What do you think? We have PhDs managing the country. We have endless news coverage and talking heads. We have more institutions of learning now than at any other time in history. We have MBAs and MTechs running our businesses and factories. We have achieved unprecedented economic growth, and a place in the limelight. We cry ourselves hoarse about how wonderful we are, and how our ancient culture is overflowing with spirituality and gurus and what nots. And that a glorious future belongs to us, as a glorious past supposedly did.

Time to take a reality check.

We have found water on the moon, but are unable to accurately assess the extent of poverty in the country, or maybe we don’t want to.[i] Too inconvenient and embarrassing.

India spends less than five percent of the annual budget on children.[i] Try spreading that over 447 million people below 18. More than half a century after Independence, the percentage of underweight children under 3 is still high, at 46 per cent. An estimated 50 per cent of our children are malnourished. Recent news indicates that we have managed to push our children to the brink of despair, with 26 juvenile suicides reported in four weeks in Mumbai. All this and much much more, inspite of having good policies and schemes in place. Thing is, these are useless without good people.

Compare that with the military budget of a country that was led to independence by the apostle of ahimsa.

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