISHANT says:

Nice Article Really, Wanna add some thing

Stronger Rupee: Means

More foreign acquisition by INDIAN Inc.
Cheap foreign university education (technical, doctorate, managerial etc.)
Cheap imported good quality foreign goods.
Cheap health care ( as we depends upon US manufacture technology ,drugs and machineries) for some deathly ailments.
And as TAJMAHAL is now among 7 wonders so lot of foreign tourist to visit and have to purchase now relatively expensive INDIAN goods and use INDIAN costly INDIAN catering so will develop these sector with a fast rate.

Man main vijay viswaas liye
Hum sagar-math kar aayenge
Hum viswa Bharan-poshan karke
Hum punah BHARAT kehlayenge.