On 7/10/06, Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray debarshi.ray@gmail.com wrote:

Well I do not know what was India's condition 50 years back. But I have often heard my grand father say, that India had enough gold in it is exchequer to buy England! Coming back to serious business, the

Yes, and all that gold was concentrated to a very very small population. Now the situation has slightly improved. Now the moolah is concentrated to a very small population (note that there's one less 'very').

We had close to 90% population which was poor after our independence. The figure has improved after 50 years. We are counted among the more important nations around the world in many respects (defence, commerce, politics). Give it 50 more years and then I think we should be in a position to judge whether we have done well as a nation or not.

current policy of reservations, etc.. would surely make us a 'African' nation before long. Dr. Kalam's 2020 goal would just remain a distant dream. :-/

We have "representatives of the common man" in executive power and not visionaries. All reforms are a means to get votes and not for true upliftment. Due to this we have some half baked reforms like reservations.

I'm not completely against reservations; they should be implemented in a different manner and at a different level. Reservations in primary schools should be enforced to make sure every child gets atleast the best quality of basic education (upto 12th). Once the playing field levels out there, we can have a fair grounds to judge merit. We are in no position to judge true merit now.

Siddhesh