Problems and Solutions

We often act as if every problem has an instant solution. Example- India loses a cricket match. Replace the captain, selectors, or a couple of players. Reality is that whoever is playing, has to play well. Also, if a game has winners and losers, someone has to lose, even if both teams have played well.

People are an important part of many solutions, but not the only ones. There may be infrastructure issues, for instance. Indians were always good, relatively, at Maths or Science. But we did not (until recently) have the facilities for them to be able to use these skills, due to flawed economic policies. So while they designed solutions for networking of banks in USA sitting here or on site, we could only bank with third world systems in our banks. Computer imports took years and lot of red tape.

So, we need the environment for people to use their skills, and some organisations (or countries) have these. China came from nowhere to build sports superstars in just a few years, because they focussed on doing so, and removed the bottlenecks that might have existed.

It may be time for us now to get FDI in retail for example, to increase the efficiency of our supply chains and people. Healthy competition may help us improve everything, and consumers may benefit. Maybe, we could try it in higher education too. Let the foreign universities in.

Every problem may have a solution, but it may take hard work to actually implement it, even after you have found one. Sometimes, there are many solutions to a problem.