What does it mean when we want India to become a developed country? We want the living standards of all Indians to be equivalent (at least) to that of other developed nations. Let us consider USA as a standard to improvise the living standards of Indians. When I say considering USA as a standard, I mean elevating the living standards of Indians to that of american standard.
The measure of living standard of a society is its energy consumption. The more energy available to consume the higher will be the living standards. For instance, if there is not enough electricity available even to light a bulb every night, then what is the use of having ceiling fans or televisions in the house? But if adequate energy is available then we can even go for luxuries like air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.
Hence to elevate the living standards of Indians we need adequate supply of energy. Now since we have taken America as our standard for living, let us see what the equation turns out to be.
United States of America consumes half of the world’s energy resources. Population of this country is 1/16 of world population.
Population of India is 1/6 of world population. By simple mathematics we can see that if all Indians have to live the standards of Americans then India alone needs nearly one and a half times the energy consumed by the whole world today!!!
Looking at the practicality of the problem, how do you think we can generate so much of energy at affordable rates and without causing any pollution. (We better forget any polluting energy sources rather than become a developed country as otherwise it simply means accelerating the deterioration of the environment finally making life uninhabitable on this planet).
Also note the practical time schedule required to develop technology that can develop this amount of energy along side considering the population increase in India during that period.
Note that in this blog I have concentrated only on production of adequate energy. But what is also required to improve the living standards of our people is to make the energy affordable. If you make practically infinite petrol resources available but increase the price of petrol to 500 Rupees, I don’t think there will be any buyers.
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Hello Guru I have recently discover your site and would like to comment on this article. Begging is an occupation for some, for others a short time solution. That is why it is difficult to know the difference between the two, who are you helping and who are you keeping in a situation (the so called parasites). Giving charity is good at times but instead of giving someone a few fishes which will still his hunger for a few days it is much better to teach him how to fish, he can then feed himself on the long term.
Things needed to improve living situations of a community are access to education, water, electricity, health facilities, communication and transportation.
A priority is adequate housing for the poor, destroy all the shacks and build affordable houses, with electricity and water, compulsory education (free of course) a basis monthly income so that everyone can feed, house and clothe him/herself. Registration of every citizen whereby everyone pays tax according to his/ her income. A community bank for small business projects where everyone can borrow a loan at minimum interest rate. This way you take not only the person out of the slums but the slums out of the person.
What is needed is governmental input but mostly input from those in a position who can help relieve the immense poverty that faces so many communities in India today. The fatalistic approach that so many poor have towards life must be changed/ corrected. They can work off karma also in a better living situation, there is no need to be dirt poor to do so.
Few quick points..
Looking at the pattern of your replies it looks as if you are just trying to put forth your misinterpretations without even trying to understand what I have said in simple english..
Go through this link http://www.nird.org.in/clic/wimp.html and then read further for my last comments on this subject.
again let me reiterate.. I never said dont help those in immediate need of help.. one has to do that.. help others as much as possible.. in all ways by all means.. but while offering monetary help.. just think..
offering 100 Rs to 10 People who spend it for next one week or so for their basic needs.. or giving same 1000 Rs to one single person and making him start a small business thereby helping him forever… and once he is self suffiicient, he can even help your cause of helping the other 9 so on and so forth..
You still have not answered my basic question.. for how long will you keep donating and for how many people can you keep doing this? Look at the statistics.. only 1.2% are tax payers in this country.. even if you take it to a staggering increase till 5%.. about other 20% lead a average good life.. but what about rest 75%?? can they or will they be
donated enough money by other 25% to lead a normal quality life? And
if yes then for how long? Look at how many people are dying just
because of cold in North India?? Do you think providing food or
blankets is a solution to their problem?? No, instead we need to
provide them with a proper job so that they can rent a descent enough house to live in.. Instead, can you say that you will provide them with a house as well?? Which is better and feasible? Job or house?
not only that, look at the exponential results of making one self sufficient.. he also can join you later and help much more people.. so the number of people ready to help itself will increase making people switch sides from the 75% of those in need I spoke about to the other 25% who can help those in need… can just giving money to people for food cause this to happen?
You havent even answered my basic questions asked in my previous
posts.. we need long term solutions not short term dontaions which keep people happy only for next n days till the money received lasts.. and long term solutions lie in creating more employment.. look at how even
women in poverty struck rural areas have started small scale industries and are providing employment to other men and women in their villages..
While I have hundreds of examples.. I will just give you one such..
http://www.nird.org.in/clic/wimp.html
Go through the success story of sultanpur in the above link..Even though once a poverty hit place.. today there is no need for anybody to go there and give donations.. in fact they have already moved from the 75% category of Indian population to 20% category. THEY ARE STANDING ON THEIR OWN LEGS.. and the capital required to achieve all this was not more than a few hundreds.. and these women are confident women today..
thats what we need to make India developed..
My idea of developing India is more of enabling and facilitating people to help themselves than just helping them…
If you still feel otherwise.. I am afraid we differ strongly on this
and there is no point debating further on this..
Still, I like criticism (constructive please), and you are welcome to read and comment on my views in the blog.
Finally, I never respond to any personal allegations :-)
As you have raised Some controversial statements, let me make myself understand with each & every sentence of yours, so that i don’t end up with something which will contradict my own ideas and views expressed before in this blog and also not getting carried away with the satisfaction i get out of my writings.
MR Gurudev, Young Indian, there are several ways of helping the so called underpriveleged or downtrodden
1. Talk Superficially about ways of improving people’s life and take the credit of being very Noble and thoughtful.
2. Write articles, direct documentaries and take the credit by bagging the awards.
3. Impress a group by intiating such conversation and expressing such ideas & views and raise the opinon & impression about yourself.
4. Create communities and drive them to help the people without any expectations out of it.
5. Proclaim that you are very concerned about the society and at the same time due to lack of time and resources, procrastinate the idea and wait for the so called Right time.
6. Else try to help in the smallest possible way you can.
If according to you Charity creates Parasites then i would say creating Parasites is better than giving birth to devils for the society. I feel
By not giving charity as it sucks the society and procrastinating the idea of providing the support and platform to make them self sufficient due to lack of time and resources , Expecting some one else to drive it but not me attitude , delegating this responsibility to probably an angel from the seventh sky or , waiting for a miracle to happen which will enlighten these people and drive them to take the decision of “”Standing On their Own Legs””, and blocking all the means and source for them. We forget the basic fact that food is important for survival (than waiting for any revolution, or an idea of eradication) and we force them to do henious crimes. And why not Instead of being a parasite and sucking the blood let them be self sufficient Devils and splash out the blood. Dear young boy do you think this would be better than not giving charity (oh forgot not charity according to you creating parasites..).
And let me clearly tell you i fall into this category of
Great Talkers Are Little Doers. So if you are really serious about the ideas projected by you then let me sincerely ask apology for juding you wrongly. I appreciate and expect you to Give the devil his due and correct me if i am wrong as No one is perfect.
Kind request not to be offended, and sorry for posting comments in your blog. I will not do this if you find it very de-motivating or contradictory to your thoughts.
I seriously dont know whether you are unable to understand what I say or are deliberately misinterpreting it.
When you say charity, I didnt mean dont help those in needy.. just dont keep helping them forever and make them dependent on ppl like you.. instead help them only once in such a way so taht they dont have to come to you or to anybody for similar help in the future.. make them stand on their own legs…
Think of human psychology also while donating.. if ppl start feeling taht there are others who always keep helping them, dont you think atleast a fraction of them will become dependants on it..
Think practically, how many instances haven’t you seen in bus stations and railway stations where in people come and ask you that they have lost all their money and need money to go back home.. do you know that 99% of them are frauds and they know for sure that atleast one in hundred will believe their story and will help them.. once when a person asked me this kind of help I offered to buy tickets for him and he just refused and left!!!
Do you knwo about the scandal that was exposed in bangalore about a year back where mafia hired babies from slums on rent and sent with women beggares to gain sympathy and so money!!
Do you know about taht class of people in slum who have been totally converted into parasites by this kind of charity acts.. they CONTINUE TO live in slums, dependent on donations and so called charity.. as political votebanks.. not bothered about achievements in life.. ruled by election money, liquor adn what not.. always hired by political parties and trade unions to make their rallies and meetings a great success without even the slightest ideological knowledge of what they are doing??
Helping somebody is totally different from giving monetary help for free.. You didnt asnwer my earlier question, for how long will you donate and for how many people unless and until you are having some infinite source of black money. Instead, if you can recycle the same money cant you help more and more people even with limited resources?? Also, cant those people who became self suficient using your initial capital help others and make them self sufficient so on and so forth??
If you still feel I am wrong, please answer my one single question in your next reply:
What is your problem if the person who has received a monetary help from you becomes self sufficient using your money as a capital and then now that he is standing on his own legs, returns back your money????? Does it hurt your ego???? What is wrong in taking back that money? Dont you want him to be released from the bonds of your CHARITY???
Think well before anwering in haste… Please try to understand what I mean..
Think practically.. To build a strong nation we dont need to have two classes of people, the donators and the beneficiaries.. we need a single class of equal partners who together go for the heights…
You are not donating because the other person does not have money, but because the other person has been deprived of an opportunity to earn money.. and all you have to do is give that opportunity and he will earn money on his own.. you dont have to DONATE FOR FREE..
Give him life time opportunities, not short time relief from his immediate problems.. thats what will make India a land of opportunities like how America is today..
And finally about finding faults.. If you dont find faults in the system how will you identify the scope for improvement?? Do you think the system is fault free or do you think we shouldn’t find faults and just keep blindly praising??? Fault finding is different from blaming.. blaming is escapism and talking as if society is some entity of which we are only observers.. where as my attempt here is to find loopholes in the system and try to address them as a participant, not blame the rest of the world and go have a nice sleep..
If you say I shouldnt see loopholes in the system, then I better close this blog and all related attempts and mind my own business.. BUT I WONT DO THAT
If you still have doubts, I am always open for discussion and I am here to either convince you (and all other Indians) with what I know and plan to do or to get convinced by you and others if I am wrong.. but looks like there are lots of things or probably misinterpretations due to my language limitations.. plz come online on yahoo, my id is itzguru, or mail me at itzguru@gmail.com so that either I correct myself or I will convince you.
Everything has two sides, its your perception what makes the things the way it appears to you. Unfortunately most of us have more affinity towards the darker side. We get immense pleasure in higlighting and commenting on evil things, the other side (Sad to refer good part as other side, this itself is a best example) never intrests us.
Everyone Can Find Fault, few can do better.
We never try to make it better for others, we are never bothered to recitfy their mistakes. We talk about the mistake but none suggests a solution & come forward to eradicate it and see to that it is not repeated again. Anyways why we have to do this when its the best way of pleasing our souls.
And I never knew that Charity creates inferiority complex, i really thank this society for making me understand that the person who helps other is superior & who seeks it is inferior.
Now this adage Charity Begins At Home which i have to redefine as
A person’s first obligation should be to help the member of his own family (Make Him Parasite) before he can begin thinking of talking about helping others ( Before Making Others Parasites).
What I fail to understand here is how does I/any person get popularity/fame in this. If every person directly contacts the beneficiary how does it bring fame to me??
Any way, again I appeal to you and every other Indian, stop doing charity.. along side the non sensical reservation system, charity is another cause which has made our society feel inferior.
I dont want any Indian to take money or whatever for free. Nothing comes for free in this world. There should not be ANY beggars in India.
If a person wants to start a business of his own, support him financially with the condition that he has to pay it back. NO CHARITY PLEASE. This not only gives him a responsibility but also frees him for the rest of his life that somebody DONATED him money to start off in life.
The major problem with the society today is the inferiority complex.. and of course corruption.. how much of the actual money dontated for charity reaches the needy?? and what percentage of money that goes into charity is really white money??
You said that “”i think it would have been more noble if there were no returns expected””, I didnt ask you to make profit out of it nor is it a return on investment. The moment you say that you are giving it as a charity, the receiving person takes the money for granted (however poor he might be), since he is sure that there is no need for him to return it back to you, he just uses it not as a capital to come up in life but as salary for the next few days to fund his needs. But if you tell him that he has to use it as a capital he will have a greater sense of responsibility which finally results in not only him being self sufficient but also more confident in life. Else, once the money you donated is finished, he will end up looking for the next donator. Matters will be even worse if he is alcoholic and feels that he can make a life like this without having to work at all!!!
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN PRACTICAL LIFE AND I HAVE WITNESSED IT. PLEASE DONT MAKE INDIA FULL OF PARASITES BY DONATING FOR FREE. FOR HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU DONATE AND FOR HOW LONG AND WHAT IS THE PRODUCTIVITY, YOU KEEP DONATING AND THEY KEEP SPENDING WHERE IS THE PRODUCTIVITY?
In fact, I would further suggest that once you enable a person to become self sufficient and he returns the initial capital which you gave him, also appeal to him to help others in a similar manner as much as possible by him. I am sure he will reciprocate. This chain effect will greatly help in nation building.
Again I dont understand your statement as to how I will get fame by all this. But for the sake of India please dont donate for free (unless and until it is a calamity like tsunami or earth quake even in which case reach the needy directly, they also need to be given a feeling of comfort and assurance and confidence, not looking at them as if they are beggars and distributing blankets and food.. I have seen the quality and the way in which food was being supplied to tsunami victims).
I still remember that scene which I saw in Brigade Road in Bangalore when I was in my college. A beggar was running behind a foreigner who was having ice cream with his friend and the foreigner just threw the ice cream on the face of the beggar and the beggar happily continued to eat it!!!!
Just because you want to get that feeling of having done a great deed by donating money without expecting it back, dont screw up the nation. Instead make people confident and self sufficient.
In fact the best way of charity would be to provide education for a child who otherwise would end up in streets or as a child labor. In this case you dont have to ask for a return back of your cash.
If you have even more money, the best way is to start a quality educational institution for such children.
To summarize, serving the society is not by giving money or other things for free, you are just creating parasites by doing that and making things get even worse. Like how a section of our politicians want people to remain poor (in slums), ignorant and uninformed to serve as their votebanks.
Instead, serving society means creating more opportunities for people to become educated and employed without being dependent on others, In other words ensuring that the number of people who need charity becomes less and less and hopefully one day zero. NO MORE CHARITY PLEASE.
Very disappointed & disheartened to say that the title of this should be the “” Ambitious Individual’s Dream “” rather than “”Great Indian Dream””. Or is it by any chance the Indian here is referring to a particular individual’s desire for fame and success, if that is the case i am really sorry i have misinterpreted the notion.As the ideas here are more oriented on individual’s popularity and fame than with the real intent of serving the society.
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
Commenting on the great idea of Small Scale venture cap.., i think it would have been more noble if there were no returns expected. Comparing Small Scale…. to charity, the later is a great deed of a person who does it without any selfishness in it, not even return of investment.
Great Indian Dream is to make all world’s luxuries available to all Indians and make the best use of technology in the country. Every person should be able to afford the fruits of technological progress. After all, technology is practical science which improves our living standards.
Having said this, this blog is ONLY to create awareness as much as possible about the current affairs and current social state in the country.
Any person who wants to contribute to the Great Indian Dream has to identify the best way to do so based on his knowledge and should directly contact the beneficiary. He need not go way beyond for that. For instance he can pick up a orphan/poor child in his locality and support its education.
After looking at the scams that went into the money meant for tsunami victims and gujarat earthquake victims, the best way to help somebody is to direcly contact the beneficiary and also ensure that the money is serving its purpose. Dont rely on any intermediary (me or anybody else).
Also, dont offer money as if you are giving charity. I never give alms to anybody nor do I donate money to charities. If there is a youth who wants to start a small scale business give him interest free loan with a condition that he should pay it back once his business clicks. In other words, become a small scale venture capitalist. As far as possible make youth confident and self dependent.
Apologies for repetition, and i once again emphasize on building up dedicated communities
Lurging at the luxurious sedan, refraining myself due to Affordability, I see necessity as Person’s affordability to a luxury makes it a necessity for him.
Hence the necessity is for ….
Whatever either Mathematics or Automobiles, let me conveience myself with the facts presented by you. I could clearly see Luxury, Necessity & Affordability being highlighted here. Lurging the at luxurious car, refrain muself due to affordability, i see necessity as Person’s affordability to a luxury makes it a necessity for him.
Hence making everyone to buy a Mercedes is not the solution, neither forcing a blessed person to use some low end cars. The intermediate solution & focus should be to provide convenienece for those who are deprived of these.
As far as i know every individual will come forward to support these intiatives (Monetarily or Thoughtfully), however people do not have time or the energy levels to execute such activities.
Concluding it i would feel, we build up such communities who can dedicate their time and work towards the Great Indian Dream, taking the support of former.
The motto of this blog is achieving “”The Great Indian Dream”” and applies for all Indians, not just for IT profs.
In the blog “”American living standards for India”” I talked about the energy needs of this country to live at the standards of Americans and the mathematics was used for the entire population of India (which is 1/6 of world population), not just the IT part of India as you might have misinterpreted.
I am afraid, there is nothing called IT Savvy living standards. It is just about what a person can afford. If a farmer in a village has enough money, he will definitely buy a mercedes and have his house air conditioned.
That’s what I meant when I talked about social division in modern India in my jan 2nd blog. The disproportionate distribution of wealth between poor, middle class and rich has to be brought down to a healthy minimum level.
Today, what is considered to be a necessity in the developed nations is a luxury in countries like India. For India to raise to the level of west no person’s annual income should be way below the average per capita income of the nation and the average per capita income should be able to afford the living standards of a developed nation. Extremes like Bihar and Bangalore won’t help in building a developed society in India.
I understand the importance of awareness. And the medium which is employed is also perfect, in a short term there would be definitely a very good intelligence capital through this. However how is this going to propagate to every other Indian, in other words the motto of this blog “”Raising The Living Standards Of All Indians”” is targeting only IT Savvy Indian living standards. If this is the case i am sorry to say that its as same as saying Richer has to be always Rich And ..
Not to be mistaken or consider this as criticism to your noble thoughts, i am trying to get myself clear about the facts which i intend to be clarified.
As of now, this blog is a part of an information campaign. Being a blog, it is accessible only to those who use internet, majority of who are IT profs and represent a confident youth force. Most Indian IT profs today feel all is going well with India which is true only for few sectors. Even in IT we are facing issues like central govt trying to impose quota system in private sector!!
This blog intends to target internet savvy Indian youth and make them aware about the issues faced by India and try to get their inputs as well. If what you say becomes true, and this place becomes a favorite place for Indian Netizens to pass their free time I feel that will be a time well spent and would half serve the purpose of the blog.
Well I appreciate Your intiative and feel very proud that one of us has the intent and desire to help others and our country. However i need to understand how this platform which has been set is going to serve its purpose. As what i could see it becomes one more place where people project their ideas and a favorite place for Netizens to pass their free time.
Nuclear fusion technology has to be developed to meet our energy needs