The governments will, over time, hopefully, figure out ways to tap into our ideas and make our nation better and stronger, as the political parties need our votes
Bill Gates wrote a book titled, ‘Business At The Speed Of Thought’ in the late 90s. When the IT boom came, we all thought it would transform society in unimaginable ways. A lot of new technologies have come in, like the Internet, fast & easy storage & retrieval of local & global information, virtual meetings, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, big data analytics, and more.
The business has transformed substantially, but not so much governance, much less judiciary (which I wrote about in an article titled, “If The Transformation Happening In Google Were To Happen In Judiciary” [1]).
The biggest change technology can bring about in governance, of the country, states, and local self-governments is making democracy“of the people, for the people, and by the people” a reality.
Abraham Lincoln’s coinage of this idea of democracy at Gettysburg was a mere wish, impractical to implement then. But today, we have technology tools to make this a reality.
Sure enough, most governments don’t decide what schemes to implement based on what the electorate wants or needs, but they do base it on what will help them make money.
We, as an electorate, can only decide who should rule us for the next 5 years and can reverse our decisions only after 5 more years. We don’t have great options but we have to make do with the limited almost equally bad options.
Be that as it may, we can keep complaining about the way things are, or, we can try to change the nation a little. We can flood the media and social media with suggestions on what we think, and what we expect from the rulers, giving suggestions on how the governments can improve the economy, business, industry, living standards, quality, and ease of living of the people.
To be fair to the Modi government, it has come up with at least a set of right priorities which most of the previous governments failed to do, like the last mile connectivity of electricity, drinking water, gas connections, affordable housing, JAM (incl bank accounts and electronic payment systems), One Nation One Ration, free Covid vaccination with digitized online certificates, free rations during Covid times, setting right the pseudo-secularism of the entire opposition class by which they were winning elections after elections, and the list is long.
No wonder, people now keep voting for BJP ignoring its failures (which are not as bad as the failures of the previous governments). And the opposition is clueless about how to stop this juggernaut.
It cannot be denied that almost always every government lives in a world of its own; often, even ministers and top bureaucrats in governments feel that way. Modi’s government is not very different.
Yet, as a thriving democracy, every government should find ways to listen to its people’s views. A million views are better than one. Of course, even with the best of intentions, sifting through the million views and selecting the right ones to implement is a challenge for any government.
I have written 100 articles in PGurus so far and forwarded some of them to the ministers and bureaucrats, government advisors, opinion leaders, et al, through Twitter and other media.
From my experience, I have found that a small percentage of my suggestions have been implemented. I don’t claim that they have been implemented based on my articles, though I don’t rule out that possibility. It’s possible that someone in the government has thought of the same or similar ideas.
But I think as citizens, we should keep voicing our ideas, suggestions, etc, to the governments. Who knows, some decision-makers in the Central and state governments may read them, like them, and implement them in their own ways.
At the very least, we would have brought some ideas and suggestions for public debate.
Let me mention a few of my suggestions which have been implemented, by the government. The Important Disclaimer is, that my ideas may or may not have been implemented based on my suggestions.
We followed almost a similar policy. Many commented that this was neither here nor there. But the broad view today about India’s handling of Covid is positive, despite its diversity and the states being ruled by the multiplicity of political parties.
There are a lot more of my substantive suggestions that have not been implemented; I don’t even know if they are even considered. I’ll summarize these unimplemented suggestions in another article. I hope at least some of them may be implemented in the days to come.
Without meaning to take any credit for any of these ideas that were implemented, I am saying that lots of people have lots of ideas but don’t care to publish them through media and social media. Let us do our best to present all our ideas. The governments will, over time, hopefully, figure out ways to tap into our ideas and make our nation better and stronger, as the political parties need our votes.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
Reference:
[1] If the transformation happening in Google were to happen in judiciary… – Jul 21, 2022, PGurus.com
[2] e-Wallets to tackle cash shortage Post-Demonetization – Nov 21, 2016, PGurus.com
[3] Secure, Open Digital Payment Systems To Tackle Cash Shortage – Dec 05, 2016, PGurus.com
[4] How To Maximize The Gains of Demonetization – Jan 28, 2017, PGurus.com
[5] e-Permits: A Bottleneck In GST Implementation – Feb 26, 2017, PGurus.com
[6] Covid-19 Lockdown Exit Strategy: Suggestions to State & Central Governments: Part -1 – Apr 09, 2020, PGurus.com
[7] Covid-19 Lockdown Exit Strategy: Suggestions to State & Central Governments: Part -2 – Apr 10, 2020, PGurus.com
PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views
For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.
