- People across professional and academic strata taking interest in social activities (though i don't have any official estimate)- Would the corporates continue to volunteer for the sector in larger numbers? Will we be ready to explore other possibilities of synergy between the corporate and the social sector?
- Increasing trend of students to go in for the entrepreneur's route. Can we anticipate more ventures in the line of social entrepreneurship? Here's one of them
- PPP or Public Private Partnership is seeing an increasing level of acceptance amongst government ministries. Which implies that if you have the right person out there in the position of power, then a good idea might have a chance of getting scaled up by joining hands with the government
- Emergence of new political parties with more educated people in them- Loksatta, Professionals Party, Jaago Party- will these parties gain momentum as they move along? Would they be able to make any dent on the existing political setup? Should I align myself with any of them? Loksatta shows good promise, clarity of ideas and strong research foundation.
- Increase in awareness amongst youth about the vacuum in spirit of citizenship after the terrorist attack in Mumbai in the month of November- Lots of people started talking about doing something in the lines of improving the state of political affairs. One of the eminent persons of the city whom I met recently, stated that "these are positive sparks but they need to convert into flames and keep burning after that". Will they be able to acquire the knowhow on public administration that they lack today, would they be able to rise above their individual differences, understand the need of the hour, figure out the areas of complementing each other and actually sustain the promise with which they have come to the fore?
- Increasing number of debates and contests in colleges on topics related to Politics. Will the youth start taking interest in politics more than what they ever have done? Will the voter turnout for the Lok Sabha and State Elections reflect that in any respect?
- Newspapers are waking up to understand their own powers to bring about awakening amongst the educated population. TOI launched Lead India in 2007. Teach India movement followed it in 2008. Very strong messages were sent out all across. What vision did they had when they started it? Did they achieve it? What next in 2009?
- Increasing use of Facebook and other social platforms for connecting with people- So far no major political movement/ citizen group or institution in India has been able to use it effectively. Will 2009 be any different?
- Steady increase in popularity of RTI (Right to Information) as an instrument to bring about accountability in the government. Will this tool make the government truly answerable. The success of this tool will depend upon the intellect of the user though...
Haaaaaah ! Quite a few of them... There are action items for me as well amongst many of these.
Looking forward to 2009
1 comment:
I am especially excited about the way internet is shaping thought processes of people even in villages and breaking all boundaries. It poses new problems for government as it means that no censorship can exist from the side of government as people can say and read anything they want. It is not a problem as such as in USA things go fine without any censorship of internet. But in developing countries like ours, governments often try to control what people should think or do.
Also internet brings new avenues for business which would be difficult to be bound with a particular nation. For ex. if I have an e-commerce website with server hosted in USA but products located in India where should I get my company registered - in USA or India? probably where it is easy and legally allowed. But you can guess the complexities and new world that internet is trying to bring upon. With ever reaching technology, will it be possible one day that everybody can work from home and we hold video conferences, meetings from wherever we are. Because of internet , will need to travel to office be completely wiped off resulting in less traffic congestion, less pollution?
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