Can India ever be a winner?

Last week, one more edition of the Olympics concluded, leaving a billion Indians disappointed yet once again, and many millions seething with anger, frustration, and helplessness on seeing India once again being marginalised in a global arena.

The euphoria of India Shining (while it lasted briefly at least for the urban Indians) has now given way to the despondency of an India Whining. China's ascendancy even in the field of sports makes India's persistent failure even more poignant by contrast!

At the beginning of the Olympics, at least two leading international consulting organisations had claimed to develop a model purporting to forecast the medal tally for various countries on the basis of a number of parameters including population, GDP, and some others.

As per one forecast, India should have won 10 medals. Of course, we all know what we finally won. Without having such a capability to develop profound forecasting models, I can only offer some qualitative explanation why India has remained a country with "potential," while China has moved far ahead on the path of achieving its potential.

The key difference between the winners and the losers seems to be in their respective psyches.

Winners have a burning desire to win. In order to win, they are prepared to make any quantum of personal sacrifice and subject themselves to the highest level of hardship.

They are determined to excel in whatever they have chosen to compete in, and benchmark themselves with the very best in the field -- whether nationally or internationally.

The winners also make winning a habit rather than be satisfied with a one-off or infrequent occurrence (just compare the tenacity of the Australian cricket team with our own gutless, fragile cricketers cum mannequins). The same is as true for organisations and the nation as it is for individuals.

As long as India (and Indians) accepts mediocrity as part of our lives and set low standards of achievement and excellence, we do not have a right to dream to win on global platforms where even in the marathon race, the gap between the winner and the runner-up is less than 40 seconds!

We only have to look at our parliamentarians and other legislators, our airports and railway stations, our inner-city and inter-city road network, our urban planning and urban architecture, our administrators and managers -- many of them holding their positions for all kinds of reasons but intrinsic merit -- to realise how in such an environment excellence cannot be achieved.

The recent move by the government to examine legislation on non-merit job quotas even in the private sector will only lead to a further deterioration in the quality of governance and management.

We are unwilling to make any sacrifice -- whatsoever be it -- in our labour policy, or our industrial policy, or our fiscal policy, or in thousands of other areas where we need to undergo some pain before we clean up some of the mess we are currently in and lay the foundations of a stronger, more competitive and more modern nation.

China has been ruthless on this count in the past 20 years, and it is really no wonder that it is now beginning to reap some real fruits for its sacrifices defying the legions of Cassandras who continue to disbelieve progress made by our more determined neighbour.

Will things ever change in India? In my view, the answer (perhaps surprising to some) is a resounding Yes. There are many triggers that will spur this change in the next 10 years.

The most important one is the status of our demography. With over half of India being born after 1980, and the majority of this half (500 million plus) having access to some level of education, and an unprecedented exposure to the rest of the world, the benchmarks for success and achievement will undergo a natural change.

These hundreds of millions of young Indians will vote with their minds, throwing out rabble-rousers and the communalists/casteists to oblivion.

These young Indians are already far more confident than their older generations, and more impatient as well. Most will be ready to make personal sacrifices and subject themselves to requisite hardship and pain to achieve much higher levels of professional and personal success.

Resources to the talented and determined will not really be a major constraint in the years to come since options will increase beyond the government. By 2012, I am confident that we will finally see India winning -- in the Olympics and elsewhere!

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