Nirmaan Completes 8 Years of Selfless Service

It's on this same day Feb 12th in 2005 at Pilani, with a quest for selfless service to my bothers and sisters in rural areas, I am fortunate to have taken this initiative of setting up an organization called My India which we now call as Nirmaan. The way it was started, the way it was promoted, the kind of culture that was built, the ideals with which we worked, the selfless goals that we had in our minds has made My India a popular and a favorite one for many. With a strong dedication and passion of the team over the last 8 years, Nirmaan has grown multifolds and today Nirmaan is part and parcel of the daily lives of hundreds of Nirmaan soldiers and Nirmaan beneficiaries.

8 years of sustenance and service, a popular platform for many passionate people, hundreds of volunteers, operations at multiple places, around a lakh of beneficiaries, around 10 + full timers, office space, lakhs of rupees spent on projects with minimal administration costs, possession of most essentials such as NGO registration, 80G exemption, FCRA registration, collaborations with Government and corporates are testimonies for what we have achieved in last 8 years. Its the culture of freedom of thoughts and actions, the self sustaining team mechanism, selfless service attitude, team work, passion for the organization which led Nirmaan to achieve this. Its people who are pillars of Nirmaan. Be it a volunteer at Pilani, be it a member of Zuari team at Goa, be it a member of SAP at Bangalore or be it the president of Nirmaan at Hyderabad, everybody's efforts counted and resulted in what we were able to achieve. But how much ever we achieve in terms of service to people, its always less. We need to achieve more and more not for our sake but for the sake of people. This is the ideal which we all stand for.

WE HAVE ONLY ONE PASSION

THE RISE OF A GREAT NATION

15 Effective Ways to Tackle Corruption

It's an inspiring documentary that I watched today on the way Subash Chandra Bose and his Azad Hind Fouz who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for freedom and in the struggle to see a glorious which makes to write this post. The freedom fighters dreamt of a nation which is self governed and which fulfills the wishes of people. Yes, with the sacrifice of great leaders like Bose, Bhagath Singh, Gandhi, we are able to achieve freedom and we are able to govern ourselves. But if we ask ourselves the question whether the wishes of the people are fulfilled. We cannot confidently say YES. And this  is mostly because of the rampant corruption that prevails in our society. Recently I attended an elocution competition that was organized by a high school on a topic "The Enemies of Our Nation". Out of the 15 speakers, at least 12 out of them said corruption is our first enemy. The rest said terrorism. That speaks a volume about the the way corruption is haunting common people.

The India against corruption movement led by Annaji has given an excellent opportunity for India to thoroughly discuss this pestering problem and lay down concrete steps to tackle corruption. The movement was very successful but only to the extent of bringing corruption issue to the center stage. But unfortunately the movement got so much obsessed with Lokpal that the whole nation got dragged into Lokpal debate as if that alone will solve our problem. We lost an opportunity to debate on several steps that can lead us to a corrupt free India. It's important that the common people and the nation debate the ways in which we can get rid of corruption over a period of time. Obviously, its neither politicians nor the Government officers who are the root causes of corruption. It's we the common people who are the root cause. For our convenience, for our comfort, for our hastiness we offer money and it just starts there. Only with our awareness and participation, Government can tackle corruption.

Here are the 15 ways which I think are effective means of tackling corruption:

1. Making strict laws and enforcing them strictly: Make strict laws addressing the loop holes which can put the corrupt to harsh punishments and strictly enforce the laws without any tolerance just like the way US or China does it so that people get scared of getting involved in any kind of malpractice.

2. Speedy Justice: Speed up the justice process so that corrupt cannot game the system anymore.

3. Large scale application of Science and Technology: Large scale application of science and technology can be of great help in detecting misuse and malpractices of corrupt people by its ultra modern devices and advanced gadgets such as CCTV cameras, spy cameras, satellite detectors, lie detectors etc.

4. Relax Taxation and mark up the salaries of public servants to the market: Heavy taxation by the Government on both the individuals and corporates and giving unreasonably low salaries for competent public servants, government employees is forcing lot of good people to get corrupt. Government should review this and relax taxation and give reasonable salaries.

5. Avoid redundant documentations and procedures for common man: Asking the common man for unreasonable and redundant documentation by the government offices forces the common people to offer bribe and get out of the hassles. Asking employees to submit medical bills to get medical allowance of 15k is the finest examples. Why not just give 10k or 12k to every employee as medical allowance which is free of tax? Why to force them to get fake bills? 

6. Promoting e- Governance and e-banking on a large scale: Computerize the governance and banking for common people as much as possible. Applying for any kind of certificate from the government, for any kind of benefit from any Government policy should be made online. Benefit distribution should be made online as much as possible. Gujarat is a role model for e-governance. We can get our learnings from Gujarat. Cash transfer in certain schemes is a good beginning in this direction.

7. Active citizen ship: Citizens continuously putting the government under pressure for better laws, for stricter enforcement of laws, for transparency and accountability in the conduct of Governments, public servants, business houses can help in a big way to put the system on track.

8. Compliant Box System: Introduce a compliant box system where the citizens can drop in their complaints anonymously which would be tracked, enquired and reported by an independent agency

9. State funding of elections: Government should fund the election expenses of all contesting candidates of atleast the top 10 recognised political parties. This would help in not forcing the public representatives to grab money from government programs to fund their election expenses.

10. Remove limits on raising funds for political parties: Putting unreasonable and impractical limits on raising funds by political parties is encouraging political parties to get involved in huge scams. Removing the limits, having some reasonable limits and then stringently asking the political parties for disclosing their accounts can bring a change in the way political parties raise funds.

11. National parties to voluntarily reject giving tickets till the accused is free from charges: National parties like Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM etc. should voluntarily reject tickets to the accused till they come clean and stand as example for regional parties to follow them. Communists are usually a lot better in this case. Other parties have to follow them.

12. Incentivise and encourage unanimous elections in local bodies: Give good incentives and encourage the local bodies as much as possible so that the public representatives like surpanch, MPTC, ZPTC, Cooperative society members etc are unanimously elected without elections. This will bring out the best possible workers, politicians who can take everyone along with them and provide good governance.

13. Promote Moral Values and ethics through better education system: Education system focusing on promoting moral values, ethics and law abiding behavior from childhood stage can possibly bring a great change in mindset of the people.

14. Role of teachers and parents: It's mostly teachers and parents who mould our personalities. Parents and teachers should play a key role in tackling corruption. They should be role models for children in terms of good conduct and they should teach the children the importance of maintaining high moral standards for themselves and for the society.

15. Promote spirituality: Spiritual perspective always makes us evaluate our actions whether they are good or bad. It creates a sense of responsibility and  loyalty for doing good and being good. The government in particular and society in general has to promote spirituality consciously.

Let's remember the fact the corruption is so rampant in our country that it can't be eradicated in a day or in an year. But it can definitely be tackled slowly to gradually eradicate it by following certain logical steps both by the government and the citizens.  

Arise Awake and Stop not till the Goal is reached.

Yes, he can do it for us!

Following are few excerpts from Modi’s speech at Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University:

• Let’s focus on “Skills, Scale and Speed”  to make India a global power
• P2 G2: Prop People - Good Governance is what I believe in
• Legislation shouldn’t be reactive to the problems. Legislative should be forward looking.
• It should aim at visualizing situations and creating a conducive environment by crafting innovative strategies.
• Government has no business to do business. Minimum Government Maximum Governance is needed.
• Let us make “Made in India” a global brand
• Usually there are two ways in which people view a glass half filled with water. 1. Half empty, 2. Half filled, But, I see it in a 3^rd way – The glass is filled, half with water and half filled with air
• Labs to land, Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory and Factory to Fashion is my textile policy which benefits my farming community
• Development is solution for every problem in our country
• Country is spoiled by vote bank politics. Developmental politics alone can bring a change in the country.
• Don’t see youth as new age voters. Let’s see them as a new age power who can help India realize the glory Vivekananda has envisioned.
• I see two main challenges before the nation: To utilize the best possible opportunity of being a nation the most number young people in the world people, To utilize the enormous natural resources that the country has. We need to tackle this to see a nation of our dreams.
• The world needs millions of teachers. We export everything. Why not teachers? Let’s export teachers to the whole world. A business man doing business abroad captures wealth but a teacher can address several issues.

Friends, I am sure that this is one of best speeches that we can hear in our life time from our leaders. The speech made by Modi at SRCC is sufficient enough to say why India desperately needs Modi to tackle all the main challenges before us and to emerge as super power. He has a clear vision, he has clarity in his ideas, he understands the pulse of the people, he can inspire them for the cause and he is someone who can face the challenges. No other leader in contemporary politics possesses such qualities. A time has come when the political parties and people at large to keep all the politics aside and for once unite to choose a leader with such qualities. He can do wonders. He did it in Gujarat and he can do it in the whole of the country. He can create an India of our choice.