National Interest

National interest is the pivot on which everyone's personal interests rest. For a couple of decades, a large number of Indians have emerged out of abysmal poverty, and the middle class has managed to lead a comfortable life. This is a recent development after almost a millennium of dehumanised life for Indian commoners. India's fabled precolonial wealth was limited to a minuscule number of households. The current somehow livable life for the middle strata and hope for the impoverished folks come from what is now an out-of-currency acronym, LPG, and the demographic dividend that India is reaping now. The matters of concern, which nobody seems to be bothered about, are that LPG is on the back burner and demographics now may be headed downwards. This is the time for concerted efforts for maximal liberalisation of business processes, sweeping privatisations, and systematic facilitations. For working out these critical tasks, the professionalization of administration is a need of the highest order. Preliberalisation queues for rationed sugar and wheat, and beggars sitting and roaming around every pavement and street corner may not be a distant reality again.

NIraj Kumar Jha