Just heard today on India TV that 70% of India will be a desert by 2025 and the Indian officials (in a summit in Copenhagen) are asking the developed countries to help us. Sunderbans is in grave danger. Is there another kind? The ganges are inching away from Patna. Kolkatta will be submerged.....What happens to Goa by 2025? What happens to the biodiversity in Sunderbans? What do you think? In just 15 years!!
Another thought that hit me is why are we in Goa, constantly talking about apeing the west? And more often than not I have the elders and the youth comparing Goa with the US, why?
USA is country for crying out loud. We are just a state of less than 4000 sq.kms of area. I have not heard anyone comparing Tennesse with Goa or Punjab. All we here is the US versus a state in India.
Are we not suppossed to be comparing nation-wise? That is if we want to compare in the first place. An observation led to another and I am thinking to myself. Wow! Is the United States united or what!! (What's in a name, you ask....It quite literally is in the name)
We compare Maharashtra with Punjab and Goa with Kerala. Its like comparing your hands and legs to determine which is the most useful part? Can't we work as a complete system wherein all parts work in coordination to keep a healthy country (Like our body parts work in coordination to keep us hale and hearty). Like Vegas is known for fun, frolic and yes, gambling, New York for being multi-cultural, Texas for the oil companies (I hope I got my facts right), can't Indian states be known for its uniqueness too? Why do all places have to the IT way? Pune and Bengaluru are great IT hubs and we should work together to manage these cities well. If Goa is known for tourism can't we keep it that way and work on Tourism Management to create employment and use IT at a small scale (by the local IT guys) to support tourism instead of creating extremists that we are currrently doing. One group in Goa opposes IT and any development vehemently and the other group without regard of our delicate ecosystem simply thinks the IT parks will solve all our employment problems.
IT is neither a boon nor a bane. IT is a simply a great support to the current way of life. A state like Goa may not be able to cope even a percent with the rampant upsurge that IT parks demand but it definitely can leap great bounds and take tourism in Goa to a different level if supported wisely by the IT guys already in Goa. Knowledge Management in particular can help create jobs not just for IT pass-outs but also for students in other fields.
A simple example: Let's say we decide to promote ecotourism, we would first have know what it is all about (Subject Matter Experts in fields of Zoology, Botany, Geology, Marine Biologist, etc) then capture the knowledge (here a multiple hat guy helps a lot...a biologist with great technical writing skills) and finally the IT guys who create knowledge portals and help develop analytical tools and lots more that I may not even be aware of. This simple initiative brings about creation of jobs and promotes entrepreneurship in Goa.
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