All of us dream to live in a developed India. There are several economic development books that narrate the problems of what's right and what's wrong with India. This book touches upon the `how' part. The insights are given in such a satiric and compelling form, it becomes difficult to put the book down.
With an undertone of satire and subtle humor, Prof. PV Indiresan, in his book, Vision 2020, What India Can Be, and How to make that Happen, narrates the lyric of achieving economic development without losing the natural grace and charm of the rural ambience of India. The author rightly calls his work `Vision 2020' as an `omnibus' (a compendium of 30 articles), whose three sections delve on the following issues: Human needs and poverty alleviation; Globalization and employment, and Planning and Governance with the intent of building a better India. He says, "Vision is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, nor a prediction of what will be, but a conceptualization of what can be." He further adds, "Vision is a signpost of where society can go, not where it will necessarily go." The author admits that the solutions suggested by him are not the `the answers' but only meant to invoke healthy discussion to find `better' solutions. He adds: "Technocrats like me, can only `better' an outcome but fail to give perfect solutions". In order to fulfill a vision, Indiresan urges intellectuals to ponder over and statesman to shape, planners to devise plans and finally managers to implement them.
The author says, "Vision becomes a fancy word, as long as people are content with status quo. Only when the status quo becomes unbearable and people agree to a change for the better, then alone vision can become reality." A vision along with an economic dimension should also encompass social, cultural and political dimensions. Making Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs1 as the starting point to define vision, Indiresan refines the four decade old model by including a sixth need-Ecology, between autonomy and self-actualization-and further suggests that the proposed vision should be such that even the poor should enjoy holidays in the hills (not to be taken literally). This can be achieved only when income disparity between the rich and the poor is reduced. |
