Dr. Singh -- true visionary

Just some of my favorite excerpts from a speech by India's PM, Dr. Singh, at an award function organized by Economic Times:

" I recall what Robert Kennedy had to say about the shaping of history, "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." "


To all the successful entrepreneurs who have emerged from this process, my advice is to treat their wealth as a societal trust and manage it for the welfare of the nation at large. Lord Keynes, analysing the role of capitalists in 19th century Britain in his work The Economic Consequences of Peace said "If the rich had spent their new wealth on their own enjoyments, the world would long ago have found such a regime intolerable. But like bees they saved and accumulated, not less to the advantage of the whole community....(they) were allowed to call the best part of the cake theirs and were theoretically free to consume it, on the tacit underlying condition that they consumed very little of it in practice. The duty of "saving" became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion."

"I would like to draw your attention to is one of even greater concern for the long-term well being of the nation. Millions of our fellow citizens are still deprived of the benefits of a fast growing economy. While the belief in a market economy is certainly justified, it must be remembered that markets serve those who are part of it. They have no relevance to those who exist on the margins of subsistence and who have neither the physical nor the human resources to participate in them. Our growth processes, while generating wealth and prosperity across large sections of society, have not been able to generate employment opportunities on the same scale. Agriculture in the past few years has not exhibited the dynamism visible in the rest of the economy but continues to support 2/3rd of our population. "

"Agriculture and employment generation can be ignored at our own peril. They can put at risk all the benefits that have accrued so far from reforms. We need to expand the meaning of reforms to include the reform of our education and health care systems. We need massive investments in education; in creating new and marketable skills; in skill building and vocational education; in the quality of governance at all levels of Government. "

"There is an agenda of reform waiting to be taken up. In the financial system; in agriculture, in infrastructure, in manufacturing, in banking and finance, in our educational and vocational training system, in health care, in government – at all levels of government. In no area of social and economic development can we, as a nation, afford to adopt a `Chalta Hai' attitude. "

" These are difficult tasks. But it is not these mundane matters of getting things done, and done better, that really worries me. What worries me is the mindset that restrains us, that constrains us, that holds us back. Reform is, in the final analysis, about changing mindsets. We must have the courage to think out-of-the-box. We must have the courage to think anew. To question old beliefs. To seek new pathways. As an old Chinese saying goes – a road is made by walking. We must learn to walk in new directions and create new roads to progress. I sincerely hope that the people of our great nation share with me this urge to be creative, to walk down untrodden paths, to find new answers to old problems. India is a nation of young people. New generations of voters and investors have been born in the past 15 years. If we do not address their concerns, if we do not meet their aspirations they will not forgive us. The road ahead has to be defined by their aspirations, and those of coming generations. The challenge before the political leadership in India today is to meet the aspirations of an energetic new India, and, at the same time, take care of the concerns of a less endowed, less privileged sections of our society, who are no less energetic. "

" We must all work together to build a new India of our dreams – a prosperous India of more equity and greater equality. An India of more creativity and greater enterprise. The two can go together. And they must go together. No pyramid of achievement and progress can shine at the top for long, if its base is weak and crumbling. We have to build a stronger base. A more energetic and capable social and economic base for sustained and sustainable economic growth. You, ladies and gentlemen, are the beneficiaries of a more open economy and an open society. You have benefited from what our country has been able to give all of us. It is time you contributed, in your own way, to building a new India. And as I said long ago quoting Victor Hugo that "no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come ... and the emergence of India is one such idea." We have come far and this idea – which was an idea then – is now an accepted axiom. Working together, working creatively, working wisely, I am confident we can realise our collective destiny as a great nation"