‘Make–In–India’, is a revolutionary idea that has
been initiated by the Government of Mr. Narendra Modi, the Hon. Prime Minister.
Launched in September 2014 as part of an overall plan of nation building, it is
devised to transform India into a global design, innovation, startups and
manufacturing hub.
Two and half years later, while the Government is working hard to ensure ‘ease of doing
business’ by restructuring labor laws and other disadvantages that have
constricted business in the past, the ground reality is still a long way from
the dream that is envisaged under this initiative.
Huge
portions of the required infrastructure
are still under development, with major and industrial roads not being up-to
the required international standards. The choke points of highway toll-booths,
Octroi toll-booths and other sundry policing points by various government
departments prevent the smooth flow of traffic of raw materials and
manufactured goods, adding to the cost of raw materials as well as sale pricing.
Add to this the still defunct logistics facilities, lack of adequate
warehousing of global standards and the use of a trucking fleet made-up of old
and inefficient cargo carriers; and the obstacles are of huge proportions.
While
the campaign has attracted over Indian Rupees 2000 crore worth of investment
proposals from foreign countries, only a fraction of this has been translated
into real money-in-the-bank commitment by the investors. Labor reforms and
policy reforms have still not trickled down to the grass root levels. The
bureaucracy is still sluggish and uninspiring, and prefers to do its work as it
is used to under previous governments.
While
software technology development companies have started up operations on India using the
immediate benefits of this campaign, they still prefer their hardware to be
manufactured in China and Taiwan.
The
biggest pothole in the road to Make–In–India is the complete lack of discipline
among the citizens of our country. The
notion or idea of Pride, National interest, Quality of production is unknown
and uninteresting to the majority of our populace. As a society, we do not
believe in social obligations or civic discipline. This mostly leads to an
uninspired and non-motivated gray-collar to white-collar work force that is
unaware of global standards and also untrained the same due to lack of
knowledge on this issue.
Laws are
broken with impunity because law–enforcement is weak and prosecution is a
horribly long drawn process.
A Nation
is defined by its character. Character is not hard to define.
“Character is doing what’s right, when
nobody is looking.” Pride, Duty, Honor and Tradition! These are the four
pillars that make up a strong character.
Pride – is the manner in which we live
our life, with full commitment to our abilities and capabilities. Pride in our
work leads to dignity in our personality and strength towards our society.
Duty – is much more than an
obligation. It is a responsibility, combined with our right to live a happy and
contented life. Not for ourselves alone
are we born, said the philosopher Cicero.
Honor – when we do our duty with
honesty and pride, it leads to honor. Honor is the respect that we gain from
others in our society as an appreciation of our accomplishments.
Tradition – is the act of honoring our
ancestral and cultural roots. It is a guide path that leads us to do our duty
with pride and gain honor. Old traditions are replaced by new ones and change
with time, since traditions are always a guide and never a jailer.
Add to
this the singular most important element called Discipline.
Discipline
is the key factor for any success and that is the one factor that we are
completely ignoring in our quest to be the best of Nations. Discipline ensures that the work that needs
to be done; is done at the time it needs to be done, when most people really
don’t want to do it. The one factor that transforms an idea into
accomplishment is – Discipline.
Unless
entrepreneurs at every level, from start-up to those who are already
established enforce the concepts of civil discipline and social
responsibilities and ensure the voluntary spirit of Discipline, Duty, Pride and
Honor are practiced among all the share-holders of the effort towards long-term
entrepreneur(s) success, majority of the startups will remain dreams on paper
or crash to an early demise.
Author:
‘Sardar’ Sanjay Matkar
Mumbai – 20 December 2016
This article was published earlier in www.newsnviews.online. My thanks to them for the opportunity.
