Republic Summit-2018:

Dear Arnab,

Though I am late in writing this blog so that it could have reached you yesterday, still, I am forwarding you with an earnest request that please discuss the following with your esteemed panellist in Republic Summit taking place on 17 & 18 Dec 2018:

1. How to address Farmer’s Stress and Dignity to Labour: Let me submit that there is hardly few who knows the real difficulties encountered by the farmers on grounds and so called self declared Agriculture Specialists on TV Channels those have passed out from Ivy-league Business Schools from abroad have no idea about them but they keep expressing their views and also keep influencing governments as well. As a result no progress was made in previous governments before the present one led by Modi. Even this government could do only a fraction of it and a large part needs to be done but it is destined now to move in that direction. Congress led governments have totally neglected farmers & village development and it is that result which is showing its effects now. Congress is now doing the greater damage now as they are deceiving farmers now with a false promise to waive their loans. It is purely for appeasement and to retain power at centre and nothing more than that. What needs to be done I have brought out in my #1 best seller book on Amazon titled “India-A $ 20 Trillion Economy by 2035-40”. It is a 100 % true that road to India fast development and an increase in GDP with commensurate increase in per capita income among the last mile i.e. extremely poor under BPL, poor and middle income groups that includes farmers and labour population as well passes through 6.68 lakh villages. How the dignity of labour could be brought at centre stage in India is a very vital issue that shall propel India ahead in many ways.

2. Defence Procurement & Manufacturing: It is fact that India had better Defence Manufacturing & Repair facilities and capacities at the time of independence than China, though China got its independence after 08 years, still it has surpassed India many times in the same. And it is purely the wrong policies of Nehru & Congress as they remained dependent only on imports to meet the requirements of India’s Defence Forces for such a long time and killed its own capabilities. It was mainly to earn huge commissions in such deals and as a result huge amount of corruption took place starting from Jeep Procurements in 1950’s, Bofor’s Gun in 1970’s & 80’s. Only grace is our Defence Shipyards as Indian Navy started building it’s designing & manufacturing (ship building) capacities in 1970’s so that we have Defence Production capable of Making Stealth Ships, AIP based Conventional & Nuclear Submarines and Air-Craft Careers. Though, India Navy ships & submarines are also dependent largely on imports as far as Engines, Under Water Systems, other Electronic Warfare Systems and weapon platforms. HAL and other defence manufacturing have also come up but not to a scale & quality which India had a potential. So, Defence Forces were devoid of building its capabilities in time and always devoid of indigenous weapons & platforms for a long time. The most alarming concern was that India Defence PSU’s were also got embroiled in to corruption and as a result in faced indefinite delays in projects, hence, could not progress at a speed as per existing capabilities. Some of PSUs were not handled by competent leadership but the political appointees those acted milking that PSU to favour a political party or its leaders in many ways through a route of corruption. 10 years of UPA rule has totally destroyed the advantage of India’s Defence Forces had against adversaries on two fronts without doing any procurement & delay in projects at PSUs. The present government within a short span of 54 months has not only formalised a comprehensive and a distinctly defined Procurement & Offset Policy but also placed huge orders those were pending due policy paralysis that exited in UPA regimes. We need to go a long way and a detailed plan towards boosting this sector is given in my book as referred at Para-1 above.

3. Why demonetisation was done? The most alarming issue was that ink & paper that was used in printing Indian High Denomination Currency was available and there were secret reports that about 15 or so state of art Printing Machines were set up in Pakistan to print them in such huge numbers to flood India Market with the same so that its Economy collapses for a long time. So, there was a need and Modi not only did Demonetisation very swiftly without any inkling to enemy of such plans but did it at a huge political risk as his own voters suffered. Still he went ahead and for that India & Indians shall always be indebted to his leadership in times ahead.

4. Lootiyan Generalists, Left Wingers and Pseudo-intellectual Support to Urban Nexals: It is very serious issue and it needs a lot of discussions during such summits in order to create awareness among the common man of India so that they understand that how such a support to urban nexals is a serious threat to the internal security of country. There is a need to define anti-national narrative or agenda propagated by such groups versus how they define it under the confines of Human Rights or Freedom of Expression or Intolerance as it ultimately hurt society at large and it is against the sovereignty of the country and also against the Constitution of India. There must be a line drawn so that a quick legal action could be initiated against who so ever indulges in any direct or proxy anti-India activities.

5. Where India stands today after 54 months of spectacular performance under Modi internally as well as globally? India Arise? It is indeed needed to discuss as to see that how many really knows what has been done and needs to be elaborated in all spheres of life as I have brought it at my book under reference. You will see that how many are having a positive attitude towards India Development. It is indeed embracing sometimes when experts or professional also gets divided on political lines and who are speaking against takes a shabby turns that pains me why they are not appreciating a good thing that has happened.

6. Climate Control & Environmental Protection: It is a very vital topic as India is heading ISA a brainchild of our PM and it is first UN organisation at India and that is being spearheaded by an Indian as well. So, India with a pledge to Paris agreement is having an ambitious target to have 225 GWe of renewable electric energy by 2022, and contributing towards C2 by 2030 and it is most likely that India even may opt for C1.5 if its Electrical Vehicle (EV) adoption goes well. Hence, this issue is indeed very important for India that is vital to be discussed at such forum as Republic Summit-2018.My recommendations are that India should go for Thorium Based Reactors and should have an ambitious Nuclear Power Generation Programme so that it meets at least about 20-25 % of its electric energy needs by 2030.There are lot more ideas that how to reduce the use of plastic or how to recycle it. Trapping it from sea float for protecting marine eco system. Also, the Trapping of carbon atoms from atmosphere and converting it in to some or just burying it, hence, a  CO2 reduction in atmosphere takes place with new emerging technologies. So, it could be a very interesting discussion.  

7. Cyber Security Framework, Data Localisation & Protection and Privacy Issues and also Digital Transformation: India is having an amazing story of boasting 1000 million Aadhaar Based Bio-Metric Authentication, 1000 million + mobile users and 1000 million plus bank accounts. Digital Transformation is at peak as about 450 million plus are using internet and per capita data consumption is very high and it stands at 4th place. Data Localisation on one side is important from cyber security point of view but not from the ROI point of view as it certainly increases the cost and against the very principle of internet or global connectivity. The Privacy issues brings more challenges in front of service providers online or for e-commerce companies. So, it shall be an interesting discussion. A way ahead for Digital Economy and its share in India GDP by 2025?

8. A way ahead for J&K: It is always a centre point in such summits as people would like to give their opinion. But important is that why we should not scrap Section-370? Why not action be initiated who propagate an anti-national agenda around this problem and who are those who speaks against Indian Armed Forces and why the action against them could not be initiated as they were from opposition or from political parties. So, it is indeed a sensitive discussion and such summit provides an opportunity to discuss them in bit more details.

Other topics that could be discussed are what impact Swacchta Abhiyan has created on Indians lives? Social Security Schemes, Ayushman Health Care Scheme, 100 Smart Cities Present Status? How successful is Skill Development Initiative?

And finally, three other most important issues that could be discussed as so vital for India are the following:

a.      How to take India ahead? What is going to be the size of Indian Economy by 2025?

b.     How the employment could be enhanced in times ahead?

c.      With loan waver to farmers the Congress is getting in to an appeasement politics like reservation which shall become a problem for the nation in times ahead. We should find a pragmatic solution to make farmers income double by 2022 rather than waiver?

Certainly the biggest point of attraction shall be the Key note address by the Honble Prime Minister where he not only shall discuss what has been achieved in last 55 months but give a vision statement as well.

So, all the best Arnab and looking forward to very positive deliberations during next 02 days.