The Great Indian Dream – 2020

Here is an initial list of all those things that ought to be there in a super power India. Please comment on things that you feel should be added or modified. I will also update the list as and when something new flashes in my mind. We the youth of this country shall execute this project professionally.

These are the project requirements. We shall continue to add on to the requirements till the first quarter of 2008. Then the next step would be to do a feasibility analysis of these requirements. Let us wish ourselves all the best.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavanthu – May the entire humanity prosper.

Dream India 2020 – Initial Requirements

Education:

• Every child in the country will get a compulsory free and quality primary education (education, not literacy)
• No reservations in the education system. Since primary education is free, any child irrespective of caste or financial background will be competitive enough to contest the seats for higher education. See Simple Question – No Answer and also Who is an OBC?
• The education system will highlight the country’s achievements both modern and ancient. All discrepancies in the current education system will be corrected including wrongly attributing many of the ancient Indian discoveries and inventions to western scientists (ex: Pythagorean theorem, calculus, etc)
• The education system will create a sense of pride about the nation in the minds of the students.
• History will be presented as it is. The students will have access to a variety of sources of history rather to that of a particular ideology. See Myth About British Creating India and The Myth of Aryan Invasion Theory and also East or West – India is the Best
• All well performing students will get educational loans which they can repay back after they get a job. The loans could be used to afford any item/expenditure related to education outside the free domain like for instance a musical instrument, scientific instruments, etc.
• There wont be ranking system as this will make a person more selfish and ego oriented, instead there will be a grade system. Just because a student scores 100% in an examination doesn’t mean that he is superior in that subject than all others who scored 90, 95 etc. So there will be a grade system like Grade A = 80% and above, Grade B=60-80% etc. Even competitive examinations will only publish a list like top 100 scorers, there wont be first rank, second rank etc. The education system has to make a student social centric not self centric.
• Child labor is banned and will be a strictly punishable offense. Since employment is guaranteed to parents there should be no need for any child labor. However innovation and entrepreneurship at a very young age will be encouraged.
• Receiving of donations by educational institutions from the parents of students will be banned and any such act if proved will invalidate the license of the institution, and the concerned personnel will be jailed.

Employment:

• No reservation in the employment sector. Employment should be based only on capability and merit. Only the deserved will be employed in that sector. See Reservation in Private Sector and Nehru on Reservations
• No deserving candidate will be denied an employment. Employment will be a basic fundamental right. See Reverse Discrimination
• The gap between the highest paid and least paid jobs will be minimal so that the youth of the country can opt for a job which they have a true passion for ( and not for a job which pays more and which is not their passion)
• Unemployment will not be there. Based on a candidate’s profile he/she will be offered with available list of employment opportunities to attempt for. If a person is not clearing any of the interviews in private sector and public sector, then government will provide him other set of jobs for which no interview is required. Of course, these jobs will be the least paid, yet adequately paid ones in the society.

Health:

• There will be one doctor for every 500 people
• Health Insurance is free for any and every type of ailment
• Bio-Emergency response systems will be alert, active and functioning in identifying, containing, controlling and destroying any epidemics, new viruses, etc
• While health insurance is free and covered by the tax a person pays, there will be a additional insurance fee payable for smokers and alcoholics for ailments related to smoking and alcoholism.
• Smoking in public places will be banned
• There will be well maintained public toilet places all over the country
• Yoga classes will be there in all schools.

Agriculture:

• All farmers and crops will be protected by agricultural insurance
• Farming of Genetically modified crops will be banned
• Farmers will get latest technological advises and machineries to grow natural pesticide free healthy food crops. See An Innovative Farmer and Genetically Modified? No Thanks!
• Farming will be one of the self employments providing great returns to the farmer
• The country’s farming land area will be calculated as per population growth statistics and it will be illegal to convert agricultural land for any other purpose.
• Licenses of retail giants will be canceled if they fail to pay the minimum guaranteed price for farmers who grow crops in agreement with retail giants. The agreements have to be crystal clear about the price the retail giants would offer per unit for the crop grown.
• Local water reservoirs will be planned maintained all over the country near agricultural zones with the aim of providing water throughout the year for agricultural purposes. Adequate technologies will be implemented that minimize wastage of water.

Defense:

• Strongest military in the world
• All defense material are indigenously manufactured
• NCC and NSS will be greatly encouraged at all levels in the schools/colleges

Judiciary

• No general public case will be delayed by more than a few months
• Police forces will be an independent system free of any political influence. Police will concentrate on protecting the general public than blocking the traffic to make way for the vehicles of ministers and political rallies.
• Since all the youth are employed, crime rate will be very minimal zero in the country.
• It will be illegal for police to use violence on general public, except in cases of riots. It will be mandatory for the police to record all their actions in public on video cameras fitted to their vehicles (like in US) and any violent behavior by the police personnel might even lead to a termination of their service after three warnings. Police are only to catch the culprits and investigate, not to punish. Punishment will be decided by the courts.
• All kinds of violent interrogation of the accused will be banned. Proper scientific methodologies will be made available to make the accused speak the truth. (Like the one that was used on Telgi)

Economy:

• Tax on income will be 30% but this will guarantee free medical care, health insurance, accident insurance, quality motorable roads, free telephone calls within the country, free broadband, free primary education, free minimum electricity, protection of heritage sites, maintenance of gardens, playgrounds, public libraries etc.
• The country will have a self sufficient economy independent of events in foreign economies, and the heart of the economy will rely on the huge internal market of over a billion Indians forming over 1/6 of humanity. So any external market fluctuations in other countries will have negligible impact on Indian economy. See Tiger Vs Panda
• There will be more exports than imports and due to a strong currency exports will be less profitable than selling the products within India itself. In other words, all quality products manufactured will have the local market as their preferred destination and only excess production will be exported. See Stronger Rupee = Stronger India
• Paper money will be slowly phased out completely and all transactions will be additions and subtractions in the databases of banks achieved via electronic cards.
• There will be a cap put on money being minted by banks through credit cards by misleading the customers.
• There will be a regulatory committee which will cancel any offerings. plans or schemes by banks and institutions that have complicated terminologies and conditions with the aim of misguiding customers.

General Public

• Every citizen will have a national ID card and this will serve as an all in one card. This will be the PAN card, Driving license, Credit/Debit history, voter ID card, any criminal history, ration card etc. This will be available for every person since birth.
• It is mandatory for every company to provide a two week annual leave for its employees for vacation and LTA or leave travel allowance will be directly linked to this.
• There will be a mandatory playground for every school
• There will be a mandatory public library of latest and up to date digital books
• There will be a lush green garden in every locality.
• Every police station area will have a helicopter ambulances to airlift and shift people in case of emergencies.
• No public buildings will be allowed to be constructed without adequate emergency exit systems and emergency response systems in place.
• There wont be any beggars in the country.
• People can walk out of their houses without locking their homes as there will be no thieves in the society. When all are employed and well paid, why steal?

Nature

• 30% of the land area will be dedicated to natural and protected forests
• Animal poaching and possession of poached animal parts will invite severe punishment.
• Pollution will be reduced to almost zero as country will be running on non polluting renewable energy. Vehicles wont emit any polluting gases. Petrol pumps will be replaced by electric pumps where vehicles simply replace/recharge their batteries and move on. All thermo electric plants will be phased out. See American Living Standards for India and Little drops of water
• Zoos will be discouraged and phased out to prevent cruelty towards animals and instead national parks and wild life parks will be maintained.
• Dedicated organizations would be working to protect and increase the population of species on the verge of extinction.
• Every city will have huge artificial lakes that are well maintained.
• Cruelty to animals in public will be a punishable offense. (Preferably all kinds of killing of animals in the name of religious offerings would be banned, and if banned it would apply to all religions).
• All industries will be banned from sending any waste outlet into water sources. Any recycled water from the industries has to be used back or stored separately and in no way will be allowed to contaminate water systems like rivers and lakes.
• Rain water harvesting systems will be set up all over the country and deep borewells will be banned except in exceptional situations
• It will be mandatory for every house owner and building owner to leave a minimum area to grow plants and trees.
• Every road will have trees which contribute great amounts of oxygen to the nature on either side, like Banyan trees. And these will be maintained by the forest departments.
• Any cutting down of a part of tree or a complete tree (except in exceptional circumstances) will be a severely punishable offense.
• Emergency response systems for natural disasters will be maintained all over the country with a quick deployment time.
• Disaster Management and quick response teams always on high alert with minimal reach time spread all over the country.
• Specialized disaster management teams for natural disaster prone sites like annual flooding sites, etc.

Tourism

• The campaign Incredible India will be more intensified to promoted tourist destinations.
• Major tourist attractions in the country will be protected and it will be ensured that no alternative industries come up in these places that will destroy/harm tourism and monuments.
• A tourism map of the country will be made available with diverse destinations mapped out like the the lush green forests of north east, western ghats,etc, the snow filled regions of Kashmir, Himachal, etc the sand dunes and the deserts of Rajasthan, river rafting in the wild north Indian rivers, hill stations of Shimla, Darjeeling, Kulu, Manali, Ooty etc, Heritage sites like Puri, Varanani, Kashi, Konark, Ajanta, Ellora, etc, Cultural destinations like Local folk lore, ayurvedic herbal massage in Kerala, etc westernised destinations like Goa, Spiritual destinations, Architectural wonders like Brihadeshwara temple, Jaswant Thada, Taj Mahal, Shravanabelagola, Belur, Halebid, Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, water based tourism like Alleppey in Kerala, House boats of Kashmir etc
• The fee for foreign tourists will be the same as that for Indian tourists and will be charged only in terms of Indian currency
• Major projects will be undertaken all over the country to clean polluted lakes and rivers and all industrial wastes will be banned from entering these water sources.

Science and Technology:

• Students will be encouraged more towards basic science than at technological implementations
• Students will be encouraged to submit research papers right from primary school level
• Education will be more practical oriented and every school will have a science and technology lab
• A properly funded organization governed by industry professionals will assist in bringing new technological innovations and inventions by young students and scientists to production on an industrial scale.

Communication:

• There will be a very small monthly premium for all land line and mobile telephones and all calls across the country will be free. The low cost communication infrastructure will be set up using VOIP (voice over IP). Only international calls will be charged.
• High speed broad band (minimum 100 Mbps) will be available all over the country with 99.9% uptime. Broad band connection will be a default part of the telephone package.

Infrastructure:

• National highways connect all major cities across the country and have a minimum of four lane either side and are motorable at high speeds.
• Capital cities of all the states are connected by air
• Air travel within the country is cheap.
• All district centers within a state are connected by air from the capital of the state
• The entire country is connected by a high speed rail network.
• There are high speed tube trains in every city
• Local bus and tube train travel can be afforded by cheap monthly pass systems.
• Travel all over the country is free for students in buses and trains.
• Travel all over the country is free for retired personnel by bus, air and trains.
• The country will be independent of petroleum resources for power generation and instead will have a diverse localized and central set of power generation options to resolve the energy needs of the country. The removal of dependency on petroleum imports will save a staggering amount of the country’s external spendings.
• Garbage collection and disposal systems with proper scientific separation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste including recycling and toxic management.

Sports:

• There will be an independent sports organization that will identify sports talents in various fields and provide them with adequate training with proper exposure to international sports rules and laws.
• There will be a structured approach to identify talents from their local areas and bring them to the national level, based on systematic annual competitions at school and college levels in all fields of sports. The hype on just one game, like that on cricket will be removed.
• The primary responsibility of the national sports development authority will be to identify, train and empower talents with international level of coaching with an aim of achieving highest medals tally in international sports events like world cups, Asian games, common wealth games and Olympics.

Culture:

• There will be a complete listing of all the cultural heritage sites of India.
• All cultural heritage sites of the country will be well preserved. See A Blunder called Sethusamudram
• Archaeological survey and Research organizations will be conducting heavy research into the country’s past, unearthing heritage sites, dating ancient events etc
• Every school will also have lessons on various art forms for students. Indian dance forms, ancient Indian martial arts, painting, music, etc will be the available options for students.
• There will be a compulsory annual cultural educational tour in every school to at least one of the cultural sites listed by the government.

Media and Journalism

• Sting journalism and sting operations are legal as long as they deal with public interests. So a journalist can pose as a person giving bribe to get his work done and expose the politician/administrator caught on camera accepting bribe. But a journalist cannot intervene into the private life of people, as this will leave a bad taste on the society and is also a violation of individual privacy.
• General public have all the right to have access to all kinds of news , views and debates. Media will be free and will continue to function as an independent fourth pillar of the democracy.
• However there will be an independent organization which will monitor the non-news content like television serials, commercials, etc for obscene content, negative content, anti-national content, misleading information etc

Administration:

• No political party whose ideology is based on a religion will be allowed.
• No political party whose ideology is anti-democratic will be allowed.
• No person convicted of murder, attempt to murder, rape, corruption, fraud, poaching, misuse of public office will be allowed to stand for an election
• If a person is convicted of any of the above charges while holding a public office, he/she will automatically be disqualified from continuing in office.
• If in an election, people of a constituency cast majority negative votes (i.e vote against all candidates in the list), then there will be a re-election in the constituency and none of the existing candidates will be allowed to contest in the re-election.
• During every election, the people will also vote for the performance of their current sitting representative and if more than 75% of the votes say that their representative has not met their expectations during his tenure, then he will be sent to jail for the next 5 years and cannot contest an election during those 5 years.
• Government will not favor any religion nor will fund any religious activities.
• Public will have the right to recall their representative by filing a petition with the election commission, if they feel that the representative is under performing.
• States will have more power in terms of local policy making which do not come under national interests like defense, foreign policy etc. This will ensure that well performing states do not have to take the burden of under performing states.
• All candidates contesting for an election HAVE to declare their assets in detail along with their nomination papers and any discrepancy found beyond a minimum percentage will automatically invalidate the candidate’s election, and also will invite legal action which includes jail. Throughout his/her tenure in the office, elected representatives will have to annually update their assets information (along with the source of income) and this will be available to the general public online. Election commission will be monitoring and verifying the representative’s asset claims.

Executive

• Bureaucracy will be independent of the political system and will have greater freedom and its accountability will be maintained by the judicial system via self observed and public interest litigations.
• Election Commission, Intelligence agencies, Reserve Bank, Research Organizations, Police forces, etc will be politically independent systems.
• Religion/caste will be a private affair of a person and the government will have nothing to do with it. Government will not ask about the caste and religion of any person in any certificate except for the census. No employment forms/education forms etc will ask for the cast or religious identity of a person, nor any certificates will mention it.
• Election commission will have the rights to cancel the candidature of a contestant if he/she makes speeches (and asks for votes) referring to any particular caste/religion.
• All interaction channels for the general public with the executive, judiciary and administration will be made available online via secure media to prevent corruption and red tapism.
• Right to Information Act will be further extended to include provision for the general public to keep a check on the activities of their elected representatives.