“India is the cradle of
the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the
grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable
and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India
only.”
This quote of Mark Twain
made somewhere in 18th-century stands tall and true even today. The need is to
just take a deeper look into the treasure in abundance here:
ORIGINAL
SCRIPTURES
The Vedas and the
Upanishads are the most indestructible gems that we possess and if deciphered
accurately, there are chances of us shining again with spotless perfection for
centuries to come. The need here is to decode the literature as it explains
every topic on earth from art and literature to the origin of the universe to
medical and surgical advancement. The oneness of the universe and humanity are
all described well in the scriptures. The western philosophers have got
influenced by these scriptures and always have mentioned in their journals and
writings. Surprisingly, we as Indians may have ignored this treasure but the
west has not left a chance in taking the advantage of it. Need I say more about one reason to learn Sanskrit!
STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
The progress and our
contribution to the world in the fields of STEM are the least celebrated and
remain unknown to the common man. Starting from the recent mission to Mars, our
Mangalyaan has created a historical feat as one of the most low cost yet highly
functioning spacecraft till date and we being the only nation to reach Mars
orbit in its first attempt. The invention of the first tablet “Aakash”, The first
in India and the world’s second IVF baby by Subhash Mukhopadhyay, the invention
of fibre optics, Narinder Singh Kapany,
led to revolution in fields like communications, lasers, solar energy,
Biomedical instrumentation, pollution monitoring etc. Our presence in the team
of Higg’s Boson Particle discovery and the first Indian-origin winner of the
most coveted Fields Medal in Mathematics gives us enough evidences to believe
in our capabilities and progress further to be the super power in future.
CULTURE
AND TOURISM
The magnificence of
Indian culture lies in the enormous variety of customs followed, art and literature,
cuisines, dance and music that can be seen as one travels from the North to
South or East to West. The presence of gastronomic delights, curries and
sweets, rich heritage, colourful festivals, golden deserts, vibrant markets of
handicraft, beaches and backwaters, all has attracted millions of tourists’
inspite of the negative image created by foreign media. And this trend is going
to rise high as our country has now put itself on the global map as one of the
rising economies.
SPIRITUALISM
The art of yoga and
Ayurveda were introduced by us to the world and then came the spirituality. The
capitalism and the materialistic lifestyle of the west created the imbalance in
their life and in the quest of inner peace; they all thronged to the Indian way
of spiritualism that believes in co-existence. The mystical charm of ours has
taught the world to be compassionate and loving being. The world leaders like
Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama and others have always mentioned the inspiration
they draw from our country.
ABUNDANCE
OF HUMAN RESOURCES
While most of us see the
growing population of our country as a huge threat to prosperity, it can be
seen as an exciting opportunity as we are one of the emerging economies of the
world. The recent mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing facilities are
paving the way for a bright future for all of us. It is expected that India
will add around 250 million to its labour pool at the rate of about 18 million
per year by 2020 to the world. What all we need is to train our workforce well
and take the benefits of being the youngest population.
THE
UNBROACHED COASTLINE
With around 7500 km of
coastline available to us, it is an untapped resource of power and energy. It
is actually the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which can be explored for
extracting fishes, minerals, gas, oil etc. In addition to this the beaches can
be developed into a goldmine of tourism. The natural variance of seaweeds also
opens up the research opportunities for industrial and medical purposes.
The idea is to go local
and yet global in our approach by training the human resources in R & D in
the field of oceanography. From solar to
wind to hydrological energy, the potential along the sea line is so huge that
all our domestic power needs can easily be met through these renewable sources
alone. The only step required from our government is a regime of the
public-private partnership with targets to be met within a stipulated time of a
decade or so. Gujarat is one live example of what we can achieve by utilizing
the water resources.
“Each state of India is
full of unutilized resources that are waiting to be exploited. Thus, we must
admire the uniqueness of ours.”
