The preparations for the commonwealth games 2010 has blemished India's global reputation. India has never ever fallen to such abysmal depth of disgrace. Even though, India and Indians have demonstrated our expertise and ability to plan and execute mega projects with absolute perfection in certain areas like space science, IT, general elections, we do lack ability to replicate the same in all areas.
Present controversy surrounding the commonwealth games are the result of the below:
· Generally followed corrupt practises in all Government sponsored events/projects
· Lack of transparency, red-tapism and the ability of people in power to twist norms and unsnarl the red-tape.
· Lack of planning and inadequate co-ordination among various stakeholders. Even if co-ordinators are posted, they often have other priorities to attend.
· 'Indian Model' of execution - starting at snails pace and precipitation towards the 11th hour. Adhoc planning is adopted throughout the process. Precious time and resource is mostly spent on fire-fighting rather than for planning and controlling.
· Inadequate penalties for wrong-doers, that too often delayed.
My view is that India has to give serious thinking into investing heavily in developing systems and processes with built-in checks and balances. Poor governance is 'the problem', which India has to attack and fix with utmost priority.
