Making India WORK !

Hi World !

I Just read a book which blew me away ! I couldn’t help but share it with you. Some smart old guy said “ the Most contagious disease in the world is an idea” and I think I am infected.

I am going to be your gracious host and spread the virus to you innocent unsuspecting simple minded folk. Ooooh ! I feel like Dracula !!!

Anyways on a serious note the book is “ Making India Work”

By a little known fellow called “ William Nanda Bissell”. Don’t fret if you don’t recognize him - neither did I but at the end of the book ; my respect for the guy was profound. IF you live in a any of the major cities in India and visit any big enough mall you are bound to run into the brand created by this Fellow. He Increased the turnover of his company 25 times in the last seven years so he knows a thing or two about getting things right.

Enough of praises for the author; the brand he built is “FabIndia”

where I happen to shop regularly. In case you do not know what they do – let me enlighten you. They provide artisans in rural india with access to the billion dollar india retail market while giving them a fair share in the profits made unlike most large scale retailers. Also worth noting is that instead of mimicking Western models of business and squeezing the hard working labour for every penny – FabIndia Follows a unique model of inclusive growth.Getting back to the Book – In simple words it is about Realizing the full potential of India. Although the name suggests india – I believe most of the world would benefit of these ideas were followed. I know I know – We have come across enough books & Movies Promising the same! Utopian India – Super Power India – India in 2020.

Honestly I don’t believe those books give any real time advice that can be implemented today to reach those goals. They talk about general solutions like education, poverty and hygine. No Offence to those authors but anybody can cook up stuff like that with enough free time on their hands and if the author is famous enough - anything he writes will attract a publisher irrespective of the quality of the work or its functionality !

William on the other hand has given us a roadmap - Where to start – What to do – How to do it ? What might be the road blocks ? How to handle them ? I have not seem another author do so much research and put in so much mental effort in spoon feeding people the idea of actually making india Work. I have to add – the title infers that if the system in the book is followed the whole of India will start to function towards a common goal – which is pretty much nonexistent now. India today functions inspite of its Government – not because of it.

This Book will correct that pathetic situation.

The Author has gone so far as to fill the book with tables and references from some of the most reputed sources. Although this would turn off most simple readers as this makes the book a very strong read in terms of flavor. But such facts are necessary to be included when you are looking to change the Largest Democracy in the World !

The amount of backlash expected if people start reading this book would be phenomenal. I expect most of it to come from the people who want the “Status Quo” to continue – ergo the People who benefit from the current system – ergo the elite few who get all the media attention.

In a way – making the book available only at the fabindia stores is a master stroke. Because under normal conditions the Older Generations don’t walk into such stores which are located in malls. On the Other hand the youth of india consider these very same malls as their eternal hangout. Also Younger India is more willing to change and have hope for a better world than the older generation who has gotten used to doing things the Neanderthal way. If people actually start reading this book in mass ( similar to the “Oh so famous Boy wizard with a scar” series ) then serious debate will result – which is the first step on the way to evolution or revolution. Bottom line being that it will definitely make people think – and in today’s world where almost everybody runs on Autopilot – making them stop for a second and making them think about Anything is in itself a great feat!

In very very condensed form – these are the major talking points in the book :

1. Reforming the total geographical system of india ( Getting rid of states and bringing in smaller more manageable units )

2. Giving these units more authority and decentralizing the government; giving the people most affected by a situation the power to decide what to do about it.

3. Realizing the untapped natural resources of poor india as wealth – and putting a system in place which distributes wealth between rural and urban divides which increases standards of living on both ends.

4. The Bold new concept of “Catalysts” (TCs) which spur the lowest rungs of society to get the best levels of Legal, Educational and Living standards.

5. This whole concept is based on the free markets which makes it more liquid and effective than the current draconian scheme. Means less intervention and more market dynamics.

6. And to keep the markets transparent – Cash is made obsolete and all transactions are digital.

7. Another new concept of a Single tax by the government – called Transaction charge ( set at 1% initially) instead of the hundreds of small nameless taxes we suffer from today.

Yes, these will be difficult to achieve and put into practice – Yes this is not a readymade Band-aid Fix like the ones today’s politicians are boasting off. Yes, this is THE solution. Yes, this needs a paradigm shift and yes, I believe the time is right for the same! This old form of democracy has gone beyond its expiry date. We can’t keep wrapping a corpse in new bandages and claim it’s new! The Democracy which we follow today is outdated and dead! We need to let it go! And William shows us how. The only fact in question is – do we as a country have the balls enough to do something never before done anywhere else in the world and set an example for once rather than following everybody else’s.

Although I would love to get into the details of the book and its visionary plans for a cleaner, greener and most importantly friendlier world – I would much rather prefer it to be a discussion with the rest of you who have read the book. Bring me your thoughts on the book, anything you liked or would like to add to it. This book is about our future – which considering that we are the 2^nd most populated country in the world – is the future of the world ! But this is no fairy tale – this is real – this is do-able. This has to be done in order for us to have any future at all . If this book and its ideas fall on deaf ears – then we might as well be looking at 2012 as the end of the world – and all of us might end up playing “Fallout” with our lives!

The blue prints in this book might not give us a perfect world – but it gets us closer than we are now – and that alone is worth the painstaking effort of converting that vision into reality.