From covering a mere 34 kms stretch when the first train steamed off in 1853, the Indian Railways have grown to a network of 7,068 stations spread over a route length of 62,915 kms in 1996 connecting the entire length and breadth of the country. On the literacy front also, there has been a threefold increase since independence in the number of literates and Kerala has attained the distinction of being the first to achieve 90 per cent literacy. These and many such figures are, by themselves, no mean achievement for a country which rose like the legendary phoenix from its own ashes.

Furthermore, electricity has reached even the remotest of villages, telecommunication networks have sprung up in far flung areas and modern technology has enabled us to tap hydel, thermal resources to meet our growing needs. We have stepped up the development of nuclear technology to meet modern day challenges. These prove that even though progress is slow, it is steady. Now the point is that if it was possible to make so much out of nothing, it is inevitable that much more will be achieved with the solid foundation we have built over the years.

As far as the lack of will is concerned, we could not have managed this collosal task without it. So to nail the specifics, it is not to do with the will but with the bottlenecks built into the system. These constraints range from red tapism to the teeming numbers eating away into the progress and nullifying or least reducing to a great extent, the levels of achievement.

The need is to tame these problems, develop the correct respective and concentrate efforts in the right kind of projects which will pay rich dividends and not blame it on the lack of will. This is bound to take the country a rung higher on the ladder of success. Since it's the people that make a country, what's true for them is true for the country as a whole. Ask any individual if he is satisfied with what he has or would want more with a little effort, his prompt reply would be, ``If I can get more, why not?''. As they make small individual achievements, they further the country's interests in doing so.

These motivated people have the drive and the zeal to achieve more, but often are like rudderless boats in the vast ocean. Planning carefully to provide them the right direction is all it needs to make our dreams a reality, to manifest what lies hidden in each of us, to be one up on the rest.

The writer is postgraduate in Economics, PU and a freelance contributor