We always set  higher goals to do better in life. There will not be any organization in India or outside which compares its performance on the basis of targets that existed 70 years ago.

Surprisingly the achievements of current Government are often compared with the Government that managed India 70 years ago. Many these days advertently or inadvertently highlight the achievements of the current Govt comparing it with Nehru ; How many IITs Nehru had set up and how many Modi Govt did and so on.

Its ridiculous and laughable. How can one think of comparing the performance of the two leaders?

Nehru in 1947 inherited a poor, deprived , impoversihed and largely illiterate India – almost 88 % were illiterate, which had hardly any industry ; two steel manufacturing companies, more than half of India was without electric power , barely 28 engineering and medical colleges, hardly any road network and public transport system, hardly any hospitals and on top of that millions of refugees and a society which had witnessed a genocide.

It is interesting to compare the two Indias under few Heads, that these leaders -Mr Nehru and Mr Modi inherited in 1947-50 and in 2014 respectively.

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The more one probes and tries to remove the dust one only finds, inefficiency, indifference, callousness, frustration, indiscipline and sab chalta hai attitude. Some administrators say ; they have almost given up.

We have experienced that whether it is Mr Atal or Mr Manmohan or Mrs Sonia or Kejriwal or even Modiji running the country nothing much is likely to change here, unless, there is a will of the people to overhaul the system as a whole. They may announce ambitious schemes but we will continue to have problems implementing those at the District level, Tehsil level, Block level, Village level, town level, because the administrative machinery is sick and needs an over haul.

Although, we have made a decent progress in science and technology particularly in the field of Communication and IT but the responsibility of state has not lessened as the aspirations of the people and their expectations from the state have only increased. The impact of administration ; good or bad is felt in almost every field of human activity, be it Industry, business, agriculture, art, entertainment, education, culture, health care, housing or sports. The administration can promote, inspire, motivate or frustrate or obstruct or deter the activities of individuals, groups and institutions.

So till bureaucracy who is responsible to manage the Govt machinery is not reformed the nation will continue to live from crisis to crisis . However before we start discussing about reforming bureaucracy we must understand the positive role it has played.

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Today, when nation is passing through a tough situation many who had been always skeptical about India’s claims and its growth story would be saying ; Nothing can happen here.

Everyone has an answer for our poverty, illiteracy, high infant mortality, poor state of health care and astonishingly, everyone is also aware as to Why despite investing hundreds and thousands of crores since independence in hundreds of schemes our progress has been tardy?

Without any hesitation all would unanimously hold ; Politicians and Bureaucracy responsible for the aforementioned problems.

But even then we do nothing, we continue pumping more money that too the Tax Payers' money into the same inefficient and corrupt system that does not allow us to grow. Recently PM announced that he would be issuing free rations to poor till Diwali, and surprisingly no one asked him ; How? Is it going to be supplied through the same corrupt system, which is already facing lot of teething problems? How is he going to ensure that it would reach the needy?

Surprisingly, not a single soul asked Where is the money coming from when the economy is contracting due to covid?

We see muck all around us, and still have virtually turned a blind eye and seem to be indifferent and show no concern. We have learnt to live with this and have accepted this fait accompli.

However, for someone who has spent his major portion of life away from the civic society or is an observer from a foreign country it would prima facie appear that people here are more concerned about Ishrat Jehan, Godhra, Secularism vs pseudo secularism, Beef, Triple Talaq, Padmawati, Shiv temple under Tajmahal, Ayodhya, Baba Ramdev and history, changing the names of the Stations and Roads etc rather than in Good Governance and Science and Technology.

Many of the educated people in society are not even interested to enquire where we stand on UNO’s Human Deveopment Index and what are its parameters and why are we stuck so low and what is the Govt doing to take us ahead. And if we are so lowly ranked and the Govt is doing nothing about it then How are these Emotive issues going to make us a Powerful nation. 

   This clearly shows that our priorities are wrong and the entire setup including the media deliberately wants to focus on emotive issues which will take us no where. Had we taken interest in our own growth and development our minds would not have been so Politicaly vitiated and Communalised and we would have been much better off. We thought, that with some Jugaad here & there we will be able to become a prosperous nation, forgetting that a mighty edifice cannot be built on a foundation of rotten administrative machinery.

The mis governance is visible all around us in every walk of our life; at public places, in educational institutions, in hospitals, on roads, in markets, in sports field and heights of it even just a km away from Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhawan.

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Political recruitment process is a very complex issue which has many dimensions. It is not something like the hiring done by business organizations. Politics is about Power, Serving people, Managing the Nation, and wining elections and In order to avoid the career oriented behavior of MPs and MLAs, the Parliament increased the salaries of the legislatures , granted them pension and gave them numerous perks. Today the take home salary of a Legislature is approx Rs 2,00,000/month that includes his Constituency allowance and Office allowance etc.. They are also entitled to the Daily allowance for attending the Loksabha/Assembly sessions. Besides this there are numerous other perks that a Legislature enjoys.

The IAS Officers who manage the administrative machinery of the Govt , earn more than a lac per month excluding the numerous other perks that they enjoy by virtue of holding various administrative positions. They also enjoy life long pension. The same goes for the Govt doctors, Judges and other Executives working with various state as well as Central Govt.

All this was done to ensure that those managing the Govt machinery be it a Politician or an employee should be able to work honestly and diligently and devote his energies and capabilities towards the betterment of the people.

Although, India’s per capita annual income in 2019-20 was ₹1,26,968, according to provisional estimates, however, this average, given India’s large income inequality, is not an indicator of the earnings of average Indians. Sadly, India does not publish income statistics and the consumption estimates, also have not been published since 2011-12.

So, per force we got to refer to other agencies to enquire as to how much an average Indian earns. India is placed 72nd out of 116 countries according to a global ranking of average wages prepared by Picodi.com, even amongst the 16 Asian countries surveyed it ranked 10^th. The survey indicates that the average salary of an Indian employee is Rs32,800/month. As regards, UN data almost 27% are residing below poverty line, this implies that 27% population earns less than a dollar per day i.e. Rs 2400/ month.

Despite the poverty and low wages of majority Indians, the Nation has still managed to provide these Politicians and Employees managing the administrative machinery reasonably decent salaries just to ensure that they instead of taking a Career oriented approach they devote themselves to serving the people honestly.
Now the moot point is when almost 80% of the work force of a country is unable to earn more than 32000/ month , Are our Politicians and Executives managing the administrative machinery doing justice to the wages they earn ? Are they performing and delivering to the satisfaction of the people who pay for their salaries? Are they performing for the betterment of the lives of the countrymen?

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