On one hand, we have a large number of people who are engaged in activities that defy the connotation of patriotism, and on the other, are patriots like Capt. Anuj Nayyar, Major Rakesh Adhikari, Sqdn. Ldr. Nachiketa, the heroes of Kargil War, and Naveen Jindal, who have been there to give in their all for the sake of their nation. Take for instance, Naveen Jindal, who leaves aside nation's one of the largest business enterprises and puts in years of time and energy fighting a symbolic, yet an extremely important cause for the sake of the nation, which he thinks and the nation agrees; will bring about a revolution towards acts of patriotism at large. For, the fact remains that, the most important component in the process of revolutionary progress of our nation, is, the need for an impetus of an overwhelming sense of patriotism amongst our people. And only a patriotic catalyst as this can spur the nation. Otherwise, he would not be fighting for the right of the Indians to hoist the National Flag in one's place of work or dwelling. While he has been fighting for the entire country for the sake of inculcating the spirit of patriotism in each of us, what we need to do is, merely convince ourselves about embodying this lofty spirit. In fact, now, nothing short of a revolutionary zeal can help transform the state of our nation and therefore such initiatives assume special significance.

What a paradox it is, however, that our India lives in extremes of plenty and utter scarcity. Some are dying of hunger, whereas others are flaunting their wealth only to be noticed. Rather than vying to be on page 3 of the city newspaper, let us vie to live in the hearts of the underprivileged. Let us help make life meaningful for them. We do not realize without practising it, but, if we involved ourselves into it, we will find that there is no greater solace. The contentment in serving, needless to say, is far much greater than, what it is, in worldly consumption.

What is going to be evaluated, is, how much we did for the society, and not, how much we did for ourselves. If we paid a heed to this, we will be reinventing ourselves.

As a tribute to the quintessential humanitarian Rajiv, we wish to bring forth certain issues to our fellow citizens, for discussions and wherever possible, due implementation at our level, as a demo, for more and more people to plunge into such activities.

Build a village: (with corporate initiative): What requires our utmost attention in villages is the need to set up such basic infrastructure as schools, colleges, hospitals, vocational training centers, community halls, parks, counseling centers for employment, computer centers etc., and to run them with utmost zeal and dedication. The government should beckon corporate houses to undertake this exercise against benefits in the form of tax sops, and in other forms. Such companies, which go on to expend in modular units will have a lot to gain. Besides the sops they receive from the government, they shall receive enormous publicity, thus strengthening the Brand Equity and also being termed ‚philanthropic'. This may initially be lapped up only by some companies. However, very soon almost all companies, which have a vision, will be vying for the honors. What will thus follow is, that, more and more villages will be taken up by the companies. As a sense of competition builds up between the companies, it will result in intensification of projects. This will thus be a winning position for all the rural populace, the government and the corporate houses, et al. To take a segmentalised note of how such efforts will bear fruit, we may reckon the success of ITC's E-Chaupal. Initiatives taken by the likes of Infosys, Tata and Reliance have brought them an improved Brand Equity. But hitherto, the extent of involvement of corporate houses for the cause of the society is rather miniscule. Our corporate sector is extremely resourceful, and very enormously efficient too. Once they plunge into this cause, success is more than assured, and in a win-win dispensation.

Besides the model wherein the corporate sector alone takes this initiative, there could be more, where there could be a synergy between them, the government and the NGOs, or with just two of these. Several mechanisms, permutations and combinations could be looked into.

Wastelands and Agro-Forestry: Our wastelands stand at 20.17% of the total area of about 3.2 million sq kms, measuring about 60 million hectares of land. These 60 mln hectares can help bring a sea change in the lives of families which are either landless, or have marginal holdings only. It has the potentials of not only providing reprieve to the poverty-stricken families, but, helps bring about a great fillip on the environmental side as well. The gamut of domains that it enriches, are endless.

It is a pity however, that we are refusing to harness available potentials, and there are desert countries like Israel which grow the best of flowers and fruits, and export by air transport to developed markets. What an irony it is?

We have government agencies looking into wastelands on a dedicated basis, but, unfortunately, where there should have been a revolution, there is no visibility of a true initiative. If at all there are a few, those are just for the name sake. We chant slogans of progress and development, but, we don't adopt the course that can help us achieve it.

There is an absolute lack of facilitation of barren lands to those who wish to make use of it. There is neither the motivation, nor adequate facilities available to the farmers to harness these resources. How good it would have been, had we learnt from the success of forest revenues in Finland where, despite the fact that they have a gestation of as long as even 90 years for harvesting the trees, yet, their economy is largely built on this singular phenomenon. The land area too, under forest cover, is not larger than our wastelands! What is required here is that the government makes simple laws to provide leased land; provides soft loans; and arranges to provide the farmers technical assistances, through relevant agencies. The lands so made available could be used for forestry as well as for inter-cropping, i.e., Agro-Forestry. This requires the planting of faster growing species, as also crops which flourish with such plantations. If these initiatives are seriously taken, they have the potential to change the landscape of rural India, and to take care of the livelihood of the entire populace which lives below the poverty line. Further, in order that no family suffers from the catastrophe of an accident in terms of realization due to an unsuccessful crop, there should be compulsory crop insurance, for both, the trees as well as the crops.