Silver Lining ?

60 days back if some one would have predicted that I would be able to listen to any one of the 3 news pieces from the Indian government, I would have shrugged off my shoulders and asked the gentleman to stop day-dreaming. To be able to listen to these 3 news pieces on a single day surely seems like a fairy tale. Manmohanics surely is not new to India, as we are still reaping the benefits of 1991 market reforms. The last 5 year term also saw Manmohan bring about some landmark decisions like Indo-US nuclear deal, NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme) and 70000 crore farm loans waiver despite being under the LEFT scanner for major portion of his stint as PM.
News that is coming in is that Nandan Nelikeni has resigned from Infosys board and has been appointed as the chair-person of the Unique Identification Number (UIN) card project. And the post it seems is equivalent to a cabinet minister’s post. This project aims at providing UIN cards to each of the 1 billion Indian citizens over the period of 4 years and is expected to generate mini IT and other outsourcing projects worth 10000 crores. UIN project aims at creating a sort of an identification number analogous to the Social Security Number in US and EU countries. While I know its late coming, but its surely something that we all as Indian citizens can boast of the largest system in the world, when it actually is implemented. The system is all great, but I am more excited about the fact that a top brass corporate brain has been literally uplifted from India’s brightest company. While this is not for the first time that a corporate guy has been approached for a government project, but none can match the caliber of Nandan Nelikeni. While I have listened to Mr. Nelikeni over the years in various interviews, he seemed not all that keen to join politics, but his book IMAGINING INDIA surely threw up few clues that he might be interested in giving something back to India. What was more heartening is the fact that the PM himself had called up Nandan and persuaded him to take up the job. One more pleasing fact that has been brought up is that the entire process took only 3 weeks – decisions at the speed of thought. This might just be a decision when many able decision makers – Manmohan Singh, Nandan Nelikeni, Narayan Murthy and many others justified as to why they are called as able decision makers.
Another news piece that came up was the 100 day plan for education from Kapil Sibal. Kapil talks about abolishing the 10th board exam and replacing the 12th board exam with an All India common entrance test. Huge debate has already been raised whether he has gone overboard in disclosing his plan and many state boards have already opposing it. While I am not sure of Kapil being able to meet his deadline and implementing his plan in full, but Kapil has surely made his intentions clear to stay clear from the path (inclusion of Sanskrit and Jyotish shastra in education and reservations in IIM’s) that his 2 predecessors had followed.
Another newspiece which might not have gathered too much space on the media pages, but is quiet as important as the other 2 news in this blog. PM has asked for transparency and public accountability from his cabinet of ministers. He has also asked the ministers to publish quarterly report on their respective portfolios. No doubt, this is a step forward in the right direction.