India Explained

With today8217;s edition we wish to set down for the record how deeply we value the conversation begun three months ago and anchored by som...

With today8217;s edition we wish to set down for the record how deeply we value the conversation begun three months ago and anchored by some of the wisest, most experienced, accomplished and interesting people in the country. The 8216;India Explained, IE, India Empowered8217; series arose from the recognition that newspapers, as a major collective source of information, have the responsibility to provide a platform for the discussion and debate of the issues of the day. It is a process that empowers readers with new information and fresh insights, so that they can make the right choices and claims in a global environment. Over the last four months, over 120 contributors shared their big ideas with our readers in a spirit of generous learning and sharing. Their columns melded seamlessly with the masthead of this newspaper, and its promise of bringing its readers the journalism of courage. To these contributors we owe a debt of gratitude for providing us with roadmaps to the future.

Looking back, the India Empowered series can be considered a unique venture in the annals of the media. It recognised no divide, privileged no viewpoint. It showcased equally those in power and those in opposition; those across the political spectrum and the ideological line. It carried the voices and views of sport personalities, wealth-creators, scientists, corporate heads, actors, scholars, managers, bureaucrats, jurists, people of God, painters, police officers, economists, filmmakers, social activists. If they spoke about why the deprived needed to voice their dissent; they also spoke of the urgent need for a reform agenda to achieve sustained economic growth. If they expressed their fears, they also allowed themselves to hope. If their writing reflected their happiness; they also did, their sorrow. The father of

S. Manjunath, brutally murdered by the oil mafia in November, wrote this a few days after his son8217;s death: 8220;Now, as I grieve for my son, corruption is everywhere. India Empowered to me is when any son8217;s or daughter8217;s final word isn8217;t a dying declaration in the line of duty.8221;

We hope the ideas8212;the ideas of courage8212;that emerged in this three-month-long conversation have gone to heighten awareness, refine sensibility, facilitate understanding and inform policy. As for the future, we plan to keep this conversation going, in new forms and at varied fora. Because, ultimately, it is not who leads us that is important, but what drives us8212;as a nation and as a people in a modern democracy.