There is flood of praise for Indian Army after recent incidents in Kashmir. Social Media is flooded by posts on subject. However as citizens we should reflect whether this is sufficient ?
A few questions first:
How Many of us are encouraging our children to opt for Defense Services as a Career ? How many if us are willing to adopt hardships of Defense Life including possible severe physical handicap or even death ?
It seems most of us are happy to clap from a distance for Army since our own children are not involved in battlefield. There are very few army officers from families of our top leaders from Politics or Industry.
India’s defense challenges are enormous. These challenges are getting more complex with technological advancements and areas such as Cyber or Space. Hence Indian defense shall require Best of Brains of country.
To prepare for future defense challenges , it is essential that our youth are fascinated about Defense as a Career. Defense services requires a high level of passion. It is not exactly a very easy life. There are regular transfers , sometimes in remote areas. Chances of physical injuries or even death can not be ruled out. However it compensates with a life which keeps you physically and mentally fit. It gives a truly inclusive environment where every religion or caste is equal.
1. Branding Defense as a Fascinating Career : Defense should be promoted as attractive Career from Primary School Level. Visits to Cantonment areas & Defense Exibitions should be organized.
2. Participation of Families of Leaders & Celebrities: Children from families of Political Class, Business & Film Industry must be encouraged to join Indian Forces. This shall motivate others to follow them. Media should also promote Defense Professionals as Heroes and Role Models. Why should they be not sponsors for commercials ?
3. Compulsory Military Education : We must incorporate Compulsory Military Education for every youth. This may be a program for One or Two Years. Present NCC ( National Cadet Crop ) system can be upgraded and made compulsory for every children. This well give a strong foundation to Character and Personality for them. This will also give exposure to our youth towards Indian Defense Services and attract them towards this.
4. Defense Research & Manufacturing : Defense Research & Manufacturing should be scaled up at a higher level and our Best Brains should be encouraged to join it. There are many new fields opening for Future Defense including Cyber War, Space Wars, Biological War, Defense Manufacturing etc. Our youth should be provided a platform to take a lead in these fascinating areas.
Integrating of Defense Services with Civilians may be better way to praise Indian Army. We should not clap from a distance but feel the pain or joy of our own family members being part of it.
Bhagwad Geeta ‘s first chapter ( 1:2 to 1:12) starts with a dialogue when Duryodhan approaches Dronacharya and conveys to him about his lack of confidence in Bhishma , the commander in chief of army. He asks Drona to protect Bhishma.
Ayaneshu cha sarveshu yathaabhaagam avasthitaah; Bheeshmam evaabhirakshantu bhavantah sarva eva hi. (1:11)
“ Our army led by Bhishma is insufficient, whereas Pandav’s army, led by Bhima, is sufficient. “Therefore, everyone, stationed in their respective positions of the army, protect should protect Bhishma.”
To win a war , you need to be confident about ability of your Commander in Chief. In start of Mahabharat, Duryodhana , sowed the seeds of a loss in war by expressing lack of confidence in is Chief Warrior. In such circumstances the second in command and other commanders shall obviously not have full confidence & resultant respect for Chief of Army.
In fight against Covid19 , country is keeping its confidence on Commander in Chief. This is one of major factor which has helped till now. Entire leadership at Central & State Level seems to working in synergy with each other.
There are definitely lessons to be learnt and things could have been better ; but keeping faith on leadership is crucial to win this war. Creating mistrust for Leadership in these difficult times can be very harmful and impede our fight against this war. Any type of politics can wait till nation comes out of this dangerous time.
India is on Lockdown for couple of weeks as a response to tackle Corona disease. Looking back at how the events unfolded , it can be said with certainty that immense effort has been put at leadership and society level. It was refreshing to note that most of people contributed in positive way barring a small segment which continued with its negativity discourse. Yet there were some glaring short comings which need to be analysed and highlighted. To analyse this let us look at some key Landmark Events :
News of dreaded disease in Wuhan, China and images and videos on how it was controlled by strict lock downs.
Indian Government taking steps to bring back its nationals from Wuhan.
Gradual restrictions on International Flights leading to Janta Curfiew and Total Lockdown for 21 Days.
Mass exodus of Migrant Labour in Delhi NCR and other parts of India.
News of Nizamuddin Religious Sect gathering which led to large scale spread of virus in different parts of India. This led to massive exercise to track down the Attendees of this gathering.
While analysing above incidents following points need elaboration :
Wuhan Incident :
After Wuhan Incident , response time of our system was bit late. Chinese economy is closely linked to Global and Indian Economy. Some one in our System should have been tracking the Wuhan Development much more closely and restrictions on International Travel and Visitors should have taken place much more earlier.
Migrant Workers Issue :
Mass Movement of Migrant Workers from Delhi NCR and other parts of country was an eye opener. Agony of Poor Workers was evident from images of these people. These incidents not only gave a bad press to country but also increased the risk of defeating entire purpose of Lockdown.
It was evident that no one in system has anticipated issues related to Migrant Workers. These incidents could have been avoided with better planning and coordination. Some one in system should have factored issue of migrant workers before taking the Lock down decision. Temporary Shelters with Food and other arrangements could have been made in advance along with better Communication with these labours.This again proves weakness of our Governance System in Terms of Planning and Execution for decisions of such.
Nizamuddin Religious Sect Fiasco :
This incident was Shocking and brought out in open Fault lines of our Governance System. Such a large gathering was going in heart of Delhi , foreigners were roaming across India in violation of all Visa Rules and no one raised an alert in our system. The enormity of system failure is reflected from fact that same gathering happened on Malaysia a sometime back , which led to sharp spike in Corona Positive Cases. Yet no one was alerted in our system and visas were given.
KEY LESSONS :
All three points mentioned reflect weakness of our Governance System in terms of at Planning, Execution and Review Levels. Some of suggestions are as below :
Alert System : Our Intelligence and Alert System needs immediate attention.Right Alerts should have gone to right persons to prevent such incidents.Our Intelligence System needs to be more effective. Apart from conventional Intelligence gathering mechanism, we need an Third Party Independent Alert system which can generate Alerts and highlight in a way that it reaches to people who matter. Alerts should also be generated from Public to highlight any such incidents.
Right Information in Right Form at Right Time to Right Persons at Right Platforms is key to a Dynamic Information System. A link to my earlier article on same is given below.
. Planning & Forecasting : Migrant Workers problem was not factored in this decision. It is evident that Decision Making Process needs improvement. How can such a big factor be ignored ? This is also the issue of Accountability. Responsibility must be fixed and action taken.
Central Control Number : Lack of correct information was evident in past few weeks. Decisions were taken fast at Central and State Levels and people at large had no platform to get right information. From very beginning there should have been a Call Centre with a Central Control Number. This number should have been publicized. Any one could just ring this number and call centre could have connected him to right person at Central and State Level.
This type of Call Centre can be set up at a short notice and can be done even now. It can be a permanent set up which can be used for any future need.
There is a nationwide outrage on recent rape incidents from different
states. There are numerous processions , TV discussions , parliament debates
and call to hang the guilty. As a nation we are a reactive nation. We tend to
emotionally react to situations and forget after few days. There were similar
rages in past on rape cases , some of them got equal national prominence , but
the problem remains where it was in past.
What we lack is a culture of Strategic Thinking , which requires
deeper research into problems and building systems to solve it for ever. This
is same with every problem we face whether crime against women or terrorism or
problem of alcoholism and drug abuse. We don’t think deep enough. Our actions
don’t come out of thoroughly researched plan of action. Rather we just react
and act in casual manner. I am not claiming to have conducted deep research
into this problem , but from CSMStrategy
point of view my take on issue of crime against women is as below :
One of major reason of our youth indulging in these
crime is lack of positive vision , hope and focus in major part
of our population. Our youth does not have a positive focus in life. Most of
these crimes are committed from people from lower strata of life. These people
live a life which is without any hope and under abject poverty . Just visit any
of poor colonies or Jhuggis in Delhi and see the condition in which the people
live there.
It is very difficult to get a healthy mind set in those depressing conditions . There is no hope – no dream – no vision and no focus for these people to change their life. When a life is so deprived , one is easily swayed towards criminality.
One of first thing for Long Term Solution to this problem is to give
a vision to youth of this country. For this we need a vision for India .
Unfortunately there are few leaders who are credible enough to give this vision
to youth of India.
Taking a step further , we need to learn the art of sowing seeds to
future in minds of our children and our youth. We need to channelize their
energies to a positive goal . Our parents and teachers need to be trained in
this. Changing the focus of our youth and population at large is most important
strategic step towards problem of crime against women. A mind which is
focused on building a future for itself and for the country is likely to availd
in such sort of behaviour.
2. At a Strategic Level , we also need to revisit the type of
inputs we give to our children and youth from our movies , magazines , TV and online
media. Most of stuff rolled out from media shows women as an object to fulfil
physical desires. We do not see health portrayal of women as a normal human
being. It is stupid to expect that our children and youth to remain unaffected
with this visual onslaught which ignites their passions. The craziest part is
that our liberal media is first to shout when you talk of any level of
regulation towards this.
Human minds are not machines but products of emotions. Our children and
youth should get messages from media which promote values of discipline ,
respect , hard work and compassion. We all know the principle of GIGO ( Garbage
in – Garbage Out ). If we want a society built upon these values we need to
ensure that social messages we get from media are altered.
3. The legal solution which comes out of fear of law is also an effective deterrent but not an ideal solution. You can’t solve a problem of mindset with fear. Nevertheless the legal solution is required to keep an order of semblance in society. However to do this it is required that the solution is swift and with enough safeguards to prevent misuse. This is a tall order keeping in view the present legal system which is imported from west and is not just suited for a country like India.
In nut shell , we should stop being reactive and look for real solutions to our problems.
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The laws of nature which apply to individuals and companies also apply to complex systems like a country or society . However their application is much more complex and dynamic. The sound principals of CSM , which is based on universal natural laws can be extended to goal of Nation Building.
Any individual or company is part of a social system. We can not expect a happy family or company in a society teeming with utmost poverty, pollution , corruption and mediocrity at every level. We can not be proud of ourselves unless we are proud of our country and our society.
CSM advocates Law of Action which involves integrating of action of individual with goal of nation building. Starting from working for our own benefits we have to gradually move at company, industry and society levels. Our work has toultimately become our mission – a mission to improve society and nation in our own way.
Our country is one of most resourceful country with abundance of natural resources . But our biggest resource is human capital which have unfortunately not achieved their full potential due to strategies and policies persued in past. These strategies has led us to a position where major part of our population does not have means to fulfil basic needs like food , housing , education and health. We feel helpless as a nation surrounded by hostile countries , policy confusion and an environment where short term self interests dominate wider national welfare.
A few questions ? Anyone interested in subject of Nation Building needs to attempt answers to following questions ?
Why India was never united as a geographical entity ?
Why India was defeated and ruled by foreigners in its history again and again ?
Why India has not given any significant scientific invention during last 2000 years ?
Why India was not able to develop in last 60 years like Japan or Germany ? And finally
Why India is not able to win more than 1 or 2 gold medals in Olympics which is much
We often come across people who claim that in past India was most advanced country in world. No one is however able to answer why we slipped so much among comity of nations ? It is good to be proud of our past but we must also look into our failures which were a result of our past actions and strategies.
Transforming Nation
CSM principals based on Laws of Nature provide a sound strategy to transform any nation or society. Even a small fraction of population starts working as per these principles can lead to transforming the nation in a very short time.
CSM approach to Nation Building is to “focus energies of a Nation and its inhabitants to achieve global levels of excellence in its areas of competency.” if even a fraction of population of a country starts dreaming and working towards achieving global levels of excellence in different sectors, it shall unleash a spiral of peak performance, creativity, innovation and overall development.
Developing super excellence in a large number of our population is the key to nation building. Super Excellence automatically leads to creation of new ideas & new opportunities which automatically passes advantage to others in society . The spiral of success in one person or company soon extends to wider environment – employees, family, relatives , friends, suppliers, financiers, ancillaries etc.
CSM advocates an excellence at global level. We don’t have to players at local level but at national and global levels. We have not to be afraid of global competition but face it and win. We can learn from countries such as China and Japan which are benchmarking from best in world for every activity.
Most of our efforts in developing National Human Capital are not yielding desired results. It is not a sound strategy to teach every one.And what is use of creating more unemployed graduates , we already have millions of them.
Instead spread excellence at every level. Even a less educated person can excel in his job. A carpenter can become the best carpenter by focusing his energies in this area. All he requires is to be given a basic education , skill training & direction to be best in his trade.
We have to focus our resources in areas where we have strengths to be Global level players. Instead of all industries and all activities, we need to focus in few industries and be world players in them.
Instead of playing all games and not winning a single medal in Olympics, it is better to play a few games say two or three and become world champions in them.
The entire energies of nations have to focus on generating excellence and resulting development of human capital. It is essential to create this atmosphere of excellence and creativity to a large number of population. Lets move towards world level excellence in few industries, few sports, few education streams. Once a large number of our population starts moving towards this level of excellence ,the spiral effect shall be so fast that with in a short span we shall change the face of nation.
Most Important : The movement towards Super Excellence has to be led by Individuals from Private as well as Government sectors. The System and Government can not change unless a sufficient stronger vibration comes from society. The role of Government should be restricted to create regulatory environment, integration & active support.
We need at least 1% of our population to vow to work for global level excellence – notwithstanding any problem and bottlenecks of current system. These super achievers need to challenge and change the system and move up the excellence ladder. We need these achievers at every level – education, healthcare, governance, sports , judiciary , industry etc.
Indians are very successful outside but mediocre inside their own country. Lets start by creating global level excellence at our end. Lets motivate ourselves , our employees, our children, our friends and relatives for super excellence and a movement shall start for nation building with growth and happiness for all.
