Times launches hunt for India’s leaders

Readers may recall that at the time of launch of The Times of India’s India Poised initiative on January 1 this year, the one recurring theme that unfortunately kept coming through in almost every one of our analyses was the abysmal state of public governance.

Roads built at great cost begin to resemble the moon’s surface within months, and yet the same contractors are given the job to repair them (at a price); there’s little or no trust in the police; the justice system creaks; public hospitals don’t even offer hygienic conditions, forget healthcare; a large part of the money that’s shown on paper as having been spent on floods and other calamities, never reaches the people who need it most; and for all the taxes we pay, nothing comes back in the form of social security.

India is at a stage where it’s poised for greater glory. What we need to do is move from India Poised to India Realised. The need of the hour is leadership. That’s exactly what The Times of India has chosen to address with its nationwide hunt for young leaders. Called Lead India, it is a five-month campaign to seek out a few good men and women who can lead this country to a future it truly deserves.

Running into three phases — Nominations, City-based Elimination Round, and National Round — Lead India will culminate with the selection of three People’s Leaders; one winner and two runners-up. The first phase seeks nominations till September 7, 2007 through a website (lead.timesofindia.com,), emailbox (leadindia@timesgroup.com) and mobile lines (SMS LEADN with your name and email ID to 8888, or LEADO to nominate someone you know with his name and email ID or cellphone number), as well as through the newspaper.

These entries will be evaluated by an eminent jury to shortlist candidates for personal interviews, to culminate the first phase of Lead India with 64 deserving candidates. This will launch the City Eliminations Round. The chosen 64 candidates will compete in debates, projects, personal interviews and other evaluation techniques decided by the expert panel to eliminate all but eight — one representing each city.

This will lead to the third and final phase — choosing the final Leader of our Times, and two runners-up. Your votes and the jury’s decision on their performance will both determine the winners.

What awaits the eventual Leader is a handsome corpus of Rs 50 lakh for funding a public project of his choice and an entry into the Leadership Development Programme at the John F Kennedy School of Political Leadership. This is besides the once-in-a-lifetime chance to short-circuit the arduous political route and be pitched right in the arena.

We hope there are at least a few readers among the millions who are ready to stand up and be counted. This could well be your moment.