Ships are safer in the harbour. But they are not meant for the same.

Meaning / interpretation

Ships are made to face the tides, stand against the winds and take men and goods across the sea, they are not meant to be docked in the harbour where they will be safe but worthless. If we wanted something safe, we would have built a fortress, not a ship.  A ship should split the waves, create its path and sail across the sea to deliver the purpose of its existence.

Balance between risk and safety

It is wise to avoid danger but there is no point in living in a risk free – 100% safe- comfort zone. It is foolish to fall off a building and at the same time it is worthless to sit in a closed room forever. There should be a perfect balance between the two, one should take calculated risks and be prepared for the safety measures. One should wear harness or a parachute if one really wants to enjoy the thrill of a free fall off a building.

Importance of the balance between risk and safety

Maintaining a perfect balance between risk and safety before moving ahead has led to so many inventions and discoveries. Had it not been the quest of Columbus to take his ship to an unexplored voyage, he would not have found so many new lands. It was the curiosity and wisdom of Hillary and Tenzing which made them the first humans to climb the Mount Everest , many others had tried earlier but they failed due to lack of proper planning and safety precautions. There are many examples where people have gone out of conventions for thrill and adventure  and many, with proper risk mitigation measures, have succeeded in becoming great leaders and record breakers in almost every sphere.

Even being the best follower can take you to the second best position, but certainly not the best. Doing something differently, taking calculated risks with safety measures only will lead one to unexplored paths and thus to new outcomes and destinations. Thomas Edison, Dhirubhai Ambani, Tata and Birla are all the epitomes of SHIPS THAT SAILED ACROSS THE SEA. Had they followed someone’s footsteps or guidelines set by others, they would not have taken such big steps and we would not have known these names. There are many people who think BIG and have vision but lack courage, the ability to take risks, to be courageous enough to sacrifice their comfort zones and hence they suppress their potential.

All the discoveries till date and the businesses could not have been there if the people had taken up a safe and secure way of living . Life is meant to be lived to the fullest, one should not stay within the comfort zone forever . The potential that a human has is still not completely unraveled and there is a lot which is not known to humankind about the his own powers . Our irreplaceable brain holds power which must be explored to find the solution of the current problems. The major national problems being faced including that of poverty, unemployment etc. may get solved by trying some untested and unconventional methods and/or initiatives by the government. It is certain that the most intellectual race on the earth is not meant to live a life but to be responsible for the growth and development by exploring and exploiting his own potential.

 

Corruption is the root cause of current economic and social woes in India

Corruption is the abuse of power for personal gains. In India, there cannot be a list of corrupt people as the whole system is corrupt, from a common man travelling in a train without a ticket to a politician misusing his powers to allocate telecom spectrum for a bribe to a police officer who is supposed to be honest and a service provider for the common people. The mindset of the citizens has become corrupt during the journey of so many years, this needs to be changed by creating greater degree of awareness and honesty among the people of the country.

The spread of corruption like an epidemic disease in the country has caused a lot of harm to the country’s security, foreign relations and growth. Terrorists attack in the country would not have been possible without the help of an insider who chose to forgo his honesty for some lucrative bribery. Such incidents not only cause loss of life and property but also affect the nation’s relations with neighboring countries affecting trade and thus the GDP. Foreign investors start refraining from setting up their ships here thus slowing the growth rate of economy. Consequently the value of rupee falls below previously set records, the CAD (current account deficit) reaches its highest ever values, leading to inflation directly affecting the lives of common people who themselves started this chain with their corrupt activity. This again tempts and compels them for another corrupt activity and this cycle goes on forever.

The greed for money has replaced all powers and there is no respect or fear left for the judiciary system in the country. People have grown disrespectful towards the Indian constitution and are blindly racing for money irrespective of the morals and ethics their society and elders used to have once. As a result of these, there has been a tremendous rise in the crime rate and rape cases across the nation. Some people who still have honesty left in them are afraid of the corrupt police and officials and thus refrain from getting themselves into trouble by being honest and helpful to the society. There are many cases when the accused roams free due to lack of evidence and witnesses turning their statements at the last moments due to unsaid reasons.

Today, a time has come when the youth is becoming more aware and raising voices to uproot corrupt from the country. The best example is the Aam Aadmi Party who recently won elections in New Delhi showing the increased awareness among the voters of the country. They understand the importance of honesty and the harmful effects of corruption on an international level, how this disease is making the country hollow. This event has stirred the nation and a sense of fear has been instilled among corrupt people, showing effects in a few. This should be considered as a winning step towards a corruption free nation building.

Seeing at the current global and national economic trends, it can be said that India is on a fast track to development and will soon be recognized as  a developed country but hurdles like poverty, unemployment must be gotten rid of. This can be done by starting with the biggest disease of corruption. For this, we should start with becoming more aware and should wisely choose honest leaders so that power doesn’t go into corrupt hands and is not abused. India should focus on providing education to its youth, get them out of poverty and bring them in the decision making group and work towards upliftment of the society.

India`s 1.2 billion population is an asset for the country

India’s demographic distribution is unique in itself. Unlike most of the other countries having uniform distribution across all age groups, India’s in non uniform with people of age less than 25 years  flourishing. It is a relatively younger country and is expected to become the youngest by 2020, with the median age being 29 years. With the second highest population on the globe after China, India accounts for around 17% of the world’s population. The need of the hour is to wisely exploit the potential of the young manpower. The youngsters can take the country to the top of socio-economic development with their dynamism and enthusiasm. This asset of 1.2 billion citizens needs to be properly utilized and channelized for their as well as nation’s growth as the young population has more innovative minds.

No capital can surpass human capital. The wealth of manpower coupled with resources is the best asset a nation can have. With its human resource, China has become the world leader in many industrial sectors. It is the human resource of our nation that is attracting so many foreign investors to set up their organisations and industries and utilize the country’s resource of manpower. Many multinational IT companies have set up their offices in Indian cities for the country’s less expensive, educated, young English speaking workforce.  The huge population also supports in providing a large consumer market for such industries, again attracting foreign investors.

This workforce is useful only if we can provide them shelter, clothing, food and education and turn them from being a liability to an integral asset of the country. Providing education to them will not only get them out of poverty but also make them active participants in decision making for the country. The human resource, like any other resource, needs to be properly channelized by providing them education and other elementary needs. There is a need for employment in rural areas, various government run schemes of employment provision like MNREGA need to be properly and honestly implemented to be able to use our talented human capital to the fullest. The public schemes targeted towards the poor need to be implemented to bring the poor in the mainstream population of the country. Various schemes for rural education need to be made more attractive to allure more children towards education.

Huge population creates huge demand which is a factor for economic growth. Huge population, with huge potential and talents, if channelized properly can become the richest asset for a nation. The country’s policies should be focused towards the youth of the country and to provide a justified share of education, employment, food and a corruption free environment.

Ethics and morals cannot be taught in class rooms only

Ethics and morals of a person are defined by the actions and values with which one lives in the society. Most of the times the morals are build based on the lessons learnt from the society. Morals are the guidelines which one follows in professional as well as personal life whereas ethics take care of the needs of the group within the society to which one belongs.

India, in the earlier times had people like Mother Teresa and Swami Vivekananda who later became the epitome for moral citizens. But during the last few years there has been a great decline in the weightage given to ethics and morals leading to an increase in the corruption, crime rate, rapes, etc. Recent examples would include the attacks on Taj Hotel in Mumbai and the Nirbhaya gang rape case in Delhi. People are now developing at such a fast pace that they have forgotten the importance of morals and ethics and have become greedy and materialistic.

Nowadays, a lot of attention and focus is being been shifted to these terms, ethics and morals, and many educational institutes have included them in their course curriculum as well. But, as one must get into to pool to learn how to swim no matter how many courses he or she has done; similarly one must have the feelings from within which would help him build his own morals and ethics. Merely knowing the definitions of the terms and having an actual hands-on-experience creates a huge difference especially in this case when individual’s feeling are involved. One might be having the knowledge of the rights and wrongs but they are of no use when he is unable to act accordingly when the situation demands, for instance – one knowing that he should extend his help to the needy is of no use to the society if he sees a person lying on the road and prefers to avoid the situation.

The trend is now shifting again and the people have now started paying heed to ethics and morals. Many management institutes have realized the importance of ethics even in business and have added practical exercises in the curriculum which requires one to be morally and ethically sound while working in the society. They teach them to be responsible for the environment, plant more trees and create awareness among the people about various ongoing issues, diseases and career paths in addition to making them masters of business. Many multi-national companies have taken up Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) as an integral part of their business policy as a symbol of their responsibility towards the society.

It is thus safe to infer that ethics and morals are important in a person’s life both professional and personal. It is his morals and ethics which define his persona. It can only be learnt from the lessons of the society and mere knowledge of the topics won’t suffice. There was a time when India witnessed the presence of many great moral citizens but it all vanished in the greedy race for power and money. Today, a time has come when educational institutes and corporates have again started realizing the importance of these and are taking steps for its empowerment. Ours ethics and moral values play an important role in making us more humane towards the sufferings of our fellow human beings and adhering to the ideals of morality.

The education system is killing creativity in Indian children

Education is the form of learning that directs each individual to pursue his interests, to sharpen his skills, to become comfortably employable. The ultimate effects of education may vary from teaching others to take the nation forward to creating world class technologies depending on the individuals. It is different from being literate which is simply defined as being able to ‘read, write and speak’. There is no defined medium of education; one may learn by works of others or by his own experiences.

Creativity means doing or creating something using our imagination and education. Without creativity, there would have been no inventions and no progress in science and technology. Creativity can not be forced, it comes from within, but it needs a path which is free from restrictions in the form of compliance to certain existing rules and formulas.  One must be allowed to have his own space and time to be able to explore his inner self for creativity.

Education system on India in the olden days of Takshila and Nalanda Universities relied on creativity and was famous in the whole world for it. Only a scope for creativity in education fulfills its purpose of developing the society in totality. There is no point of educating an individual without having an effect, directly or indirectly, on the society. As mentioned earlier, education has a purpose of making an individual ‘comfortably employable’ – here the importance of comfortably is very high as it alludes to the fact that one must do what he is interested in or skilled for.

Current education system in India focuses on maximizing the number of children getting enrolled in schools by providing free schooling to rural and poor people but this could only make them employable, not ‘comfortably employable’. There are many government schools also providing free meals and scholarships to increase the number, teach them what is written in the books and get them a job. In a country like ours with a population of more that 1.2 billion, there may come a day when everyone is employed, but that would not mean that the country is educated.

The current curriculum has made the life of a common child so hectic and competitive that the child rarely has time to spare. There are so many subjects which one must study and pass irrespective of the interests. Today, the parents also have become so competitive that they pressurize the children to get them a degree to the limits that the child rather becomes a parrot, One should remember, in this way he is not getting educated, he is merely getting trained like a circus tiger.

Children should be educated in a way that they are able to decide for themselves what they want to do, what they want to become and how to live their lives. Their parents must support them in choosing their own lifestyle and hobbies. The education system should be modified in a way so as to provide a larger window for children to open up, use their creativity and become educated in a real sense.

Corruption can neither be eliminated nor be mitigated in India

Dictionary defines ‘Corruption’ as abusing the power for personal gains. It is the misuse of the power entrusted upon one by other people or organisation of the society. It is easier to play the blame game and keep pointing fingers and one another and release anger on a list of corrupt people, but one should not forget that as two hands are required to clap similarly both the parties involved in a corrupt transaction are to be blamed. One should not be a hypocrite and blame others for their corrupt actions.

The source and well as the solution for uprooting the corruption lies in the same thing- POWER. If power is not given, corruption is not possible even theoretically. On the other hand, the positive side is that it is the power which could enable one to eliminate corruption. The best example is the current scenario where Mr. Arvind Kejrival realized that sitting on ‘Dharnas’ wont be sufficient and it will take power to curb corruption. He formed a new party with the motto of uprooting the corruption while being in the system. He has even taken a few steps in the direction like introducing an anti-corruption hotline among others. We can think in two directions to get rid of corruption – one is to become highly advanced in technology and implement systems like the ticketing system in Delhi Metro or ensuring strict compliance to the existing rules and regulations which are already corruption proof. The first one is a long term plan and needs time to be implemented in a country like India which already suffers with various other problems like over-population, unemployment, poverty, etc. The second one seems feasible with an assumption that the people of the country help everyone enforce it in a true sense.

Today, there are so many loopholes and flaws in the current administrative and judicial systems that a common man has no fear whatsoever. He keeps on getting out of the hands of laws using corrupt practices after being accused for corruption in the first place. The system in other countries where the strictness and promptness of the judicial system is much higher has created a fear among the common man preventing him from getting involved in such corrupt practices. Let me take an example of a private organisation where an employee is fired right away for creating any operation mischief or indiscipline of any sort, thus setting an example for others and creating fear in them. Whereas, in government organisations, the process to punish is so lengthy and full of loopholes that the defaulter enjoys exploiting these flaws. He can even challenge the decisions of the high court and move the supreme court and remain unpunished for another few years.

To conclude, I would like to say that the time has come when younger generations have starting taking interest in politics as is pointed out by the fact that 70% of the members of Arvind Kejrival’s party AAP are below the age of 45 years. India is soon going to witness many changes in many areas leading to reduced corruption levels. It is not true to say that corruption can not be mitigated as we all know that there are countries in the world like Denmark and New Zealand which are far less corrupt that ours. We should all take part in achieving this target and start from both the ends – APEX in complying the rules and using its power to ensure zero corruption and INDIVIDUALS should also work in cohesion with a honest mental attitude and take India to the highest mark in the list of corruption free countries.