I recently had the opportunity to listen to Mr.Ravi Kant, Vice-Chairman of Tata Motors and turnaround specialist extraordinaire address a forum of business people. What I have written here is inspired by a few remarks he made about economic development in rural India. It made me think, and caused me to further explore the topic he raised.
Key foundations of economic development in India are communication and transportation. In simple terms, what India needs badly are more roads. Believe it or not, the country has come a long way with road development – from 10 km of new roads per year a few decades ago to 1000 km per year today. But, of course, it also has a long way to go.
Sure, there is an obvious need to expand the national and state highways, but that is not where I would like to dwell today. Instead, I would like to probe the implicit and significant need to connect the villages of India by road.
Here are just a few reasons why this needs to happen:
- Roads in India carry 90% of passenger and 65% of freight traffic today
- Yet, 40% of Indian villages do not have access to roads! Just think about that.
- Further, rural areas in India are home to 70% of its population. Think about that too!
- Rough calculation. That means about 336 million people do not have access to roads?! Hard to believe that that is the case in the 21st century, what with India shining and all. 😦
I have run out of exclamation marks, so let me move on. Let’s imagine one villager without access to a road that leads from his village to somewhere. Here’s what I see – someone who is isolated from the rest of the region and world, existing within his small box, probably an agriculturist, most probably living in an ancient time with ancient thinking and with little hope for much growth in any shape or form (or to conceive what that might be!).
Now, let’s imagine that his village gets connected with a single road. By having the ability to move out of his restricted enclosure, what does he have to look forward to? How about the following –
- New knowledge on what is happening outside his box
- Trading of his goods or services beyond his small village
- Schooling for his children
- Modern medicine and healthcare for his family
- Expanded thinking, for example, perhaps growing more produce to take to a larger market
- Access to goods and services that he did not even know existed
- Contact with different people and hearing new ideas to build new awareness
- Access to communication – radio, telephone, TV, and therefore to an even larger world and landscape
- Contemplation of a better future
“I want a better quality of life”. This phrase and battle cry, I believe, is what is transforming India today. It will also continue to make this country tick in spite of all odds.
The human motivation for a better quality of life is not measurable, but it is certainly palpable. Here in India, it is an underlying human energy that is gathering steam and taking on a life of its own.
I look at India and I see major dichotomy (doesn’t everyone?). Let me group my thoughts into two high-level categories that I will call the bad news and the good news.
The Bad News (let’s get it over with first!):
- Corruption at all Levels of Government
- Looting of the Treasury by Bureaucrats
- The Parallel Cash Economy and the Scourge of Black Money
- Ineffective Government Services for All Citizens
- More Poverty than there should be!
- Lack of adequate Far-thinking, Honest, Visionary Public Sector Leadership
The following cannot be changed or stopped: each person’s innate need and wish to continually improve his or her quality of life – especially once they have had a taste of what is possible.
The resulting motivation is so significant that it has the power to exponentially multiply and transform worlds. Witness the ongoing transformation in India!
A person who has had his eyes opened to possibilities will reach for that better quality of life, even if it’s one step at a time.
Added all together, this will reach gigantic proportions at various economic strata, and therein – in these vast numbers – lies the magic.
That is why economic progress here can only increase and propagate. With its momentum and gathering force, no one will be able to stop it – not even an ineffective government. Think of it as a runaway train. But one that is headed to a good place.
Final Thought: What is the true potential of this country if it did not have to deal with so much of the bad news?
Photo: By Lakshmi Prabhala [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons