Prioritization: need of the hour

Independence Day this year was celebrated at TERI with the usual solemnity and festivities of various kinds. This is one day in the year when TERI staff and their families, including children, get together not only to salute the national flag but to celebrate an event that most Indians appear to have forgotten the significance of. This is also one occasion when the country needs to count its assets and achievements, and lift the vision of this society towards horizons, which beckon India to keep its second tryst with destiny. Pandit Nehru, the country?s first Prime Minister, rightly invoked the image of the country?s tryst with destiny when independence was granted, but a much bigger expectation now lies in attaining economic freedom from the problems that have afflicted Indian society and particularly the poor for so long. The intolerance of current trends has found protest and expression at the international level, but it would be naive to believe that we at the national level would remain insulated to the anger that widespread poverty is likely to foster in the years ahead. The world today, and India in particular, has a unique opportunity to make a sharp departure from past practice and begin creating infrastructure in rural areas that could provide the poorest of the poor with opportunities for development. If the right policies and instruments are put in place, then there is no reason why the capital investments required in urban areas cannot be met through the private sector. With proper economies in current patterns of government expenditure, it should be possible to divert adequate resources into rural areas, so that the poor in these areas are able to attain connectivity and access to services and know-how that those in urban areas have become accustomed to. After 54 years of independence, the time is now over for debates and doubts, and it now becomes necessary to develop action by which some changes in government priorities can be instituted urgently.