In the previous post I had emphasized on how ‘Wealth Creation’ is the only long term solution to alleviating the marginalized ‘ other India ’ and I also talked about how it creates certain chain reactions. However, in another post I had lamented about the sheer number of people that one finds in corridors and hallways in Indian offices. While these two might seem unrelated rants – they indeed are related. Wealth creation has always been misconstrued (especially post Indira Gandhi politics) as creation of jobs. Sometimes I feel even the new fangled corporate sector gets carried away with this. Many times when I might raise concern to some data centre managers about lack of security for the data centre and the need to put in place sophisticated mechanisms like biometric scanners – the usual immediate response is to propose an increase in number of security guards instead. Similarly I find the policy of having too many cleaners around objectionable. I remember learning about the concept...

In spite of the chants from ‘India Shining’ (by BJP 3 years ago) to ‘India Poised’ (by Times of India, NOW) - neither the poverty nor the infrastructural weaknesses of India are hidden from anyone of us. We all see child beggars on the roads everyday, inhale dust, cement and vehicular gases every hour, pass by the slums on the pavements and sniff the smell emanating from decaying waste in our neighbourhood. Each one of us is aware of the ‘two Indias’ and each one us realizes that the gap needs to be narrowed. And each one us, so I would like to believe , wants to do something about it! But only some of us seem to be doing something about it. Anouradha Bakshi who runs ProjectWhy is one such individual. She says (in an email to her network of supporters) – “Our lives are replete with the passing the buck syndrome, with trying to find someone to put the onus on. maybe it is time we are honest enough to realise that this has failed and that we need to look at ourselves and see how we can ...