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National and international experts analyse why 2011 could be the turning
point for India
N. R. NARAYANA MURTHY on stemming corruption
Soli J. Sorabjee on culture of tolerance
R. K. Pachauri on energy security
gen V. P. malik (retd) on military strategies
Dr Amit Mitra on the economy
Fali S. nariman on quick
justice mushahid hussain on Pakistan
michael Krepon on India’s foreign policy
K. Srinath Reddy on better healthcare
Plus Commentaries on National Politics, the Prime Minister, Home, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Education, Agriculture, Law, Technology and the agenda for Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Delhi
Taking the big
LEAP
In 2011, as a nation we
are once again at critical crossroads. We can either allow ourselves
to descend into chaos and anarchy or rise to peace and prosperity
 Raj Chengappa
Editor-in-Chief
THE word ‘reckoning’
has many meanings. Some are banal such as the act of counting or
calculating; the settlement of an account or bill; a summing up. Other
meanings are more ominous: as retribution for one’s action; an
avengement or punishment. Dictionaries define the day of reckoning as
the time when one’s past mistakes or misdeeds catch up with one or
when one is forced to deal with an unpleasant situation which has been
avoided until now.
Nation
Clean up the system
 Pass the Lokpal Bill to
investigate charges against politicians, bureaucrats and the
judiciary. And SEBI should make norms on corporate governance
mandatory
N. R. Narayana Murthy
Chairman of the Board
and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies
WHAT can we achieve in
2011 that will make this country a better place? I will talk about
three to four tasks that are well within our achievability. First, we need a Lokpal
Bill with the Lokpal having full powers to investigate charges against
politicians, judges and bureaucrats.
DEmocracy
Towards
a new culture of tolerance
 The priority should be to
promote tolerance in our multi-religious, multi-cultural nation
and strengthen pluralist democracy
Soli J. Sorabjee
Eminent jurist and a former Attorney-General for India
Democracy
has various definitions and many features. However, its
indispensable features are the right to dissent and prevalence of
tolerance. Tolerance entails a positive attitude, which permits
and protects not only the expression of thoughts and ideas that
are acceptable but also accords an accommodation as hospitable to
the thought we hate as that assured to the orthodoxies of the day.
JUDICIARY
 Ensure
quick justice
Fali S. Nariman
Distinguished jurist and former MP
IN
the past 10 years (2000 to 2010), our established legal system has
become unpopular because of too much law, too little justice, too
much rhetoric and too little reform. In the coming decade
(2011-2020), we need to move on: to do something different, something
that we have not done before.
politics
Coalitions
are here to stay
The electorate will be
watching how sincere the Congress is in dealing with corruption and
whether the gap between what it practices and what it preaches is
narrowing or not
Kamlendra Kanwar
AS
we reflect on the year gone by and mull over the tidings for 2011 on
the country’s political stage, one thing is clear — that the
return of the era of single-party governments at the Centre is nowhere
in sight. Indeed, coalitions have become the order of the day both at
the Centre and in the states.
the
prime minister
Time to
redeem himself
Today, as economic reforms
are seen to have become synonymous with corruption, Manmohan Singh
faces the onerous task of restoring confidence in the system
Anita Katyal
WHEN
Congress president Sonia Gandhi declined to be Prime Minister in 2004,
her decision met with approval of the middle class, which was partial
to economist-turned-politician Manmohan Singh, who was picked for the
country’s top post.
home
Make
the home front secure
Chidambaram needs to deliver
on counter-terrorism measures and handle Kashmir and Telangana
Ajay Banerjee
MORE
than two years after P. Chidambaram took over as Union Home Minister,
the next 12 months will, in many ways, define how India judges UPA’s
second term. The Home Ministry will have its hands full tackling a mélange
of issues. It will need a balanced and focussed approach, coupled with
flexibility, firmness, rationale and transparency.
external
affairs
End
the policy of ambiguity
Krishna will have to do a
tightrope walk in 2011 and take a tough stand on key issues,
especially on Iran
Ashok Tuteja
Diplomacy,
it is said, is the art of the possible. Assess your national interests
and stand up for what you think is right. Indian diplomats, no doubt,
performed this task with finesse in the year gone by. But the road
ahead is quite bumpy.
defence
Focus
on a modernised force
Antony will have to plough
through controversies and concentrate on equipment upgradation
Dinesh Kumar
India
is in the midst of its most ambitious defence modernisation programme.
From equipping the Infantry’s foot soldier for 21st century warfare
to purchasing a wide range of artillery and inducting high-end weapon
technology such as submarines and fighter aircraft for the Navy and
Air Force, the list is long, if not endless.
education
Deliver
on the bright ideas
Sibal must get past
Parliament pioneering legislation that could transform higher
education
Aditi Tandon
AS
we enter 2011, having notified the ambitious Right to Education (RTE)
Act, last year, we must pose ourselves a simple query: why is it that
after more than 10 years of another ambitious programme — the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — every third child in India still drops out
of school by class V and every second child junks the system by class
VIII?
environment
Use
the new opportunities
The year must mark a turning
point in the implementation of the National Action Plan on Climate
Change to achieve the higher level of energy security and sustainable
development
 R. K. Pachauri
Director-General, The Energy & Resources Institute
THE
year 2010 has been a significant period in India’s evolution as a
country of global importance. The fact that the year ended with major
world leaders visiting this country clearly shows that we are the
focus of attention for the big powers which constitute the five
permanent members of the Security Council. Significantly, leaders from
all these five nations travelled to India during the year.
health
Consolidate
healthcare, create a cadre
 The future challenge is to
deal with the disorders of maladapted modernity, along with the
diseases of under-development
K. Srinath Reddy
President, Public Health Foundation of India
AS
India advances into 2011, optimism about accelerated economic growth
must be tempered by the realisation that our health indicators are
lagging far behind. A country in which 45 per cent of the children
under five are undernourished and account for a third of the global
deaths due to measles cannot claim to be a rapidly developing nation.
armed
forces
Focus on reform,
refurbishment
India’s military
strategies and doctrines must be flexible, capable of rapid
application in any unforeseen circumstances and ready for the entire
spectrum of conflict
 Gen V. P. Malik (retd)
Former Chief of Army
Staff
AN important assumption
in military strategy is that "Despite whatever effort there
may be to prevent it, there may be a war!" This assumption is
neither provocative nor a justification for the existence of the armed
forces. History tells us that nations that neglect this historical
determinism make themselves vulnerable to military surprise, defeat
and ignominy.
ECONOMY
Don’t
break the momentum
A 9 per cent and more growth
in the economy is predicted, if government policies are proactive
 Dr Amit Mitra
Secretary-General, FICCI
the
year 2010 will be remembered as the year when the Indian economy
returned to its pre-crisis growth trajectory. With both consumption
and investment demand going strong, it seems that this growth momentum
will be maintained in 2011 as well. I am, therefore, confident that
our economy would grow by more than 9 per cent in the year 2011. I
would, however, add a caveat that for ensuring this performance, the
government policies will have to be proactive.
HEALTH
Boost
healthcare funding
Azad must push for a massive
increase in the public health expenditure, apart from ensuring quality
of delivery
Aditi Tandon
Last
year was about India’s growth story and how its economy was shining
despite the odds. But even in the sheen, something was amiss. That
something became clear in November 2010 when the Global Human
Development Report showed India that income growths did not guarantee
human development, and if nations invested sluggishly in health, they
would lose the hard-earned economic gains.
Law
Restore
people’s faith
Moily must strive for a
threadbare debate on the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill
V. Eshwar Anand
AS
the judiciary is the last hope of the common man, there is a need to
streamline it in 2011 and restore people’s faith in the system. The
first priority, of course, is to tackle judicial corruption. The
Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010, tabled in the Lok
Sabha amid din, should be debated threadbare in the Budget session of
Parliament.
agriculture
Food
security is the key
Pawar should implement the
National Commission on Farmers’ recommendation on the MSP and invest
in grain storage
Vibha Sharma
THE
year 2011 will be a defining year in India’s agricultural history,
says eminent agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan. If the
government does not implement commitments made under the National
Policy for Farmers laid on the table of Parliament in November 2007,
both farmers and farming could be in trouble.
Technology
Get
ready for the e-revolution
Speed, content, Internet
penetration, more languages, better platforms, hi-res screens —
Indians want it all
Roopinder Singh
Technology
transforms lives and as we look at the year ahead, we see many ways in
which it will make inroads into the way we live our day-to-day life.
Most Indians own a mobile phone, 70 per cent according to one
estimate. Indian mobile phone rates are among the lowest in the world,
and thus we expect even more value-added services.
Pakistan
Expect
political change
 If there is clarity on
Pakistan’s foreign policy, the country’s political landscape
presents confusion and an unravelling of the government that replaced
the Musharraf Order in 2008
Mushahid Hussain
Secretary-General, Pakistan Muslim League
WITH
Pakistan entering 2011, a crucial year for the region, the country is
exuding confidence and clarity regarding the geopolitical scenario,
but there is confusion in domestic politics. This confusion has set
the stage for political change, whose contours are not yet clear.
world
view
Watch out for ‘familiar’
surprises
 For the US, given New
Delhi’s policy continuity, relations with India will improve, but a
settlement in Afghanistan remains bleak
Michael Krepon
Co-founder, The Stimson Centre, Washington DC
Every New Year has its
share of modest surprises, but it takes big shocks to generate
significant changes in the national security policy.
"Familiar" surprise comes with the territory in India’s
neighbourhood – the kind of surprise that is more a matter of timing
than of content.
Punjab
Last chance for Badal
Administrative reforms
and fresh initiatives in the education and industrial sectors are what
the Badal government needs to deliver if it has to win Punjab again
Jangveer Singh
While a few mega
projects, computerisation of land records coupled with administrative
reforms seem to be the Punjab Government’s mantra for success in its
last year in office, good governance and the ability to conjure up
innovative ideas to tackle unemployment as well as increase
entrepreneurship are what the people could be expecting from it this
year.
HIMachal
Himalayan
task for Dhumal
With the huge fiscal gap, the
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister will have no option but to give up his
populist policies
Rakesh Lohumi
with
a financial crisis
looming in the state, accelerating the pace of development and
consolidating the gains of initiatives taken over the past three years
will be a huge challenge for the hill state in the new year. The
financial position of the government will worsen progressively as the
gap between income and expenditure widens steadily on account of
increasing wage-bill and other committed liabilities due to
unfavourable recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission, which
have come into force from the current fiscal.
Haryana
Crack
the whip, Hooda
The Haryana Chief Minister
must show toughness and deliver on several major fronts
Yoginder Gupta
After
having formulated several schemes in various fields for people’s
welfare during the last six years, now is the time for the Hooda
Government in Haryana to consolidate these schemes and their gains. In
2005, when the Congress Government was formed in the state, Haryana
was awfully short of power.
j&k
Omar
needs to reverse the radicalisation
The Jammu and Kashmir Chief
Minister must ensure good governance and work overtime with the Centre
to reduce the deeply entrenched trust deficit
Mohammad Sayeed Malik
the
dynamics of Kashmir politics is so tricky that predicting future
events is a hazardous job even in the best ‘fair weather’
conditions. Atmospherics in the past year (2010) have been so
turbulent — and for so long — that the troubled border state’s
political landscape looks too ravaged to hope for an early recovery.
uttarakhand
Evolve consensus,
Nishank
Besides pragmatic
policies, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister should harness the state’s
resources, put the brakes on wasteful expenditure and rein in its
bureaucrats
S. M. A. Kazmi
the year 2011 being the
fifth year in office of the BJP government, with Assembly elections
due before February next year, the state government headed by Ramesh
Pokhriyal Nishank has moved into election mode. The state government
has promised 70,000 jobs to the unemployed youth and sops to every
section of state government employees despite heavy financial burden.
However, the crucial issues related to the overall development of the
state that needed immediate attention have been relegated to the
background.
delhi
Dikshit
needs to make Delhi safer for women
Apart from stemming crimes
against women, the Chief Minister will have to tackle the traffic
chaos
Kumar Rakesh
Delhi
has had yet another makeover. Numerous flyovers have been built. The
Metro network, which is still expanding, in addition to the low-floor
buses, has improved and moderinsed the city’s mass transport system
to a great extent. On the flip side, it has more vehicles, especially
private cars and SUVs, than its roads can cope with, causing frequent
jams across the city every day.
sports
A
tasty, testy fare
Cricket will grab attention
— as usual. India may be runaway favourites to win the World Cup but
England, South Africa and even Sri Lanka can give us a run for our
money
Jaideep Ghosh
This
year will be definitive in terms of 50-overs cricket. The World Cup
comes to the region where the game goes beyond just relevant, into a
world of near-insanity. This is also the world, which makes money for
the International Cricket Council (ICC). If it could have its way,
it’d most probably hold all World Cups in India.
sports
Time
for a new sports order
We need to focus on hockey
and cleaning up the sports administration
M. S. Unnikrishnan
After
a hectic 2010, it will be practice time for the Indian sportspersons,
particularly the elite ones in reckoning for an Olympic berth, in
2011. After winning one gold and two bronze medals in the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, India fancy their chances of grabbing more medals in the
2012 London Olympics.
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