Welcome to the new year.
Whether 2019 ends up being different from 2018 is entirely up to us.
We could have more of the same on all fronts, or we could have something entirely different — and since this is a continuum we could keep constant those things we liked about 2018, and change for the better those that we didn’t.
It’s going to be a big year for India on many fronts.
Sometime in the course of the year, the country’s economy will become the fifth largest in the world — overtaking, and aptly so, the UK’s. Even those usually not given to such things are likely to experience a frisson of nationalistic pride at the country’s economy overtaking that of its one-time colonial mistress, but the more important thing is what India does with its growing wealth.
Will it make us stronger, especially in a neighbourhood where it is important to be strong?
Can it be used to better the lives of the country’s poor, numbering anything between 200 million and 400 million depending on different calculations and varying definitions of poverty?
Can it be used to address fundamental issues about education and health care that remain unresolved?
{{/usCountry}}Can it be used to address fundamental issues about education and health care that remain unresolved?
{{/usCountry}}Will this create more jobs — or, to ask the better question, can this be achieved in a manner that generates jobs?
Will it help improve the lot of our farmers?
There is another dimension to progress, though — one that deals with how a country treats the environment; of how safe minorities of all types are; of the importance attached to art and science (not technology); of how people think (even if they think differently), and how they behave; of how the past is treated and the future, prepared for.
These are big questions with no simple answers, but answer them we must, or at least attempt to.
In a Parliamentary democracy such as our own, we answer them in three ways. One, by electing, every five years (sometimes more often, but not by choice) representatives who we believe will work towards these ends, and are equipped to, not just in terms of leadership and energy, but also intelligence and integrity. There will be an opportunity for that in 2019.
Two, by actively participating in the process, sharing our efforts and ideas, and, most importantly, speaking up when we think we are following the wrong path.
And three, by translating the macro into the micro in our own work, life and behaviour. A country can only be as industrious or, for that matter, progressive as its people. A developing country needs a developing people.
And so, what better way to usher in 2019 than to borrow from Emile Coue: Every day, in every way, we are getting better and better.
Happy New Year