Once upon a time, in a
kingdom not far away, there lived a King who ruled over a glorious nation
endowed with fertile land, dormant yet adroit population, natural and mineral
wealth. Well, literally and officially he was the nominal King under an
authoritarian General. He was quiet an ordinary man, like any other men in the
Kingdom but he had connections and having right connections in that Kingdom was
key to power. However, as a result of wide-spread corruption, lethargic
administration and a stoical population whose endurance was on verge of
extinction the great General and his poker king were dethroned with heavy
steps.
In state of privation
for an able ruler and blossoming destitution, a meeting was held by wise men of
the kingdom and courtier. They unanimously voted for a nobleman considered to
have rhetoric personality and skills of a competent ruler to take over the reins
of Kingdom. His coronation ceremony was elaborately celebrated and religiously
attended by the populace. Entire kingdom was teeming with conviction of change.
During his days as Nobleman, he had heard of a Kingdom far far away where lands
were barren but was rich in a special class of birds known as golden goose.
After taking over as the King, he decided to pay a visit to the king of Kingdom
far far away and enter a settlement to fetch that golden chick. A day before
his journey, an old wise man of the Kingdom forcibly entered precinct of the
palace and warned him, “Golden Goose
will bring no good to this kingdom”. But King and his men took him as a
frantic & he was shown the door. Next day, King embarked on his journey and
reached the kingdom far far away. Being impressed by his charismatic
personality and passion to take his nation forward, King of far far away gifted
him a golden geese and even promised to facilitate trade between them. The
golden goose was given a special treatment and a royal place was allocated for
her laying eggs. Even a committee was appointed to study and devise ways to
increase her productivity. But no matter whatever was done, she used to lay just
one golden egg in a day. Slowly, on one hand richness started making inroads,
trade started booming, new technology offers started pouring in and wealth was
getting accumulated but still happiness was nowhere in sight. Rich were getting
richer but poor were getting still poorer, death was sniffing around various
corners, people were still getting into religious and regional clashes,
orthodox and evil practices were on rise and agriculture was dying a slow
death. And one not so fine day, one of the advisors to King told him that
golden goose was killed by impatient people in hope of getting rich, no of
course not, it’s not the same fable.
Instead he informed that the goose has stopped laying egg.
..............................................
The above story may be giving you
a sense of déjà vu. If not, let me put
things straight before you get into the story with fine tooth comb. After a
season of mute administration and long battle cries of tolerant nation, ultimately
the day came, when our own Noah- Narendra Modi took charge of our sinking nation.
With bullish share market, deposits growing at healthy 14 percent, credit
ratings upgrade and effective inflation management government has revived
growth on trajectory of optimism. As a
result of these initiatives, India appears to be a half baked cake, where each
global major is trying to add its own cheesy layer and devour the taste.
Both Japan and China are trying to curry favour
with India in their own mannerism. Abe travelled all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto
to personally welcome Modi. While Modi was drumming his way in a jam session
with taiko drummers and wooed Japanese business community with red carpet not
red tapism, Abe pledged to invest $35 billion of investment in India. Xi took Hindi-Chini bhai bhai bonhomie one step further
by paying a visit to Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat to taste the dum in gujju soil (pun intended) and
after tasting the Khakra-Dhokla in Modinnerism served a platter of Chinese
$100 billion investment in next five years. At the same time, instructing his PLA
(People‘s liberation army) to pull all their might to win a regional war. We
are still reading between the lines....But, more is yet to come with Modi’s
impending visit to Uncle Sam. Let us see how many brownie points or coins, he
picks up there. Now the question arises, Are these investments enough to swap India from its rugged
road to its journey of becoming superpower or these investments will turn into
Golden Goose which will stop giving results after some time? Let’s see.......
Norway is ranked as second
wealthiest country in the world and enjoys the second highest GDP per capita.
Its people are prosperous, happy and free. With their impeccable English and
command over foreign languages they can shame much of Europe. In spite of not
being a member of EU in 30 years from 1997 to 2001, GDP witnessed an increase
of 177%; While Denmark which is a part of EU, UK saw an increase of 75% and 98%
respectively. Many would suggest that Norway’s success can be attributed to it’s
off shore oil industry (golden goose). It’s precisely true that oil and natural
gas transformed Norway from one penniless nation to one of the most affluent
countries. But it was only of rise of its educated labour class that created
history. Norwegians themselves claim that only with education it became
possible for them to harvest and utilise their resources in a better manner.
They have strong revenue system, low unemployment, rising oil revenues, salary
growth regularly and universal welfare services. Government focuses on rather
flat income distribution with outlook of equality and ensures that every
Norwegian has right to day care for their children, full coverage of pre-school
age group, a common basic education from age of 6 to 16, tertiary education
free of charge, a public system to give grants and loans to all students
ensuring a proper education right to every citizen irrespective of their
income. Even starting a business in not a task in Norway with minimum regulations
and only five procedures to be undertaken. Human capital accumulation, not just
capital accumulation and natural exploitation has rightly paid Norwegians in
form of second most happy nation.
In Finland, another Nordic nation
and one of world’s most successful country brags about its welfare state, low
infant mortality rate, better school scores and far low poverty than even U.S.
Finland‘s welfare system has extracted a well to do economic development
strategy. Their schools are notoriously renowned for standardization and best
practices in international arena. Schools have no standardization testing for
students or South Asian “cramming” system. You won’t be able to see any teacher
standing in classes and lecturing for 50 min rather students design their
weekly targets. Also in addition to Finland’s excellent, efficient and
equitable education system they have dirt cheap health care, social care
allowance, and other enlightened policies which have been developed in years.
If
you are thinking only European nations can sing in glory because western
countries to aamir hoti hi hain, you
are mistaken because our South Asian tiger is already roaring with efficiency
in Malay Peninsula. Singapore- the alpha male of Asian tigers with population
of 5.3 million is one of the most competitive markets and is in possession of
11th largest foreign reserves. Its roar is already sending shivers
across strong nations like China and US. A nation under colonial influence till
1965 that left it ailing in destitution, which was not even sure of its future
and was devoid of any natural resource, has written a history of being most
promising economy. They have one of the best models for urban planning and
bureaucratic efficiency by large statistics. This has been possible because of their focus
on Job creation that drives formation and expansion of middle class, quality
housing, top notch public education making sure that even lower income people
have access to quality education, innovative measures to challenges like
immigration, taxation and debt. Government invests heavily in vocational,
technical education and encourage a close interaction between education and
industrial policies that is need of private sector. Also an open pro business
economy and open door policy to foreign capital investment have made Singapore
dark horse of developed countries. Even IMF named Singapore as easiest
country to do business. Singapore Finance Minister Tharman quoted to a reporter
“Singapore story can be explained by three factors: the cultural work ethic of
Singaporeans, our response to adverse external conditions and our government
especially its education and housing policies. Our approach is to enable people
and support a culture of aspiration, work and personal responsibility, rather
than have the government take over responsibility.”
Like we Indians invest in banks
for our children’s wedded future, South Koreans invest in education. Everything
from their social standing to marriage proposals are determined by their
education standards. South Korean parent spend more on education than any other
nation around 15% of GNP. Teaching in Korea is a high profile job and teachers
are highly respected, highly paid, enjoy high social status and have great job
security. South Korea which was once one of the poorest countries today is
elite member of rich man’s club OECD. The success story of South Korea stands
strong on edifice of its educational culture.
While other nations are delightfully tip-toeing with their education in tip-top condition towards amelioration, India’s present and future generation with their half-baked education fetched on basis of hard-earned cash find themselves in a total muddle. According to Pratnaman, an NGO In 2008 only 50% of class 3 student could read class 1 text, but by 2012 it declined by 30%. Even about 50% of class 3 kids were not able to recognize digits up to 100. The reason behind this decline has been years of neglect by government schools and related authorities. And thus, private sector is making huge inroads in education in rural India. As per UNESCO, India has lowest public expenditure on higher education per student, health and infrastructure. A country like Canada allocates 17.9% of budget on healthcare and 12.7% on education, Norway 17.9% of GDP on health care and 16.2% on education, Argentina 13.8% on education, South Korea 18.5% and India 3.4% of GDP on health care and 12.7% on education, quiet low as compared to other countries.
Successive Indian governments fail
to realise that technology, scientific advances cannot be achieved by
investment or FDI measures but brilliance, imagination and hard work of
talented people. On one hand, countries that are emerging as leaders in
scientific innovation are clearly those which focus on maximising potential of
their citizens and retain the brightest minds & on the other hand, India is
magnanimously herding its talented cash cows towards brain drain.
Natural capital which is
considered to be wealth of any nation would become redundant in absence of
human population to exploit it resourcefully. Thus, measures that aim at
increasing human capital accumulation often gives a double dividend by equalizing
income distribution, while at same time increasing growth. So, now we know why
a kingdom not far away with its talented people, natural and mineral resources
could not make golden goose lay egg & why that frantic man warned the king
of golden goose? Why the new king was not better than the mute king? Because
both were unable to ascertain that their golden goose is their population and
they need to invest in them rather than dealing with foreign nations. Only an
educated society can have well husbanded country side (infrastructure),
enriched farm (agricultural production) and conditions (robust growth,
increasing GDP, FDI) so favourable that even normal goose (citizens) can lay
golden eggs (growth).
India cannot become superpower just by dealing
with powerful nations. To push the power button, it needs to realize the need
for balance between free competitive markets and welfare, and turn the utopian
concept of welfare into reality. Let us start nurturing and nourishing the
golden goose lyingstill in Indian population. If we
fail to fathom importance of welfare system, day is not far when acche din would become a metaphor,
happiness a state of mind and India’s dream of becoming superpower would be
beyond possibility as much as Modi’s suggestion to Soft drink manufacturers of
blending fruit juice with their sweet frizzy drink. Hope Mr Narendra Modi is
listening.
P.S. - Still story is not yet over................ you can get more from story.......!!!!
