Prathamesh Themdeo | Jayendra Muley

INDIA, being a developing country has been the most evolving place since history. We Indians have evolved and developed ourselves to match with the pace of the world even after numerous invasions and shortcomings. In the process, Indians have experienced certain trends (good as well as bad). One of which can be mentioned as the IT era which started after the adoption of globalisation. Then, nearly every Indian youngster had a spark to contribute to the knowledge economy and make an impact on the world. Result of which shows the grip of Indians on CXO positions of tech-giants. As we say ‘Change is inevitable’, we can definitely spot some positive changes in trend and preferences of our generations. Nowadays, a significant number of youngsters are transitioning towards fields like governance, social science, politics and humanities (hereafter termed as GSPH). However, some are associating with these field as side-engagements and some are looking at it as a career option. Here, GSPH must not be interpreted as traditional government jobs which have their reputation as ‘Aaram ka paisa’. GSPH can be termed as career fields which require knowledge, research, administration and innovation. So, considering the emergence of GSPH as an effect there are certain causes for the same.

Initial jerk to this trend happened when we started to break shackles of certain so-called elite professions and we started to acknowledge the opportunities in arts, culture, sports and GSPH. We can now encounter more people saying “Follow your passion” and “Jo karne me achha lage wo karo” Indian communities have become more mature than ever before. People have evolved their surroundings based on the need of an hour. Satisfaction is rising as an important parameter than money while gauging success. This is allowing more and more individuals to discover their capabilities especially with regards to GSPH fields. The second reason is the incentives to work with GSPH organisations which essentially includes recognition, fame, job satisfaction, productive networking opportunities, (and additional safety and compensations in case of Govt. services). Another major reason is the recent rise of India as the global power. We can sense the ongoing comparison that our generation carries out between Indian policies and initiatives of other larger economies like the USA, China, Japan, etc. This justifies the huge injection of a talented pool of candidates into GSPH sector in India. Even today, we are unfortunately following English models of legislative procedures which were designed based on the literacy ratio and educational maturity of English societies. Due to this, India which had low literacy back then could not resist the entry of corrupt bureaucrats, irresponsible and illiterate politicians and gangsters into different areas of GSPH field. But today, Indian youth is no more comfortable with non-transparency and loopholes in governance and leadership. Highly educated and talented youngsters are seeking to enter the hacked system to change it. Voters are becoming more and more educated about their rights and responsibilities. Youngsters are engaging more with social responsibility, NGOs, think tanks, etc. These good signs that upcoming batches of social workers, leaders, politicians, administrators, researchers and policymakers are going to be much more bright and adaptive in nature than past. However, this fact leads us to examine our preparedness to handle such big strengths as a nation and global leader. When a set of people excel in a certain career, they become role models. Many people try to reach that excellence or cross it and in this way any field grows with a positive attitude to work for overall growth. This stage indicates the start of any trend. We have seen this behavioural pattern of Indian masses in past. Expansion of IT sector was done by Indian engineers by improving themselves on every step. Of course, this has resulted in outstanding outcomes because of the efforts put by passionate people. In spite of it, we can see the quality and quantity of engineers we produce is deteriorating day by day. When the outcomes and incentives of any profession are outstanding, many people act as the opposite pole of the magnet and gets attracted towards it. They are attracted by incentives and not the actual work, that’s when the booming of the field paces up. Let us apply a similar phenomenon to GSPH fields. Today, highly talented and educated individuals are turning towards GSPH sector, i.e., the overall quality of sector is bound to increase in future. Apparently, which will result in good governance models and initial satisfaction of citizens leading to more fuelling of GSPH field as ‘elite’ profession. As we see tech giants ran by Indians which is essentially due to the IT boom that started a few decades ago, we must not neglect the possibility of today’s Indian youth to engage in the role of higher responsibilities in global as well as national leadership and politics (particularly GSPH field). This marks the tremendous potential of India which when not channelized in future may lead to the rise of leaders like Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping! Present as well future Indian policymakers must recognise this rising trend to increase the productivity of India where 65% population is young in terms of age. Therefore, to maintain the quality, governing bodies, private organisations and NGOs may have to incline towards a more refined way of filtering human resources. As mentioned earlier, a large chunk will be attracted towards GSPH for incentives and not for actual work leading to the vanishing of pure intention to work for society. Hence, many people will set their business up on this distorted intention. They will sell the eye-catching outputs of the sector to attract more and more people and will train them to get inside the system AKA coaching. The problem with the external coaching is that they are making people prepared for the entrance tests and not for the fieldwork (partially which is also a loophole ignored by testing authorities). This is the total proxy, the person who doesn’t have capabilities to work in GSPH will be in the system with the intent to gain outcomes. Unfortunately, fake work and superficial attachments to society are certainly easier in GSPH than anywhere else. In this way, degradation of genuine field can occur by retracing similar past mistakes. This field is all about public relations and societal engagement, if adultery happens here, the whole society will burn in its consequences somehow. Here it is the responsibility of masses as well as recruiting agencies to think wisely and choose the field only if a person has an attitude and aptitude to dedicate himself in the flow. The responsibility of the jobs in GSPH is huge because every step taken today will have consequences for the long run, positive or negative. A person working for society needs to be a part of society, so one must also be comfortable to work with people, for the people, according to people. And if someone is ready to dive into this pool knowing above then only they may be fit for it. GSPH deals with every aspect of the community, every standard of society and each person in the society. The job is to govern the people, make policies for them, serve them, uplift them, and while doing this also involve them. High potential injection of youth in GSPH is expected to change this field as fast as technology changes today. Certain traditional jobs may no more exist after 10 years from now. Whereas, nature of some may totally transform. Who knows AI and Blockchain may become a matter of high priority at LBSNAA! When vastness of GSPH is this much, one needs to take steps which are responsible but most importantly comprehensive for everyone’s sustainable development.

When decisions are taken without future prospects or things are neglected due to lack of vision in policymakers, communities evolve with numerous loopholes in the system and its beneficiaries are affected. Involvement of NGOs in unnecessary competitions and fake publicity, Bureaucracy has become an elite symbol, with non-satisfactory interactions with public grounds, People are being segregated into classes and judged based on their working sector (for ex.: International relations is high profile whereas, Gram-Vikas is still under feet). This and many other such instances are the signals that GSPH trend is already in action. So, before it reaches its peak of the Normal Distribution Curve, we have to plan the future. After all, we need frogs who can jump out of the pond and not tortoises who prefer to be inside the pond! To become a future global leader, India must have humans who can lead the world with an extraordinary vision.