I'll throw in a few cents of mine, based on things I perceive living in India[1]. Here are some fundamental problems (I think):
Lack of good intentions at the top: Its hard to think of any politician in our country whose intention is to do good for the people of the country. They are all mostly there for the power and the money. No surprise that there is corruption in our country, it stems from wrong intentions to begin with.
Lack of trust in general: You can't trust strangers, you are better off assuming the other guy is out there to fuck you. You try to be nice, and you'll most likely get fucked. This is a case of prisoner's dilemma[2] in action, and trust is an important way to get around the problems faced with the prisoner's dilemma. Trust is important for people to build great businesses and do good. Its still hard to find in India.
Lack of empathy: We don't put ourself in the shoes of other people often enough. One example where this shows up very clearly is our disregard for punctuality. Sounds like a minor issue, but it points to the bigger issue related to lack of empathy in people -- lack of respect of other people's time is a consequence of being selfish, and not understanding how other people feel when you are late. Another example is not keeping our cities clean. We throw stuff out on the road and the pavements, with disregard to the inconvenience it will cause to others.
Valuing the wrong things: Society values how much you earn over what you really do. People often choose careers based on how much money they can make, over what they would love to do. There is a lot of show off in our society: Rich people like to flaunt rather than give back to society. Size of your house, brands of your cars and other bullshit stand for social status.
These fundamental issues show up problems at a more lower level, here are some examples:
Poverty and inequality: There is a vast inequality amongst people, (about 32% of our population is still under poverty line[3]). Poverty and inequality stems from problems in our governance, and general lack of empathy in people. I think we still don't aim for win-win solutions in our daily life. We still believe in win-loose situations, where all we care about is whether we win or not. The win-loose kind of thinking leads to poverty and inequality in the end.
Corruption: Again, lack of empathy, bad governance, causes corruption. Corruption is further reinforced due to poverty and inequality.
Scaling up our systems (educational, infrastructure etc.): We have a huge population, we really to need to scale up our systems (like housing, sewage, electricity, education, transport etc.) to a much better quality and quantity than there exists at the moment.
I don't want this answer to be perceived as too negative, there are a lot of good things about India and good intentioned people out there. And I believe these problems are solvable (I won't pretend to know the solutions yet). Making India a better place is an exciting opportunity for all of us, so lets go out there and get these sorted!
[1] There are certainly exceptions to the list of issues I mentioned above, but I am referring to the general trend. Also my perspective is limited to urban cities, not all these things would be true for rural India.
1. Water resources: flood control and maintenance, old irrigation systems and conjunctive use of surface and ground water in the irrigation systems.
2. Improve Infrastructure: Indian companies — on an average — lose 30 days in obtaining an electricity connection, 15 days in clearing exports through customs, and lose 7% of the value of their sales due to power outages.
3. Raise Basic Educational Quality: The distribution of government funds is major hindrance to the education system
4. Women Empowerment: The cultural norms in India
5. Poverty and Population Explosion: malnutrition, unemployment, homelessness and several others too and traditional fatalistic attitude imbibed in them.
6. Privatization of Sports Sector: The recognition module for our sportspersons is very weak & proper harvest, to manage and organise sports of entities andreckless management and governance.
7. Health Care Industries: Establishing ourselves in manufacturing and distribution of medical equipments, the cost of treatment and proper health care would be unaffordable by the already needy masses.
8.Alternative Fuels: Rising population and demand for fuels
9. Space Technology: the local Indian community is obsolete and stagnant, the school going masses is not up to the mark & restricted to organizations like the ISRO.
10. Improve Environment Quality: maintenance
11. CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC LIFE: less income or to achieve certain objective
12. GRAM PANCHAYAT OR VILLAGE GOVERNANCE: the manpower is unavailable and willingness is absent at the highest levels.
13. Space exploration and exploitation of space: uncontrolled growth of it's population.
14. Balance of payment deterioration: deterioration is a result of the overheating of the economy and supply cannot meet Aggregate demand so consumers are sucking in imports.
15. Inefficient government bureaucracy: discontent within the business community remains high about the lack of reforms and the perceived inability of the government to push them through.
16. Policy instability: public trust in politicians has been weakening
17. Tax regulations: The country's supply of transport, ICT and energy infrastructure remains largely insufficient and ill-adapted to the needs of the economy
18. Restrictive labour regulations: number of strengths in the more advanced and complex drivers of competitiveness.
19. Inadequately educated workforce : 'reversed' pattern of development
20. Insufficient capacity to innovate: insufficient of fund and not updated education system
21. Crime and theft: India is not providing access to some basic services to many of its citizens
22. Foreign currency regulations:employment of much of the population is also vulnerable, which - combined with weak official social safety nets - makes the country vulnerable to economic shocks.
23. National Security : lack of improvement in defence technologies
24. Relationships: Influx of refugees in northeast, srilankan tamil issues, border problem with Pak and china.
25. Apathy of honest and educated people towards politics: because when honest and capable people do not join politics, the worst occupy the political power
26. HIGH INFLATION RATES: Fueled by rising wages, property prices and food prices inflation in India is an increasing problem
27. Valuing the wrong things: Society values how much you earn over what you really do. People often choose careers based on how much money they can make, over what they would love to do.
28. Prevalence of the Chalta Hai attitude: lack of teaching, understanding and low IQ.
29. Regional Concentration: Most of the industries are located in and around metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi etc. Tables 18.1 and 18.11 present uneven concentration of industries.
30. Loss in Public Sector Industries: due to defective policy of the government characterised by redtops and inefficiency and strained labour-management relations most of these public sector enterprises are running in loss.
31. Industrial Sickness: deficient management, (ii) under-utilisation of capacity due to shortage of raw materials, coal and power and transport, (iii) obsolete machinery, equipment and production techniques, (iv) uneconomical scale of production, (v) faulty choice of products and processes, (vi) difficulties in selling the products, (vii) diversion of funds to new units under same ownership, and (viii) conflict between different interest groups among the owners.
32. License policy: ministers and influential political leaders are pressurising industrialists to install industries in their electoral area so as to approve their licenses.
33. Unbalanced Industrial Structure: India is still dependent on foreign imports for transport equipments, machineries (electrical and non-electrical), iron and steel, paper, chemicals and fertilisers, plastic material etc.
34. Speculative banking: an ethical component involved in these too-risky investments that is being ignored and excessively speculative investments and irresponsible credit lending practices
35. Financing arms manufacturing and trade: concerned with excesses and human rights violations involved in this activity and referring to indiscriminately destructive, overly-damaging weapons and their manufacturers and distributors.
36. Financing, donations, and sponsorships contrary to the good of the family: we prefer to keep our investments, and recommendations for our clients’ investments away from companies promoting non-family friendly causes and activism and We prefer not to generate our wealth from investing in companies that opt for financing, promoting, and supporting entities and organizations that do not share our view on family and family values as the cornerstones of society, peace and harmony.
37. Transportations : no stability in policy relating to highway/railway development in the country & shortage of funds for the construction and maintenance of roads/railway.
38. Agriculture: Soil and Water Conservation including Land Reclamation, Rainfed Farming - major crops, Animal Husbandry and Expenditure Finance Committee Memos relating to Central Plan schemes
39. Indian real estate market: low demand and oversupply in both residential and commercial segments.
40. Improve Governance: decentralizing provision of public services, the government can unbundle responsibilities across tiers of the government to create checks and balances.
41. Disaster Management: unidentified of thrust areas that need specific attention and follow up action.
The Indians since time immemorial have promoted peace and now live with the attitude of 'chalta hai' (let it be). So, anything wrong does not matter much to us, whether it's related to government, corruption, the state of the roads, the crimes committed by "divine men" or anything else. The activists are there to lead the crowd and enlighten society, but most of the time they do not get a good response and those who do get a good response are generally not worthy of that. Although India needs several changes at present, there are some important ones that must be addressed immediately.
Major problems in India
Corruption
The most widespread endemic in India is corruption, which must be handled quickly and wisely. There is hardly an office, both in the private and public sector, that has not been touched by this disease. It is not known how much the economy has suffered because of this. Although most of us are concerned, when the time comes to act, we, the people of India, seem to be missing.
Illiteracy
The percentage of illiteracy in India is alarming. Every five people out of ten in India are illiterate. The condition in the villages is worse than in the cities. Although several primary schools have been established in rural India, the problem persists. Furthermore, providing education only to children will not solve the problem of illiteracy, since many adults in India have not been touched by education either.
Education system
India's education system is occasionally blamed for being too theoretical but not practical and skill-based. Students study to qualify, not to gain knowledge. The so-called modern education system was introduced by colonial teachers to create servants who could serve but not lead, and we still have the same educational system. Rabindranath Tagore had written many articles offering suggestions for changing India's education system. But still, success is as elusive as ever.
Basic hygiene
Sanitation is another problem, but one of the biggest in India. There are approximately 700 million people who do not have access to bathrooms in the home. Slum areas do not have bathrooms. People are forced to defecate in open spaces, which causes numerous diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dehydration, etc. Many rural schools also do not have bathrooms, so parents do not send their children, especially girls, to school. Gandhi-ji paid due attention to this problem, but not much was done. A growing population is the biggest challenge that causes these problems. For example, the sewerage system in Delhi was designed to meet the needs of a population of three million people. But Delhi now has more than 14 million inhabitants. This is not just the case of Delhi; Each state and region in India is the same.
Health Care System
It is true that the most populous democratic country in the world can not provide adequate sanitary facilities for its entire population. India is becoming a center for medical tourism, but all these facilities are not available to local residents, who are poor. Medical care is a neglected issue in India, since the main attractions are agriculture, infrastructure and information technology. The lack of resources in rural areas of India is one of the main concerns of the day, which generates most of the problems. 50% of all villagers do not have access to health care providers; 10% of babies die within one year of their birth; the lack of nutrition caused stunned growth in 50% of all babies; and 33% of people in India do not have access to toilets.
Poverty
One third of the world's poor live in India, and 37% of the total population of India lives below the international poverty line. 42% of children under the age of five are underweight. The majority of the poor in India live in villages. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have the poorest areas. The high level of illiteracy, lack of health services and limited access to resources are some of the basic problems in poor areas.
Contamination
Pollution and environmental problems are the other challenges facing India today. Although India is working hard, there is a long way to go. The degradation of the land, the depletion of natural resources and the loss of biodiversity are the main problems of concern due to pollution. Untreated sewage is the main cause of water contamination.