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CONTENTS
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Parliament, reform thyself Subhash C. Kashyap  Representative
democracy and parliamentary institutions have endured in India
for five decades and more. It is a great tribute to their strength and
resilience. To say that Parliament of India is not effective would be
a gross overstatement. Bashing Parliament and parliamentarians has
become a fashion with self-proclaimed intellectuals.
POLITICAL PARTIES Tackle disarray, factionalism Pratap Bhanu Mehta  There
is a currently fashionable
view that India’s diversity will necessarily entail a large number
of political parties. In this view, a two- party system is a product
of peculiar historical circumstances that may not be applicable to
India. Rather than lament the fact that we do not correspond to a
classic two-party model, we should recognise the fact that India’s
diversity will entail a party system that is truly its own.
JUDICIAL REFORM Protect integrity, independence Fali S. Nariman  ARMED
with a written Constitution our proud boast in India is that we are a
nation governed by laws, and not by men. But this is only true in
theory: the law is ultimately what the judges of the final court say
it is. The reach of India’s highest court is all-pervasive. The
Supreme Court sits in final judgment over the decisions not only of
the high courts in the states (there are 18 high courts for 28 states
and Union Territories), but also tribunals, (Central and State)
functioning throughout India; there are literally hundreds of them.
GOVERNANCE Make the system responsive  N.N. Vohra THE British ruled India to further their imperial interests. They left behind a seriously impoverished economy — a feudal agrarian sector and a fragile industrial base which contributed to large-scale unemployment, abysmally low incomes, widespread poverty and illiteracy. FIGHTING CORRUPTION Moral values must prevail N. Vittal 
A World
Bank defines corruption as use of public office for private profit. When
the world was divided between the two superpowers and the Cold War was on,
the World Bank did not focus on the issue of corruption as a significant
issue. The reason is obvious. So long as the Cold War prevailed, what
mattered was the ideological orientation of the country receiving the aid.
It used to be said by the superpowers, "We know that so and so is a
son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch".
CRIMINALS IN POLITICS Keep them out of public life B.G. Verghese 
India
boasts of being the world’s largest democracy. With the passage of the
73rd and 74th Amendments on Panchayati Raj, it can make the further claim
of being the most representative one, with over three million grassroot
legislators being elected, a third of them women. The country has of
course a strong democratic tradition of electoral politics and the
Election Commission has won plaudits, both at home and abroad.
EMERGING POWER Wanted leaders with vision K. Subrahmanyam  Contrary
to popular opinion, the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War with the
signing of the Paris Agreement on November 19, 1990, did not transform
the world from a bipolar to a unipolar system. As was argued by Dr
Henry Kissinger in his book Diplomacy that unprecedented event
led to the emergence of a polycentric world with the US, a
Germany-dominated European Union, China, Japan and Russia as players
in a balance of power system.FOREIGN POLICY New India’s global role M.K. Rasgotra 
Since the
end of the Cold War, the world order has been in a state of dynamic
transition. With unprecedented military, economic and technological
preponderance, the US dominates the scene. Europe is reunited, at
peace and engaged in consolidating its political unity and economic
integration. NATO, a remnant of the old order, without a security role
in Europe, has found something to do in the heart of Asia in
Afghanistan.
NEIGHBOURS Win their awe and affection  S.D. MuniINDIA’S neighbourhood is on the boil. Pakistan is struggling to resolve its self-imposed dilemma of balancing politically aroused religious extremism and calls for domestic stability and international civility. Bangladesh seems all set to follow the Pakistani model if the series of bomb blasts all over the country last month were any indication. ECONOMY  Ending
poverty still a goalParanjoy Guha Thakurta The most commonly used clich about India is that this is a country of crazy contrasts. The one generalisation, it is said, that can be made about India is that no generalisation is possible about this subcontinent of over a billion people. The world’s second most populous nation-state is very rich and very poor; it is extremely educated and extremely ignorant. ENERGY Take a holistic approach  S.K. SharmaEnergy is the prime mover of economic growth and human development. It encompasses all sectors of the economy and every section of society. There is a direct correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) and energy consumption. It has been estimated that 26 tons of oil equivalent is required for a GDP of one million rupees. FOOD & AGRICULTURE Sow right for a rich harvest S.S. Johl 
A commercially viable business
enterprise must grow and expand in size and scale. Though the Indian
agriculture sector has a vast potential for growth, yet it seems to be
suffering from irrational exploitation of natural resources,
technology fatigue and policy indifference that is creating several
kinds of bottlenecks and anomalies that are hindering its growth and
development with equity.
URBAN RENEWAL Save cities from collapse Jagmohan 
It could
be stated with a fair degree of certainty that the world of the 21st
century would be an urban world. Between 1950 and 1990, the cities
grew more than twice as fast as villages. The last decade, 1990-2000,
saw an increase of about 83 per cent in the world urban population,
and the cities have added, on an average, about 81 million people
annually.
WATER Strive for sustained supply Ramaswamy R. Iyer 
The water
scene in this country is profoundly disquieting. The one positive
aspect that we can think of is the contribution that irrigation
undoubtedly made to the Green Revolution. We can regard that as a
success story, ignoring the many qualifications that need to be made.
However, there is not much more to be said on the positive side.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Case for dangerous optimism Dr. R. A. Mashelkar 
The tasks
ahead of us will be decided essentially by the future of the India
that we foresee in 20 years. It is important to envisage a future for
the India of 2025. It must be realised, however, that visualising the
future could be a very hazardous task. Twentyfive years ago, there was
no WTO, no European Union, no AIDS, no laptop, no Internet, no mobile
phone, and so on.
EDUCATION Time for overhaul  K.N. PathakTHE overall growth and development of the country during the pre-Independence period, as we are all aware, had been not only unsatisfactory but also discriminatory. With this experience in mind, our planners thought it fit to adopt the approach of planned development of the country as a whole. WOMEN Make them partners in progress  Mrinal PandeOnce upon a time, 50-odd years ago, we Indians gave ourselves a Constitution. It is one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, and guarantees equal rights to men and women, including the right to vote, to own property, to move about freely within the country and to earn a living. POPULATION No push-button solutions Ashish Bose 
From Malthus
to Manmohan Singh (via Marx) is a long march. It is no more
politically correct to talk of "population explosion".
Instead, one talks of "demographic bonus" and the emergence
of India as a world economic power in a matter of decades. What about
population stabilisation, a much-cherished goal set out in all Five
Year Plans, from the First (1951-56) to the Tenth (2000-2007)?
ENVIRONMENT Stop overloading atmosphere Darryl D’Monte 
There is
no question that environmental issues are taking a back seat in the
country these days — a far cry from the build-up to the Earth Summit
in Rio in 1992 and for a few years later, when "green was
beautiful". Today, most environmentalists will find it difficult
to recollect who the Union Environment Minister is, in sharp contrast
to spirited advocates like Kamal Nath and Maneka Gandhi in those good
old days, along with secretaries like the formidable T.N. Seshan.
MEDICARE Majority remains in poor health Usha Rai 
Open any
glossy magazine today and there are wonderful stories on fitness
clinics—men and women on treadmills, diets and recipes galore to
keep the hard worked corporate executives fitting fit, brain ticking
on fruit juices and protein-high nuts, nutritious salads and cold
cuts. Health tourism and medical tourism are the buzzwords as patients
in search of specialised surgeries and healthcare troop into the country.
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