From War to Peace: Wisdom And Leadership

The contemporary world presents a human society paradigm undergoing rapid transition in terms of evolving roles and high expectations. Governments address these issues by changing, reforming, or reinventing themselves to ensure faster inclusive growth and rapid alleviation      of poverty. However, globalization and liberalization policies have perceivably excluded many sections of the population, attributed to the deteriorating law and order situation, corruption and exploitation, raised the price index, criminalised politics, politicized the administrative machinery, produced mega financial scams, poor principles and social norms and degenerated the value system.

To radically improve outcomes in rural infrastructure, exservicemen from the Armed Forces, who are the only credible and educated workforce in villages, characterized by selfmotivation, rich experience, discipline and multitalented persona could be meaningfully employed for scrupulous governance within a timeline of  ‘augmentation and progression’. We need to establish 7,000 selfreliant village clusters through the Rural Area Planned Integrated Development (RAPID) programme under a dynamic publicprivate partnership model to bring sustainable development and prosperity to rural areas and usher in smart villages. Missionoriented thrust areas are potable water, optimised renewable energy sources, mitigation of infant and maternal mortality rates, multispecialty health care, increased literacy level, and improved functional literacy of selfhelp groups and unemployed youth. Exservicemen are ‘role models’ of ethical and transformational leadership with veritable ingrained morals and righteous conduct focused on ‘Duty, Honour and Country’. They are empowered crusaders of good governance, who believe in the Credo fundamentally, practise it religiously and live by it virtuously.