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Riku Sayuj's Reviews > India 2020: A Vision For The New Millennium
India 2020: A Vision For The New Millennium
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Riku Sayuj's review
bookshelves: india, pop-policy, pop-strat, pop-texts, reference, pop-science
Aug 02, 2014
bookshelves: india, pop-policy, pop-strat, pop-texts, reference, pop-science
Vision Document #14568934
This reads too much like a bureaucratic/corporate vision document.
It goes through the routine: of the necessity for developing core competencies, technology vision, comparing with a few competitors, and so on.
However, a quick summary:
The vision is to convert India into a ‘developed nation� by 2020, this being defined as an India that will be one of the five biggest economic powers, self–reliant in energy and food security.
To this end, we are told that the primary focus is to be on developing technological competence in the core areas that India wants to excel in. This includes better use of hybrid rice, agro-processing, industry linkages, etc. in Agriculture; Developing better commercial applications and extraction technologies for our indigenous mineral wealth in Primary Sector; India to be a net exporter of technology and High-end products in Industrial Sector; a world leader in Services, especially in Software Sector; Develop our Strategic Sectors such as Defense, Satellite, etc. by focusing on dual-use technologies that will have better civilian applications; To support all this focus on the two enabling sectors most - Health and Infrastructure, in as inclusive a fashion as possible - for these are the two focus areas which will ensure that the all the progress we attain by working so hard elsewhere reaches the poor of India.
There is plenty of data, charts, and all the things that make a good report. But in the end it is not very readable and there are no big ideas that can be a take-away for the curious reader. The few good (read quotable) sections in the book are the ones directly taken from Kalam’s various speeches. I feel they are the only direct contributions by Kalam to this book.
The “vision� behind writing a book like this, to lay out a broad roadmap for technological progress, is pretty good, but the execution is quite bad� that is ironical - a good metaphor has been achieved through this book.
This reads too much like a bureaucratic/corporate vision document.
It goes through the routine: of the necessity for developing core competencies, technology vision, comparing with a few competitors, and so on.
However, a quick summary:
The vision is to convert India into a ‘developed nation� by 2020, this being defined as an India that will be one of the five biggest economic powers, self–reliant in energy and food security.
To this end, we are told that the primary focus is to be on developing technological competence in the core areas that India wants to excel in. This includes better use of hybrid rice, agro-processing, industry linkages, etc. in Agriculture; Developing better commercial applications and extraction technologies for our indigenous mineral wealth in Primary Sector; India to be a net exporter of technology and High-end products in Industrial Sector; a world leader in Services, especially in Software Sector; Develop our Strategic Sectors such as Defense, Satellite, etc. by focusing on dual-use technologies that will have better civilian applications; To support all this focus on the two enabling sectors most - Health and Infrastructure, in as inclusive a fashion as possible - for these are the two focus areas which will ensure that the all the progress we attain by working so hard elsewhere reaches the poor of India.
There is plenty of data, charts, and all the things that make a good report. But in the end it is not very readable and there are no big ideas that can be a take-away for the curious reader. The few good (read quotable) sections in the book are the ones directly taken from Kalam’s various speeches. I feel they are the only direct contributions by Kalam to this book.
The “vision� behind writing a book like this, to lay out a broad roadmap for technological progress, is pretty good, but the execution is quite bad� that is ironical - a good metaphor has been achieved through this book.
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Reading Progress
July 29, 2014
–
Started Reading
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 2, 2014
– Shelved
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
india
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
pop-policy
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
pop-strat
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
pop-texts
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
reference
August 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
pop-science
August 2, 2014
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)
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Manny
(new)
Aug 03, 2014 07:20AM
But do you think that this is what will actually happen, more or less? To the external observer, it doesn't seem at all unlikely. Though maybe it will take longer than six years.
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Manny wrote: "But do you think that this is what will actually happen, more or less? To the external observer, it doesn't seem at all unlikely. Though maybe it will take longer than six years."As a vision of a vision, it is fine. As I said, it did not make for a good roadmap, which was the point of the book.
It will take more than 6 years... India has too many internal/structural problems waiting to erupt, too long glossed over.
As Doctor Trelawney likes to say in Dance to the Music of Time, the Vision of Visions heals the Blindness of Sight.
Manny wrote: "As Doctor Trelawney likes to say in Dance to the Music of Time, the Vision of Visions heals the Blindness of Sight."I think I gave too decent a summary of a very haphazard book... (but you are a poet, Manny.)
What is the likelihood that (some or all) of these ideas will become government policy, Riku? Perhaps some of them do not need to be policy, but simply work their way into the various stakeholding parts of society?I see on the web site that a very strict population policy is advocated. (Basically one child per couple.)
It's really too bad that the book isn't more
