Building bright future upon actualised synergies of present

The scale and speed with which India has managed to implement vaccination to combat covid pandemic, showcases unprecedented implementation skills. It clearly seems that India has seized upon the opportunity to see what it wants to learn and copy, and more importantly what it wanted to leap frog and skip. India has relied on both traditional form of innovation, finding new ideas to unsolved problems, as well as innovations towards efficiency, also termed as frugal innovations or workable solutions, enablers and solutions needing much lower resources and super cheap prices. These abilities are bound to put India on a virtuous cycle towards rapid development across sectors as vision of ‘Century India’ is realised. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, “INDIA@2047 would have evolved beyond imagination. Not only are things moving fast, but also the pace of this movement is much faster than ever before, which makes it very difficult to visualise the exact shape of India that would emerge 25 years from now.”

In this light, a three-day symposium has commenced from March 7 in Chennai under the theme ‘Imagining India at 2047 through Innovation.’ The symposium aimed to bring the government and the citizens together by the use of digital technology. It goes without a doubt that digital technology will pave the way for future innovations, furthering the development of any nation. The use of digital technology will also lead to next-generation reforms and innovations with policy objectives of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”, entailing Government process Re-Engineering, Universal access to e-services, excellence in digital initiatives at the district level and excellence in adopting emerging technologies. Around 200 participants are chosen for nucleus and cell teams composed of one lAS officer, a young faculty member and a young entrepreneur and they will sit together for discussions.

Under the overarching themes of ‘Research and Development,’ and ‘Innovation and Digital Governance,’ ten key areas are being explored, namely, Energy and Net Zero, Education, Health Care and Assistive Technologies, Water, Infrastructure and Communications, Transport and Mobility, Urbanization and Housing, Rural Development and Agriculture, Fintech and Inclusion, Information Security and Defence. These are clearly the core domains which require concerted efforts of academia, industry and bureaucracy to leap India into pole position.

Being Celebrated Internationally

Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi (Mother and motherland are even more important than getting two heavens, by doing good deeds). These are the ethos of the land which is known to have a long tradition of equal love, respect and care to feminism. The tide of time and onslaught of varying degrading ideals did harm the harmonic balance of Indian society too. Yet, as we celebrate International Women’s Day today, India indeed has undergone a rapid massive change where the status of women now stands more pedestaled in terms of entrepreneurship, working conditions, security, benefits, awareness and opportunities.

Recent years have seen launch of many helpline numbers to assist women, various schemes aimed at raising awareness, better social promotion, more jobs, improving sex ratio and education status, more participation in fields of business, finance, science, judiciary, and especially in politics and sports. Recalling the beginning of such a tidal change, ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ is the first scheme that comes to the mind, an empowering initiative through which India has been able to work towards eradication of female foeticide and make girls socially and financially self-reliant through proper education. Another unique initiative is ‘Mahila-E-Haat’, a bilingual online marketing platform, which helps aspiring women entrepreneurs, self-help group and NGOs to showcase their products to the world. In 2017, GoI launched Mahila Shakti Kendras which acts as an interface for rural women so that they can approach the government to avail their entitlements through training and capacity building.

‘One Stop Centre Scheme’, popularly known as ‘Sakhi’, had come into being in 2015 with the ‘Nirbhaya’ fund to provide shelter, police desk, legal, medical and counseling services to the victims of violence. The STEP programme (Support to Training and Employment Programme) is providing skills and competencies to women, leading to employability and assisting them in various sectors like agriculture, horticulture, handicraft, computer handlooms, tailoring, skilling like spoken English, IT- computer, travel-tourism, hospitality, etc. Several financial programmes have also been launched by the government for women’s financial empowerment. Women entrepreneurs are being encouraged to take up challenges, initiatives and explore various possibilities lying all around. These include Mudra Loan for Women, Annapurna Scheme, Stree Shakti Yojana, Dena Shakti Scheme, Bhartiya Mahila Bank Business Loan, Mahila Udyam Nidhi Yojana, Orient Mahila Vikas Yojana Scheme, Cent Kalyani Scheme, Udyogini Scheme among others. To empower women, Government of India has taken many other important measures which include Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban & Rural), the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Vyay Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) supporting women and girls to be socially secure, the initiatives like Samagra Shiksha, Scheme of National Overseas Scholarship, Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojna, Swacch Vidyalaya Mission to ensure that schools are girl-friendly especially for vulnerable sections of society and have adequate facilities in place to fulfill their special requirements.

Continuous encouragement being given to women, has resulted into countless women becoming parts of various sectors and services including defence. Women have also started dominating the corporate world enjoying all kinds of heights like CEO. Last year 2021, four women from India figured in Forbes list. Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, India stood at 37, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson, HCL Technologies ranked 52, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon was at 72, and Falguni Nayar Founder & CEO, Nykaa figured at 88 in the list. However, Indian origin Kamala Harris, US Vice-President figured second in this list of 100 most powerful women in the world.

Clearly, all women-centric programmes are meant to encourage their participation in all kinds of activities including formal economy. For mothers and sisters of India, International Women’s Day needs to be looked at as a challenge to strive and become tall personalities of hope, compassion and success. With their tremendous work done in this country and abroad, they need to break the stereotype of only a housewife and become International women.

Rescue & Relief by India for Indians Abroad

‘Operation Ganga’ is like the ‘Devi Shakti’ of ‘Vande Bharat’ acting as ‘Samudra Setu’ for ‘Raahat’ and ‘Maitri’.

About 16,000-strong Indian diaspora, mostly students, were left stranded in the war-torn Ukraine, when New Delhi launched yet another evacuation programme named ‘Operation Ganga’ to bring them home safely. As a result of the collective efforts, over 21,000 nationals have reportedly moved out of Ukraine and some sixteen and a half tons of material has been sent as relief. The Government also sent Union Ministers to the concerned countries as ‘India’s special envoys’ to assist the students with the evacuation process.

The extent to which India goes in order to evacuate people from foreign territories during deteriorating times and calamities is now being recognised globally too. Nepal Government reportedly reached out to the Government of India for the evacuation of its stranded nationals, to which the Indian government has responded positively. “We stand ready to help those from our neighbours and developing countries who are also stranded in Ukraine and may seek assistance. We also support all UN humanitarian efforts,” Indian envoy to UN TS Tirumurti had said earlier on February 28th at the UNSC meeting.

India had extended its help to the neighbouring state last year during the Afghanistan crisis, by facilitating the evacuation of Nepali nationals from the country. This promptness and sense of responsibility was reflected amid COVID crisis too, as India evacuated nationals of the Maldives, Nepal, and Bangladesh from China. All these instances are not accidental, but reflections of a country whose first instinct is based on its popular belief of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.

India carried out the evacuations from Afghanistan in 2021 under its rescue mission programme operation ‘Devi Shakti’, which translates as ‘Power of the Goddess’. Reportedly, around 800 nationals belonging to both India and other countries were evacuated under the operation. Earlier, On 7th May 2020, Indian government had launched ‘Operation Vande Bharat’ to bring back Indians stranded in different countries in a Covid-19 pandemic-hit world. This operation saw over 2.17 lakh flights that brought back over 1.83 crore passengers to the country by October 2021. Government of India launched yet another operation i.e. Op. Samudra Setu, An extension of Vande Bharat mission, this was a naval operation that brought back over 3,000 stranded Indian citizen to their homeland during the pandemic. INS Jalashwa, Airavat, Shardul and Magar (Landing Ship Tanks) participated in this operation which lasted more than 55 days and involved traversing more than 23,000 km by sea. Back in 2015, India had also launched ‘Operation Raahat’, under which India had evacuated nearly 5,600 people from Yemen. Operation Maitri was launched in the same year as a joint relief and rescue operation by the Indian government and the Indian Armed Forces in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake. This joint Army-Air Force operation brought over 5,000 Indians back from Nepal by Air Force and civilian planes. The Indian army had also successfully evacuated 170 foreign nationals from the US, the UK, Russia and Germany.

As world order continues to get deeper into complex situations from pandemic to outright nuclear threats, India is ready to lead at world-stage with its ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam to take care of its own and humanity as whole.

Developing Mass Rapid Transit Systems in India

Traffic in almost all major population centres in India seems to have been stuck in chronic congestion with an average vehicle speed of around only 10-15km/h. Indian urban centres have long lacked both a city railway network and short-distance rail lines connecting the suburbs. These cities are facing an explosive combination of rapid population growth, a sharp rise in the number of privately owned vehicles as city dwellers have been forced to depend on only buses, private-owned cars and two or three-wheelers for transportation. The low-quality fuel and inefficient engines used in cars and buses add to the toxicity of the prevailing problem of air pollution.

In this backdrop, it had become critical that a mass rapid transit system be developed in all major cities of India for accelerating the modal shift from automobile to the metro system. Cities with an operating Metro system in the country have seen successful alleviation of traffic congestion as well as the reduction in air pollution caused by exhaust fumes and emission of greenhouse gases.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Pune Metro and inaugurated several other developmental projects in the city.

In his address, the Prime Minister said that Smart Mobility for citizens is the need of the hour. This includes having more green transport, electric buses, electric cars, electric two-wheelers and the use of a single card for transport facilities.

“There should be Integrated Command & Control Center in every city to make the facilities smart,” PM Modi iterated emphasising that the more people travel in metros, the better it will be for cities.

Not only on cities but the Metro system also has a very positive impact on worker productivity. The system ensures that city-based employees have lesser stress of the commute with less time wasted in traffic. People are able to save money and are under less financial strain from car costs when they are seeking employment in different parts of their city. Metros have become the engines of growth as they are opening doors of opportunities for the poor who otherwise are limited by the lack of available transport or ability to pay. Clearly, the public health benefits of the Metro system are the real winner as lower pollution as well as fewer accidents are observed, as a great proportion of accidents happen during rush hours.

While the Metro system has been a boon, it needs to be seen as the first step towards the development of a sustainable long term mass rapid transit system. Currently, all urban mass transit systems are developed on the hub-and-spoke concept, where the transport system is the hub and users have to travel from various parts of the city and converge in the hub to use it. Prototypes of one next-gen MRT system, known as MINI ELEVATED cTrain (caterpillar train) developed by one of the engineers of Indian Railways had won a global competition on innovations at MIT, Boston. Rather than the current form of Metro coaches, the C-Train envisages a series of small, seating-only cars that would be “as high as an SUV” with a capacity of only 20 passengers. These would have wheels both below and on top, giving them the ability to travel on the track as well as under it, thereby giving them the appearance of a caterpillar. Further, due to lightweight coaches, C-Train would run on poles joined together to form an arch, and it would run on electricity (with battery backup). With a combination of such innovations on the horizon with solar power harnessing capability enhancement, India is looking to emerge as the true leader of next-gen public commutation.

Religious Individuals of a Secular Society

KT Shah had put in demand in 1948 during the constituent assembly debate to include the word ‘Secular’ in the Preamble to Indian Constitution. Though the members agreed to the secular nature of the constitution, yet chose not to incorporate the word in the Preamble.

Dictionary definition of secularism is the belief that religion should not influence or be involved in the organization of society, education, government, etc. The term was coined in the mid-nineteenth century in England by George Holyoake (1817–1906), founder of secularist society which attempted to end religious discrimination in parliament and elsewhere. So, in a generic sense, developing an understanding and respect for different religions is secularism.

It was only in 1976 that the Indira Gandhi government enacted the 42nd Amendment Act and the word ‘Secular’ was added to the Preamble. This was supposed to strengthen the already existing Constitutional Provisions relating to Right of Religion, which are given in Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion), Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs), Article 27 (Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion), and Article 28 (Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions).

The interesting thing is that the constitution has not as such defined the terms ‘religion’ and ‘matters of religion’. In a way, it was left to the Supreme Court to determine the judicial meaning of these terms, and one can refer to Supreme Court’s Justice Hansaria’s observation of 1996 in A.S. Narayan vs. State of Andhra Pradesh case that, “our constitution makers had used the word “religion” in these two articles (Articles 25 and 26) in the sense conveyed by the word ‘dharma’.” Justice Hansaria explained the difference between religion and dharma as “religion is enriched by visionary methodology and theology, whereas dharma blooms in the realm of direct experience. Religion contributes to the changing phases of a culture; dharma enhances the beauty of spirituality. Religion may inspire one to build a fragile, mortal home for God; dharma helps one to recognize the immortal shrine in the heart.”

Haryana has joined Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to table the anti-conversion bill. The critics are claiming that these bills, by seeking to target conversions, interfere with both the right to dignity and freedom to practise the faith of their choice. They claim that under the light of Article 25 these bills are unconstitutional and some have even gone on to tear the bill in front of the entire assembly. One of the major concerns is the vagueness in defining “allurement” as one of the bases of needs of such bills.

In this light, the ongoing efforts of state governments towards anti-conversion bills and their resistances, bring the matter of personal practice vs impact on social fabric as a matter of debate at the national level. Religion is a matter of personal choice and secularism is the nature of society. India is a country where ardent religious individuals make a strongly secular society. Respecting others’ choices is the basis of this strong social fibre.

Nearly There Now

Cent percent of eligible group for vaccination is within reach for India now as over 97% have been vaccinated. This has brought economic, educational and even social activities back to normal. This has not been easy ride for sure. India has braved 3rd wave very effectively and is almost back to normalcy. Beginning of the vaccination process was not a nice sight when only 450-550 million doses seemed doable, as late as Nov 2020. There were huge concerns of difficulties in geographical mobility and lack of cold storage facilities. With multiple other factors acting towards vaccine wastage, India had a mountain to move.

Hence, since the beginning of world’s largest vaccination drive, India has battled both vaccine hesitancy and vaccine shortage to reach current vaccine demand across the nation and abroad. A lot has happened since the first vaccine dose was administered on January 16, 2021. On February 19 2021, within just a month of its start, India had already achieved the 1 crore vaccination milestone.One of the key challenges in the success of the vaccination drive also involved the need for a robust registration and tracking mechanism for the beneficiaries. In March 2021, India began vaccination registration through CoWin portal, Arogya Setu and Umang App.

The Co-WIN platform was at the heart of the vaccination drive. In a country like India, where access to technology and digital literacy is limited, introducing a digital platform like CoWIN was a challenge. The software performed the crucial functions of registration of beneficiaries, the listing of facilities/planning unit and session sites, planning and scheduling of vaccine sessions with real-time status on booked and available booking slots on different dates and at different sites, end-to-end implementation of vaccine process, traceability of beneficiaries and monitoring of vaccine doses and wastages, etc. at national, state, district and block levels. Fast forward to October 21, 2021, the country had already hit its Vaccine Century with the administration of 100 crore vaccine doses. The same month, India also launched ICMR’s “i-Drone” (Drone Response and Outreach in North East) policy. For the first time, a “Make in India’ drone was used in South Asia to transport COVID vaccine over an aerial distance of 15 kms in 12-15 mins from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake. With this India had mounted over the challenge of vaccine delivery to far-flung areas, ensuring that none was left behind. To ensure that the vaccine reached every household, the Government had launched “Har Ghar Dastak” (door-to-door) vaccination campaign on November 3, 2021, to achieve 100 per cent first dose coverage.
India’s fight against COVID19 opened gates for an ecosystem that supported indigenous manufacturing and innovation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates lauded India’s work on design, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines that helped save a massive number of lives. He also called it “a testament to innovation.” And why not, from CoWin platform, affordable COVID testing kits to innovative PPE kits for doctors, the country has developed devices that ensure innovations meet necessities.

Indeed, India has leapt into the front-row seat in the post-Covid world order due to its large scale implementation capabilities demonstrated in handling the pandemic while considering the welfare of all at home with Sabka Saath and abroad with Vaccine Maitri.