Some Thoughts

12-Dec-2004
Dear Prime Minister,

I would like to share some of my ad hoc thoughts.

1. Every graduate, engineering or general stream including IITians must spend 1 year time between graduation and age 35 in teaching in rural and urban schools where there is a shortage of teacher. In west Bengal all MBBS doctors compulsorily have to go to village and practice there for three years before getting their degree. If doctors can do, others should also do. Though quality of teaching may suffer. But primary objective is to see more and more children pass through at least class VIII.
2. Every couple earning more than Rs 25,000 per month (combined income) should spend Rs 1500 per month to sponsor either health or education of a child in need upto age 17 years. Those who are earning 1 lacs per month should sponsor 4 children. I don’t have data on how many multiples of Rs 25000 could be found; my best guess is that we could sponsor 7-8 million children.
3. Every adult under age 50 including ministers, MPs, MLAs should spend 7 hours in a week for social work. Primary objective is to involve mass in development work like Gandhiji did during freedom struggle and to boost up the love for country.
4. We should create a general purpose R&D centre in the line of DRDO and pump Rs. 15,000 crore every year. This centre will design and test a new product which is not available in India or in the world. For example a digital thermometer which is very popular worldwide but not in India because of high price of imported thermometer. After successful testing of prototype entire technical knowhow will be sold to new entrepreneur or established business house for mass production. The product could be sub part of a bigger product like head light of a car or a complete product. The product could be as simple as making mirror or as complex as laser printer. One thing I hate is assembly of a product with the help of foreign company without having R&D unit. The point that I am trying to make is that we have to be technologically independent. Today US is politically super power because it controls 70% of the world technology. I think we should  first create a exhaustive list of products (the list may run into few lacs) and answer the following questions

Is it available in India?

Is it designed and developed by Indian Company?

Is it world class?

We should take up 5000 design projects every year. Duration of the project should be between 1 to 5 years. Projects must be selected in consultation with the industry.

5. We should encourage people to earn more and spend more. Abolish income tax upto 30 lacs per year. Introduce spending tax. Anybody earning between 3-15 lacs must spend at least 40% of their income for the purchase of items/donation/travel worth more than Rs 500 by cheque or credit card. Any shortfall from the minimum spending limit should be given as spending tax to the government. However overseas purchases or travel and any purchase over non Indian internet site should not be considered as spending. For earning between 15-30 lacs minimum spending limit should be 65%. There are few benefits

·         As people spend more, government can generate more revenue through sales tax which will offset the loss in income tax.

·         Individual will be honest not to hide their income.

·         This will increase the quality of life. Those who are planning to buy Maruti 800 will go for Zen. If I white wash my house with lime every 5 years I will now do the same every two years using Asian paints.

·         Bank interest can be further lowered because savings potential increased by 20-30% with abolition of income tax.

6. It is utmost important that we keep our best brains within our country. For long we served US and world by allowing highly skilled people leaving the country. I have few alternative proposals. All engineers, doctors and post graduates
• Cannot leave the country in foreseeable future. This is definitely tough. Or
•  Can leave the country after serving the country for 10 years. Or
• Can spend 50% of time overseas not exceeding 2 years at a stretch and 50% time in India. If some body spends 6 months in overseas, he/she must spend next 6 months in India.
• Can leave the country for higher education for maximum of 3 years.
7. There should be a subject on patriotism in school, college, IIT and IIM. We are told from our school days to become engineer/doctor/scientist and go to US/Europe. We are never taught to serve the country.
8. I would like to have a technology channel. It will show how a product is manufactured and the underlying technology from conception to production. I am personally interested to see how ISRO makes satellite from design to finished product step by step or how a paper mill works. This will make young children to be more innovative and grew up with technology. This channel should be shown in Schools once a week.