Priorities for a nation

Hi people

Here's praying that everybody still has a job and has not been severely impacted by the recession.

I was recently involved in a discussion with people really close to me around what are the priorities for India as a country at this point in time given the recessionary times, given the terror threats, both internal and external, the development or the lack of it, education etc. Let me try and put in a viewpoint here on what I think should be the priorities for our upcoming nation.

I want to start off by splitting up the priorities into short term priorities and long term priorities

Short Term Priorities
1) Dismantling of terror machinery - I consider this priority as a combination of 2 parts, one, the dismantling of current terror threats through effective protection which is short term and two, dismantling of the underlying causes, both social and economic as a long term priority. So my thought is that protection against newer terror threats, both internal and external must be our top priority for now. It will require some tough steps, but it is time to step out of our moral appendages and take them, harsh as they may seem. First, any foreigner will be thoroughly checked before he enters the country aka the USA. Second, an independent agency like the IB or the CBI need to be given autonomous powers to arrest anyone on the basis of considerable doubt. To ensure independent functioning, they could report into the CVC or the SC. There may be persecution of certain individuals, but that happens anyways, so that is OK short term.
2) Economics - I call Economics as our second priority as it is economic growth that leads to social growth and stabilization. We need to work fast towards liberalization, disinvestment and increased industrialization. The world has left us behind in economics and we still claim a moral high ground of inclusive growth. A higher rate of growth will probably involve sacrifices for certain people, but it is a short term cost necessary for economic growth. Once the economic growth happens, social development will happen as has been proved in the case of the Tata's and the Birla's of the world. Lastly, the government has no business to be in business. Its high time we took out the government control and protection of the industry to make it a globally competitive one. It has worked before as with telecom, insurance etc. So we gotta believe it will work even today.
3) Infrastructure - Infrastructure, as it exists today in India is more of a show stopper than a motivation. We need to start focusing on developing our infrastructure for the years to come. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Development of infrastructure will involve some heartburn for some sections, but it is a sacrifice that needs to be made to get India on the world map. We need more dams, we need more factories setup, we need better roads, power supply etc.
4) Saleability - We as a nation need to realise that one of the biggest strengths that India brings to the table is the skill level of its people. So given the skill level that a lot of the population does attain especially with the robust education system we have, what becomes important is the saleability of an individual. The sooner we realise that people is just another 'P' in the production mix and that people are only resources in an organization, it will be beneficial for the country. It would allow 'resources' who are not in demand to accept it and enhance their skill set to a position where they are in a supply driven market.
Long Term Priorities - I would not concentrate more on the long term priorities as they would be useful only post the meeting of short term priorities and enough has been said about them already in various forums
1) Education
2) Abolition of reservation of any and every kind
3) Social empowerment through education only
4) Abolition of Poverty by using the saleability tool described above

Eminence