A lot has been said about the Indian intelligence process orthe lack of it, and its teams over the last few days since Nov 26 2008.

Several of us, probably those working in the corporateworld, know and see a lot of similarities that come to mind when you comparethe National Governance at the cityy/state level - call it Nation Management(which is not at all different from Project Management) - and the corporategovernance which we can safely call - Corporate Governance - which is allencompassing management and progress.

The differences and similarities can be discussed as aseparate thread.

Col. Hariharan's interview comments on Rediff.com - ifreproduced and printed by their editor with complete accuracy - lays bare, the reality that plagues usIndians in general and also, what must be done to get to a better position thanthis - if the citizens really feel the need to do so.

Hats off to Col. Hariharan for pointing out what Indiareally is lacking and what India is really about and what it needs to get overthis.

1. India is a country of lazy citizens - top to bottom - believe it or not.

You can see this in the daily choices the citizens make in their lifestyles, and the different options they choose for their selves. Look at the various projects happening in peoples' personal and professional lives, and you will see a clear reflection of the basic underlying laziness.

One simple reason, internally a lot of people have given up on the system and the processes for various reasons which shows up as the laze factor.

2. Some other comments in the article, namely the attitude of not taking responsibility, I see this as a huge reflection in somecorporate companies I have worked/working. The higher management does not take action but alwaysplay 'pass the parcel' and puts blame on the more easily impacted lower level people who do the actual ground work, and are easily dispensable with.

3. Another thing that has been mentioned and needs a clear focus is that India needs a war-room in place, 24x7 where all intel newshas to be assessed and processed.

This war room is needed not just for the intelligence issues, but it is needed across the board for ALL developmental projects that are taken up in the nation.

All developmental projects need to be tackled seriously and hence they need constant focus and thus a 24x7 kind of planning, preparation and execution. But do you think this will happen.... never - because of point 1 above.

War room kind of setups are steps corporates take to sort out their own internal issues.

- this is also a key to Agile methodology of software development and applies to other areas too.

So Col. Hariharan, if you can suggest what steps citizens need to take at their levels, it would be much better too, since citizens today - though they think they don't need a big brother watching over them -need guidance to live a better life and maybe only the folks from the defense can show some examples.

Based on this article, if we all recognize the very basic lacunae in the Indian mentality, then I must say, there is a lot of history behind WHY Indians have been so.

It is very important to recognise the contribution of history in order to assess our lacunae but bearing in mind, not to hold History thus responsible for all the mistakes we make today.

Our mistakes today are a result of our ongoing lack of realizing our faults, taking everyone and everything for granted, belief in luck thus leading to carelessness, inefficiency, unaccountability, lack of discipline and corruption.

All in all, Indians now need to realize that -

• this is the 21st century that we are living in.
• we live in a ever increasingly connected world and can't take our individual lives to be isolated to not have any impact at a global level - read Butterfly Effect.
  
• we can't continue to live like an Ostrich that buries its head, or like the cat which closes its eyes thinking danger has passed
  
• we are calling ourselves an emerging economy - as opposed to an being just an emerging nation that we were way back in the 70s. This comes with a lot of responsibility
  
• On paper we are an established nation with a 'thriving' democracy but in practice, we are still not facing our own reality that our people and mindset is immature because of
  
• a high level of illiteracy and thus immaturity
  
• unfounded faith in luck-factor
• lack of interest in the educated masses to move out of the self satisfaction loop into the more generic mass benefit mode
  
• we educated classes are armchair critics, as it was mentioned in an article in the DNA Mumbai edition last night, but we don't move a muscle to take action about anything - reason - Pt. 1 above

1. need to put our COLLECTIVE minds to work, not isolated thoughts floating around waiting for some signal from outer space
   
2. need to bring out the maturity in us, in our daily activities like
1. choosing a responsible way of behavior in our house, apartment, home, on the road, in public places, while driving, while talking, while interacting with fellow humans, and the environment
   
2. choosing to stop behind the stop line at traffic signals
3. choosing to not talk on the phone while driving
4. choosing not to spit on the roads
5. choosing not to honk unnecessarily
6. choosing not to overtake on the roads by being patient and showing care for everyone around
7. choosing to teach our kids the values of respect, discipline and self respect
8. choosing to create a better quality of life for ourselves for a better quality of life later
9. choosing to take interest in people around us so that we can ascertain they are all socially responsible people and not anti-social elements
10. choosing to conduct ourselves in an honest manner and promoting the same
11. choosing NOT TO BRIBE for getting our work done - not to take any shortcut but be clear we want quality work done the right way
12. Promoting Meritocracy over Autocracy, Bureaucracy and Aristocracy
13. Another very key aspect that needs mention here is - 3 to 4 generations of the current times have not experienced what it means to do hard work, and they have taken a lot of things for granted - like the presence of mobile phones, the internet, the TV and automobiles. As a result, the understanding they have of what it really means to earn things the hard way is not there in their heads.
    Unfortunately, even Mr. Anand Mahindra pointed this out in his article
    today in the ToI.
    So the very important thing that needs attention is that these generations need to get grounded, get real and get practical to get this nation the strength it needs.
    

All these are very difficult choices, so we need to be making small self-sacrifices now for the greater good later is the only way out of this mess we are currently in

1. In short, we have to be the guides for the society keeping our patience, our perseverance, and our maturity on alert display for others to see and learn.
2. It is a lot of difficult choices, but unless WE make it NOW we can expect the next few generations to survive in this nation in some better condition - if we really DO CARE about our own kids whom we are producing as a social and moral obligation
3. Else we will all be living for our short term gratification leaving the future a dark mess for the new generations whom we are producing in blissful abandon