India has a glorious historical and cultural past, the country is endowed with rich natural resources, its geographical location, human resources make the conditions ideal for the country to launch itself into a bright future what with the opening up of the economy and globalisation. In the field of sports, the past has not been bright, except hockey, with few bright performances not culminating in due recognition. To me, India empowered means our bright brains not only shaking the world of IT and technology but through its application bringing about change in our day-to-day functioning: getting rid of musty files, babudom, corruption and a decadent mindset. Empowered India will have snazzy cars zipping on highways, malls buzzing all around, spick and span public utility places, hospitals, railway stations, all indicators of a growing economy. But more important: the gap between the rich and the poor does not widen, per capita availability of all goodies improve. And this should all reflect in our human development index. A poor farmer, a labourer should get a decent share of all economic indicators. The fruits of globalisation should percolate to the downtrodden. Technology should enable a villager to get his legitimate returns of hard work. The greatest strength that this country has is the family bonding, of being emotionally attached to each other. No wonder an Indian may earn anything abroad, but would like to settle in India. This bonding should extend to society and the country as a whole. We should not do outside our own house what we do not do within our house. Such a culture will empower India at par with more advanced countries.
