Need structural and behavioral changes to improve the image of India and Indians.
1. Ensure proper pavements for walking. The sign of real development is to empower everyone to walk around safely. Zebra crossings should be respected. I noticed during a recent trip to Japan that there are people specially positioned at zebra crossings to help people to cross over. India certainly needs this service for sometime till we build an empathetic culture.
2. All the new developments in a city or town should compulsorily have walking and cycling tracks. It’s not not only healthy, it’s carbon neutral.
3. While one respects the self employed vendors/entrepreneurs on road side, it needs to be regulated with aesthetically designed and uniform looking kiosks. In fact the corporates can do their bit in these areas through their CSR
4. We need to completely ban posters be it political or cinema related or business promotions. They have no right to deface our towns and cities. Our traditional art work should be displayed instead which will make our towns and villages more aesthetic.
5. We need to work on reducing the noise level, starting from honking to toning down the loud speakers.
6. We are also very loud in public places. I noticed in Japan that you rarely see any one talking loudly and even in a crowded metro like Tokyo, it is relatively quiet.
7. Courteous service by public facing officials need to be inculcated. The processes should also be simplified to make them customer friendly. For each service, there has to be a centralized contact Centre on both e mail and phone for enquiry and grievance redressal. More and more such services be privatized. We have started seeing the change gradually
8. We need to respect blue collar workers. They are the backbone of any economy and with the prosperity of the economy, their size needs to expand.
9. The media should also start highlighting the positives of the society and start celebrating the real heroes of the society.
10. The hate mongering TV debates should be monitored and should be gradually stopped.
11. Our judiciary should become proactive, suggest changes of archaic laws and start dispensing justice with strict time lines. While in the last half century we have significant achievements in many areas including agriculture, white revolution, telecom, banking, travel & tourism, direct distribution of government benefits, our judiciary is still stuck in its archaic processes and dispensation. Quick dispensation of cases will also significantly reduce corruption, a bane of the Indian society.
12. The babu culture has to end. Our politicians and bureaucrats have to come down from the ivory tower and start behaving normally as it happens in most of the Western countries and also in many other Asian countries. This will also reduce the clamor for government jobs.
