I am sure Madhav Rao Scindia would be missed by many, nationally, as well as in Delhi. I had an opportunity to visit him in Gwalior with my family and spend a whole day with his family,many years ago. I went to his school and met the students, and noticed that Madhav Rao Scindia was full of energy at that time. He and I had many interactions in Delhi. I was told that he had planned to be at the function today and I was hoping to meet him. Unfortunately, I heard about his death yesterday around 4:15 p.m. when I was meeting with some friends at the hotel. We were all shocked and I am sure he will be missed by all of us.

It is indeed an honour to be nominated for the “Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and Management Sciences”. I will be accepting this award on behalf of lots of my collegues, the people I worked with at C-Dot, C-DA, D.O.T., Telecom Commission and Technology Missions It is a recognition not only for my work but also for the work of all my colleagues who had put in long hours, many hours, in building telecom infrastructure for the nation, which now people did notice of. Lots of young people in those days, average age of 23 years, worked for atleast 16 to 18 hrs a day. Many of the parents could not believe that you could work for a government organisation beyond 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.

I remember one couple coming to my office to check on their son, because he was telling them that he was working after 9 O’clock in the evening and they thought that something was missing here. So they came to check on him, he was working, and they were surprised as to what was it that we all did there and I think this award really goes to lot of those young kinds who had put in and given their best of time.

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s name means a lot to people like me. I have been attaching and participating to some extent on the Indian scene, on and off. Lal Bahadur Shastri once said, “we have to develop a clean, efficient, versatile, sensitive and, responsive administration”. It was true then and it is truer now. He said for all it has to be an administration in which people will have faith and confidence. This was also true then and it is truer today. So when Anil Shastri called me, I really got excited on his invitation to come here. I also then found out that I will be joining the company of a friend like C.K. Prahlad who has been a great friend, visionary, a professor in US, and I am delighted that I have been given this opportunity to be on the same list as C.K. Prahlad. I am just about 60 years old; I have been 30 years in India and 30 years in US.

I went to US in 1964, came back to India for a while. So, if I look at the balance, roughly 60 years of my life has been split in half and half. The best of the best of my time has been in India. I had the most interesting period in Rajiv Gandhi’s time. I was privileged to work with Mr. Deshmukh when he was Cabinet Secretary. It was very romantic, especially for me. We were all piped up then, all possessed in our own way; different ways, to do something interesting and unique. I had an opportunity to work with my colleagues on Telecom - Mr. Mimansi Dr. Pitke, Mr. Saxena. I also had an opportunity to work on a dream mission and then I learnt a great deal about management. I had no idea of how these things got done in a complex society like this. I was simply a corporate man with an engineering background. I did not know the difference between the Minister of State and Joint Secretary, because I had left India when I was just about 23 years old.

Then Anil Shastri called in, talked to me about the subject. I was worried that he will ask me to speak about information technology and he was worried that I will talk about information technology. So when he asked me that what would you like to talk about,I said I don’t know, what would you like to hear? So he said,well what do you think we should do?So, I said well, can I talk about something totally different like “VISION, VALUE AND VELOCITY OF DEVELOPMENT”. He was immediately thrilled and said that hey that’s an interesting idea. I was worried that you might decide to talk about IT. So, somehow we had reading of the mind.

“To me, this is a crux of the matter in nation building, and I am going to share with you some of my experiences and my understanding of how to go about organizing management skills to focus on building a nation”.

All of us find that when we meet in social settings, we all talk about what can we do for India. Why aren’t we moving as fast as everydbody else is moving? With all the talent around within India, outside India, what’s wrong with us? This has been a topic of discussion atleast in my friends’ circle for last 40 years ever since I came to college.

In Rajiv’s era, I learnt bits and pieces to answer these questions but I don’t think we have the real answers. There have been defining moments for India to leapfrog into the future. When Rajeev came to power, we all thought this is it, a young, energetic Prime Minister, with no excess baggage, would probably make a difference. Somehow, as a nation we could really carry on as a team. So the reason I selected this topic, is that after 55 years of independence, we all recognize and accept that we have done a great deal, but we all also recognize and accept that we havent done enough. We could have achieved a lot morewith the talent at home and abroad. Today NRIs success stories are very well known all over this world.

When I went to US in 60’s, we were all students. Today, the Indian Mafia, essentially in the corporate world in America, is very powerful. I can pick up the phone and call on anybody, in any major corporate world or company in US and get instant access. This group of talented people who went from here has really created a miracle for themselves, their community and for the pride of the nation. I really want to give one example. One day I was in New York at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, my meeting got canceled. My son was with me and I said, “look we have one hour, let’s do something meaningful”. He said, “what you want to do”. I said, “let’s call President of Citibank and we have tea with him”. He said, “daddy “are you crazy?”Why the President of Citibank, just like that, drop everything and will have tea with you. I said ok let’s try. So I picked up the phone and I called Mr. Menez. I had never met him before but we have talked. “Victor this is Sam, I am in town, what are you doing”. He said, ‘I am just going into a meeting’. So, I said, I am just next-door. He said, “Come on we would have a cup of tea”. So we went there and my son was literally shaking. He said, “how could you do this” and I said, “this is Indian connection, worth all the cards”, and then he said, “how come then you all can’t do something in India” and I had no answer for him. So I have to explore this topic, “mix of right vision and right valves for achieving the velocity of development” little more.

We are a country of billion people, unfortunately we don’t think like a country of a billion people many a times. All our efforts are marginally small. We want incremental gains. We do not want generational change, so we get upset with generational change. It is a bit very uncomfortable the chaos we have created. On one hand, this country had a long history of accomplishment. We have given this world great religion, non-vio-lence, mathematics, the concept of zero, astrophysicists, medicines, you name it. At the same time, we are filled with poor, country’s full of illiteracy, poor infrastructure, poor health services. Forwarding on and on that bites you. Actually it’s been out for a while. If you are anywhere, you get use to it and you don’t see it the way someone else did it when he comes from outside.

“Development is a very complex process, especially in a country like India, full of diversity and at the same time democratic institutions. The challenge really has been a management challenge.”

In India, management is the key, but every one thinks management is very simple, everybody is a great manager and I find management is the toughest issue. We face challenge in India to motivate, mobilize, acknowledge, and monitor human resource. It is the challenge of this country.

“To do that I believe you first make a VISION. Then this vision has to be based on values, if you have the right vision and the right value, ability to articulte this vision, I think you get the velocity of development and that’s what I want to talk about”

We want a vision of India. When I talk to people and ask them about their view of India I get different answers - vision that is clear, consistent, inspirational and empowering. Vision, which clearly outlines what you want India to be. It is not the party manifesto. It is not the vision of Congress party, BJP, Janta Dal. It is the vision of the nation which has been debated, discussed, articulated and ultimately developed out of consensus and this is most difficult to do and I don’t think we have even attempted to do this. I would like to tell you what has never been discussed, that on August of 1985 we were going to disclose to the nation a vision document which was going to be debated on television, radios and all that and everything was worked out. They had put together document, which was discussed within PMO in Rajeev Gandhi’s time, unfortunately Punjab Accord took over and on 15th of August Punjab Accord was discussed and the vision document remained on the back burner. It never got out in public.

That’s what performance is all about. This vision then has to be broken down into state level vision, district level vision, and institutional vision, vision for NGO, youth, women, government, and business.

If we look at corporate structure, there is always a “Mission Statement”. Even companies like GE has a mission statement. This is such simple and sometimes you want to know what does it really means. What it means is a clear sense of direction, when everybody can really put around their resources and together move forward. I don’t think we as a nation have been able to build its vision.

I remember almost 25 years ago, Chinese had their vision. I read the document, very clear vision, which articulated 4-point programme. I used to go to China quite often, once every 3 months in those days. I had a chance to go to Shanghai just about a month ago and I had not been to Shanghai for 20 years, normally I go to Beijing and Keisein and this time when I went to Shanghai I felt very depressed. I saw Shanghai, it was so very different from the Shanghai that I had seen 20 years ago which was more like any Indian city or little bit like Bombay. Today it is full of skyscrapers, modern roads, modern infrastructure, an unbelievable site. In 20 years they have completely transformed the city of Shanghai and I could not simply resist saying to myself why can’t we do it.

They could do it because they had a vision which they could articulate, mobilize and there are lots of other issues as well, so we cannot undermine those. But we need that vision of a nation which says,

“we are going to be secular, strong, united, economic power”.

I have now come to realize at the tail end of my career that there is this golden rule in this world. One who has gold makes the rule and if we can’t be economic power we won’t get hearing in the world community. No one is going to pay attention to a country of billion people. Everyone will pay attention to a country with lot of gold. I think our dream will have to be to create economic power that will automatically address poverty, infrastructure, and institution. We haven’t really yet understood the power in the global community or the economic base that we need, because of the issue of mindset. We have a feudal hierarchical mindset. We believe things cannot be done. When you tell somebody that you want to do this. There are 10 people who will tell you don’t do that, why did you do this. If you want to go to north they will say no no, go east. It you want to go east they will say, why don’t you go west. Basically what they are saying is don’t move, because if you make a move you might make a mistake and if you make a mistake it will be bad; everybody will talk about it. So don’t take risk. This is an antithesis to nation building.

“What you really need is focus on basic infrastructure, basic needs, institutions, processes, privatization, employment, the whole issue of central state relationships and the vision that really takes you beyond personal agenda into public agenda”.

I will give you an example of a vision. Take for example IT.

“Information Technology brings about openness, accessibility, connectivity, networking, democratisation and decentralisation, and as a result.

Information Technology is not about foreign exchange, software jobs and building new companies to do work for multi-nationals abroad. It is unfortunate that at times our best of the best talents is busy sorting problems of the west. And as a result, developing world does not get the best brains to address tougher problems. IT, as we have seen in India, could be a major element in transforming India. I believe the British Raj procedures that theBritish Raj left, we are still driving those. So we are getting worst of both as opposed to questioning everyone of these procedures to see it IT era can redefine these procedures. For example, how to open a bank account. Today we are computerizing the existing bank account procedure. The key question is - do we really need this process to open a bank account. Land records; here is a unique opportunity to leapfrog into the future with IT vision, which really takes us out of the past into the future but when you want to go to the future you got to leave your past behind and many a times we are afraid to leave things behind. The fact that you want to move forward automaticaly means that you got to leave something behind and when we want to leave things behind we are quite uncomfortable to leave anything behind. We want to always carry more and more of the past in the name of the tradition, in the name of culture and oppose to take just to break with the past at some point of time to take advantage of the future.

When you have a National Vision, IT Vision have to fit in to national vision and without a link of various vision elements you cannot really carry the whole thing forward.

That brings me to VALUE.

VALUE as a foundation to implement vision.

Value got the foundation to implement vision.

You cannot have a vision without right set of values.

“Simple - integrity, honesty, openness, fairness, equality, simplicity, courage, sense of sacrifice, tolerance, passion and perseverance”.

These are all simple words but very difficult to live with. Many a times one word can take you years to understand and internalize. If you can internalize these things become simple. If you can’t really practice what you preach, values have no meaning. You look at the independence movement; all our leaders were inspiring because they practiced, what they preached. I don’t think we have a similar set for modernization movement. Independence movement to some extent was easier - enemy was identified, clear and there was a very simple agenda; get him out. The modernization movement has a very complex agend - enemy is within each one of us, too many conflicting priorities; everyone wants bigger and bigger piece of the pie without giving up anything and everybody wants instant gratification, now. At the same time there are no good role models. f you ask ten people (young people in India), “Who is your role model”? They probably will and would wind up saying Mahatama Gandhi because they put Mahatama Gandhi on the pedestal to look up once in a while and then you go around doing whatever you are doing. I don’t find Gandhi lives in India anymore in terms of values.We need to create local role models, whether they are sports people, politicians, actors, musicians, teachers, professors, businessmen, and administration whatever. These are the local heroes we need to recognize to create values in the system.

From values you really create “PROCESSES”.

“Processes those are consistent, transparent and stable”.

I have a friend of mine at Merrill Lynch, who is a Vice Chairman. He and I had a lunch a year ago, and we were talking about investment in India, and he said Sam our biggest problem is consistency. He said we couldn’t really guarantee policies in India. We are always afraid that somebody will change it. Next minister will come in and he will change the policies because the last minister had said something or next administration would come in and change it. He said what we want is consistency, transparency, a stable framework for policies and I believe that comes from values. Values don’t change, fundamental policies don’t change. Look at the policies we have had for many years.

Recently, I found a study done by McKinscy, which basically outlines three areas of concern. These three areas include:

1. Distortion in the Property Market

2. Privatisation of Government Assets and,

3. Complex Laws

First one is “Distortion in the Property Market”. We have all known this for a long time that it costs crores to buy a good Apartment in Bombay. Why? No body really wants to address this issue. Property market is out of whack. 90% of the titles are illegal. The laws are such that the stamp duty requires 10% to transfer property. I wanted to buy a house for myself. I couldn’t buy because everybody wanted some money in black. I don’t have black money because I have no need to earn black money. I lived in US. all my earnings are in US and it’s all-clean. I could not buy a house in Delhi. I tried for 5 years to talk to somebody; everything would be fine all the way up to the end. In the last ten minutes, something would come up in a very supple way and we couldn’t conduct the transaction. Finally, I found a small little apartment in Ahmedabad for 27 lac rupees. I bought it five years ago. I have not entered that place yet, but I wanted for my wife a small little place in India. Why couldn’t I buy openly into open market with right kind of money, the property? We have all known this but no body wants to face this. This is some thing you don’t talk about. When you talk about that there are all kind of reasons people come up with. We have to listen to those reasons and see the vested interests.

In India, 1% of the employment is in the housing market. In developing world it is 5% to 6%. Housing market doesn’t require lot of foreign technology, foreign know-how, and expertise. It is to dig some mud, make some bricks and start building, recreate millions of jobs. In Rajiv Gandhi’s time we did a study. “How to create 10 million jobs”, and we identified the amount of investment required to create one job in a sector, housing, agriculture, transport, railways, telecom, so on and so forth. How to work the one with lowest investment required creating one job. But we are not prepared to change these policies.

Second thing McKinsey study identified was the “Privatization of Government Assets”. We have been trying and trying for long time, with enormously this and that, and not much has happened. It can’t take backdate to privatize all these governments assets. If the mind is put to it, it can be done in 3 years. You have to be ruthless, you have to be open, you have to be honest, and you have to carry people around, articulate issues and just go get it done. We have had such a hard time in privatizing government assets.

The third was “Complex Laws” that really govern products and markets in this country. From amount of paper work you need to sign, to create a company, in spite of the single window clearance is absolutely unreal. I always give this example of opening bank account. Mr. Saxena, who was earlier our CFO at C-Dot, and I went to open a bank account in Delhi and as I don’t look normal because of my hair and all, so I was waiting in a line. My turn came and I said, “I want to open a bank account and here is a cheque for $5000.” Here is my passport. The fellow said no, no, no. He said you need introduction from two people. I said wait a minute, it is my money, I should be asking you that question because you will run away with my money. So he said no, no, we are a government bank. I said so what and he thought I was a madman. He said how could somebody ask that kind of a question; how could he challenge the fact that we are a government bank. He put me on his side, took the next fellow. I was totally puzzled; I came back and told Saxena. He said, you don’t worry about it, I’ll open your account. He went and opened my account.

We are living in that era and there are all kinds of reasons for it. Somebody will be laundering money, but that’s your problem that’s not my problem. We have not really questioned these fundamental things. We have accepted this as a way of life. Take for example, Telecom Policies. I was in China, in Chicago I had an opportunity to meet the Chairman-CEO of China Mobile, a young fellow; I was chairing a conference, he was one of the speakers and we were talking and he said, “Sam, we have 120 million mobile phones in China in 2 companies, China Mobile and Unitel; 90 millions, 30 millions respectively, and we are putting 5 million new mobile phones every month. By the year 2005, we will have 250 million mobile phones. We have 20 companies and 4 million mobile phones, may be 5 million, and we think that’s progress”. I think we need to question these things. If China can put 250 million mobile phones why can’t we put 100 million.

I remember in 1984, when we were working on C-Dot project, I wanted to put 50 million phones by the year 2000 and everyone said you are out of your mind, because then we had 2.5 million phones. So I got sucked into this debate and discussion. Normally my theory is don’t listen, if you listen it sounds too convincing, and they will convince you. Make up your mind, let them talk, say what you have to say, just get out and let them criticize you. Saying this fellow is arrogant, he doesn’t understand, he has no clear idea of what we are doing, great, that means you are on track. I got sucked into it and I agreed to 20 million telephones by the year 2000, and we had 24 million telephones by 2000. I then myself think, I wish they have not agreed to 20 millions only and if we would have stuck to 50 millions, we would probably having 40 millions.

Every time we would have a number, everybody will say but what happens if you don’t meet. But what people say, let them say, they are not doing it. There are people who say; there are people who do it and there are media people who sort of write both sides of the view. That’s OK. Everyone has a job to do. You do your job, let them do their job don’t worry about it. Don’t listen and read to lot of this media critics because you will get hurt. Continue your task. Telecom Policies - We got derailed because we decided to collect lot of money for licenses for basic services as oppose to change policies and focus on providing large number of Indians with lots of phones, at lowest possible cost. We found that our policy was not consistent so we had to change and this has to do with values.

Now let’s talk about “VELOCITYOF DEVELOPMENT”.

Time is always against us. We have so much to do and very little time. I think time is our biggest enemy. We need to free up our system. We need to empower people, we need to create momentum. Rate of growth has been 4%, many call Indian rate of growth. Sometimes, we are happy with 5 or 6%. There is no reason why we can’t do what China did, have 10% double-digit growth for atleast a decade or two.

I think lots of these things have to do with management, vision, and values. Again if you look at housing, and the housing industry itself is such a huge industry. Why can’t we free it up? But again we are afraid to fail; we are not willing to experiment. We have poor analysis, which results in paralysis.

I remember we used to have a meeting of Committee of Secretaries and I used to go into that cabinet meeting with Mr. Desh Mukh. Since Mr. Desh Mukh was cabinet secretary, first of all no body would sit next to him. Everybody will be afraid. So seat next to him would always be empty. I’ll go and sit right next to him, and here I have no problems. When he came everybody would stand up and remain standing up so if you don’t stand up, it’s ok. This is the hierarchical mindset, and then as soon as discussion got little complicated we will set up a Committee of Secretaries. That means the defense. And then it went into debates and debates and discussions and we never see that decision again. I remember first time when I was chairman of the Telecom Commission, first day I got 63 files, green files (dhagga wali files). I had never seen those files in my life. So I didn’t read. I did not understand it, which was my asset, “Ignorance is a great asset”. So after a week somebody wrote to the Prime Ministers Office that new chairman does not see any of the files. So I had a call from a young officer in PMO saying, “Sir, we have a complaint”. I said “that’s good”. “Is it that you are not clearing any file”? I said, “I don’t know how to clear a file”. So when I told my colleagues that if you want me to make a decision why don’t you come and we will discussand you prepare a file because I will mess it up. So, I had a big file for a review - salary review, performance review, annual review - for one of our members Mr. Nanda and the file was very thick so I said what is this. He said this file contains all the documents from the day he joined, which was 34 years ago. He said that’s the process, you have look at it. I said what do I have to do with it; I just want to know what happened last year. He said no, no, no you have to look at the whole thing, the whole thing moves.

“It is this process that we have to change and that is our biggest enemy”

We are afraid to make decisions of this type, we are not rewarded for action but sometimes we are rewarded for inaction.

“We have tools of the 19th century and we are trying to implement the programmes of the 21st century”.

I remember Technology Missions that we had, people used to laught at us at times. When Rajeev Gandhi talked about 21st century, people used to ridicule that sometimes. But what it meant is “that in mission we had missionary zeal”.

We had measurable milestones, tangible deliverables, and management focus, use of IT, use of media and participation from NGO’s. This was really a vision for water, literacy, immunization, IT, telecom, and dairy development. Some of it got done and some of it didn’t get done. It’s OK. But we tried. It is this kind of spirit that you need to build, speed in implementation.

UN did a study on our Technology Mission. There was a meeting in Poland that I went to and they have donea big report on Indian Technology Mission. I don’t know if anybody has ever read in India. I don’t think people even know that this report exists.

What does all of this really mean at the end of the day? or What are we talking about when we talk about vision, values and velocity of development?

“I think we are really talking about generational change, moving forward and talking about change that will really transform this society”.

For that we have to leave things behind. It will be painful because we normally resist change. With the mistakes we will make, we will learn all the way, we will not know all the answers.

To me it means really four kinds of reforms -

Take for example Railway modernization, the committee was set up by one minister to modernize railway. I was invited; I didn’t want to do it. Then I said I will do it, agreed with my friend who happens to be here Mr. Trivedi and we said lets rexamine this whole railway from the perspective of someone who doesn’t understand railway because that fellow is blank. If we understood it we will all sound so simple and convincing that we won’t do anything. So we started discussing and we say there are issues of freight management. We can do this. There are issues of land management. There are issues of factory. Simple 8-10 points let’s work on it, summarize it, no big deal, no complicated studies, they are all experts anyway. We can’t compete. They have spent 30 years of their lives in railways. What do we know? But we could not be naive about it and approached it very differently. So then all of a sudden we heard one day that the committee has been changed, abolished. No body told us. That’s the kind of management we have in this country. Rather than saying we don’t have to spend any money or the government does not have to spend a dime, I was spending my own money to travel. They wanted me to have a office and I told them that I don’t need office. I will use his office but we will do something interesting, creative, different, rather than saying, “lets explore it”. We may use it, we may not use it but lets get another viewpoint. We decided this is not worth it, because we are afraid of change.

When you look at “Judiciary Reforms”, I mean, we know that our courts take 10 years, 12 years, 15 years to settle a case and what kind of justice is that. We are too hung up today (like our friend Dr. Pitkey said today this morning to me)and that we are hung up on law and not on justice. There is a big difference. We are not really focused on justice. If I have a case, which I can’t settle for 15 years, what good is that? With all computerization, we should be able to settle the court cases in less than 12 months. Technology here will have to be there to get it done. There is no magic here. Make up your mind get it done. There is enough talent in this country to get it done. You have got that champions who put their lives on line to get these kinds of things done.

If you look at “Administrative Reforms”, IAS, IFS, Cabinet Secretariat, Secretaries all that needs to be reviewed. Roles and relationships between parliament and all the committees.

I think it’s about time, we begin to question everything around us, including “Political System”. In India, politics has become a profession. People go into politics for life long journey. People don’t go into politics for service any more. We need more professionals. People who have accomplished something. People, who have achieved, can give big part of their life for public service, say for 10 years. When you go into public service, you got to be able to freeze your asset, you got to be able to declare your income tax forms every year for public scrutiny, we got to be open, transparent, honest. Why can’t it be done, I don’t understand? Because system we have is such that every body knows how to do prime minister’s job, they don’t know how to do their job. I remember a young guy in Bhopal, I had gone to Bhopal, Jairam Ramesh was with me, he was then my chief of staff, there was a young fellow who constantly came in front of me at the Airport, at CM’s house, at Governor’s house, so I asked Jairam, get that guy, who is this fellow, so finally when we were leaving in the evening from Bhopal, Jairam called this man and he said sir, I am so happy that you spotted me, I have been trying to get to you. I said, what do you want? He took a little envelope from his pocket and said, sir, I have this thing, which is for Rajiv Gandhi, and if he follows all these things, he will remain prime minister for next 15 years. I got impressed and said what do you do? He said, “I am lookingfor a job”. He had the guts to work out Prime Minister’s job when he did not have a job and he thought it was very normal because it was okay to do that, perfectly acceptable, there is nothing wrong with it, so I really fired him in front of every body, he was really mad at me and I said go get a job, work your tail off for about 15 years, then you will be qualified to even talk to Prime Minister and he thought it was insulting and I meant that, every bit of it.

“This is the kind of environment we live in”.

Politics to begin with - with the kind of politics we have, I don’t see generational change. I am afraid to say that and I don’t like to say that but the facts are right in front of us.

“We need to bring in more younger people, more professionals, more transparency and create a whole new force with in the system that is really committed to public service in politics, people who have achieved something, who can go do and do work for public, come out and do their own thing and not remain in politics for the rest of their life”.

This is what vision, value and velocity of development is all about.

Having used up lot of my time, I really want to thank the organizers for giving me this opportunity, I want to thank Mr. Shastri for the recognition, award, thank the jury and thank you for listening. I was hoping I will talk for about 20-25 minutes and then we will have the interaction but I don’t get a chance to talk to a great audience like this so I used it up.