Prof PB Sharma
HAVING celebrated the 78th Independence Day, we must not forget that freedom is not free; it comes with great responsibility and at the cost of self-restraint, selfregulation, and above all, accepting the fact that the liberty is at a cost. It is this cost of freedom that we need to understand even better, now that India of our dreams is in the making with Viksit Bharat@2047, a vision that has been provided by the Government under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
We also need not forget that during the last 77 years of freedom, we have made great progress and transformed a country of shortages to a country of surplus in respect of food production, taken great strides on industrial fronts to build great industrial prowess that commands a large market at home and an export capacity of $770.18 billion in 2022-23.
In respect of higher education and research and in science and technology sectors, India’s institutions have contributed significantly to the rise of the country to a great esteem. The IITs, NITs, AIIMs, IIMs, and a good number of Central and state universities and some of the private universities have earned a great pride for India. Our alumni from IITs and reputed universities have earned a great repute and we need to march forward with courage and confidence and with a deeper insight into the future, now that a new dawn of technology integration, hyper connectivity and a great support coming from AI, ML, and data analytics is available to augment our capabilities. The New India of our dreams is, undoubtedly, in the making.
Time to redeem pledge We also need to redeem the pledge that we had made at the dawn of freedom. “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge – not wholly or in full measure – but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”, said India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the midnight hour of August 15, 1947. It is this pledge that has been substantially, but not yet been fully redeemed.
We have made great progress on economic fronts, industrial development and in respect of higher education and science and technology advancements but we as a nation have fallen short of creating responsible citizenship, a more equitable society, reducing economic inequality and minimising exodus of population from rural to urban areas. The civic sense also could not be largely developed. Also, the development that we achieved on economic and industrial fronts could not save our rivers and water bodies from pollution, our air quality, the goodness of our environment and the discipline on roads.
Human behaviour
All this has happened primarily because of the neglect of the dimension of human behaviour and conduct in our national developmental goals. This does not come by teaching and preaching ethics and morals, as preaching does not work alone unless supplemented by a compelling environment of compliance to the codes of ethics and professional morals.
Today we necessarily require impacting the behaviour and create selfrestraint by use of technology and by strict implementation of rules and regulations. Great nations of the world have learnt it the hard way, as they realised that the development has no meaning unless the people are orderly and realise that the laws are for their wellbeing and safety. All advanced nations use technology to create both transparency and impact the behaviour and conduct of the people.
