It is Government's Responsibility to Address Macro Issues

There may be other formal definitions of Government, but mine boils down to this: "...to address macro issues affecting the country".

Below is an example of a macro issue relating to industry and employment.  

Governments normally consider it their responsibility to spur industrial growth and employment. The higher the per capita income and the lower the rate of unemployment, the better a government's performance is considered to be. However, issues such as unethical employment practices - recruitment policies, work conditions, impact on educational institutions, balanced societal development, etc., usually never get addressed. 

Can a model be evolved for addressing issues such as these?

The IT services industry in India is by most standards a flourishing industry, having created prosperity and a huge middle class of software professionals over the last 15-20 years. While this may be a good thing when viewed in isolation, it may have brought more harm than benefit. Many harms can be listed. However, here are a few important ones:

• Neglect of other industries, educational tracks and professions
• When one industry dominates handsomely, other industries and related educational tracks are neglected. What the IT services industry has done is tilt the preferences of students towards feeder degree programs such as 4-year engineering.
• Study of the social sciences, including psychology, history and other disciplines is very important for the growth of any society and culture. While government cannot change student preferences, the least it can do is mandate more balanced curricula to include a combination of majors and minors, foreign languages, and some mandatory social science subjects such as philosophy, politics and economics. What a balanced curriculum will do is create well-rounded educated citizens and not slave-trained professionals.
• Wide disparity in exposure to the modern world and between regions
• Colleges in urban regions that have a concentration of the IT industry naturally have an edge over colleges in other regions. The disparity in exposures and opportunities become even more pronounced between the urban and rural. 
• The government can mandate (or subsidize) exchange programs between rural and urban colleges, as well as higher subsidies and infrastructure support for colleges setting shop in rural areas. The concentrated corridors chock-full of colleges that we see in many Indian cities today is a highly wasteful exercise that that government should have checked years ago. 
• When there are world-class (or whatever class we can manage) colleges in rural areas (with a quota for local students), the benefits will trickle down much better from urban to rural areas. Also, urban students living and studying in rural will develop a better appreciation for the rural world and our natural resources, rather than be armchair-professionals and managers making ecologically disastrous or negligent decisions. Rural-dwellers, when good infrastructure and educational opportunities become available, will be less likely to migrate to our overcrowded cities. 
• "Don't ask, Don't tell"
• Our governments adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, whether knowingly or unknowingly, towards work conditions, unethical practices by companies, etc. Several of these actually impact people in more ways than one might imagine. When working ungodly hours becomes the order of the day, the safety of women is at jeopardy as we already see from our national news. Also, while executives and ambitious employees may  work 14-18 hour days (since they choose to, or because they get compensated highly), there is no reason the entire workforce needs to be in that situation without choice. The results include less time for families to spend time together, and inadequate mental and cultural development of employees' children. Legislations that can help include - employee wellbeing audits and surveys, a ceiling on the percentage of employees that can be in such perpetual-stress roles, etc. 
• As long as the IT industry relies on the sheer number of employees, and cheap compliant labour to make unethical dollar profits via outsourcing contracts, these societal issues will continue to fester. It is in India's best interests to nudge the industry towards other value-based models where slave-trained labour is not the key commodity. 

I see MPs and ministers making speeches, saying things like "please respect our natural resources" or "please study social science subjects, not just computer science" (usually at colleges or at public functions). These speeches are useless, unless as legislators they can back it up by making the right macro-economic/societal decisions that make things happen. Mere urging of citizens without taking an inch towards setting the right incentives is nothing less than criminal behaviour.

Surviving and Keeping Sanity in the Modern World..

Image courtesy:
http://jagadishnarhem.blogspot.com/2010/10/pollution_13.html

Modern man (yes me, and you - if you were born in the 20th century) has got to be the most self-centered human yet in the earth's millions of years of existence.

With the industrial revolution, mass production and a capitalistic profit-driven have introduced and legitimized many criminally abusive practices that have been destroying the earth and human existence for over a century now.

1. We plunder and pillage the earth daily for its treasures. Resources like oil and gas can power our lives for but a few hundred years. Not only will future generations not have that luxury, but we will have polluted the earth to a point of no return.
2. Clear water, virgin soil and fresh air are the most basic elements of life on earth. 
• We let none of these be, for our own selfish comfort is more important. Even when we feel guilty about abusing any of these most fundamental of resources, we feel the guilt for but a second before we go ahead with our abuse anyway. For, our acts are only indirectly related to the heinous crimes. That well-packaged bag of homogeneous-looking fruits clearly used fertilizers and genetic seeds that will render the soil useless within a few generations. Do we stop to think about our role in the value chain of abuse of natural resources?
3. We abuse our own bodies with alcohol, drugs, medicine, and chemicals for no more than cheap thrills, quick solutions or superficial good looks. 
• Some of us who cannot get by a day without drink refrain from it when pregnant lest our new born have defects or mental illnesses, but that is much too rigid a constraint on our freedom, isn't it? Why must an as-yet unborn child control us so? Why must we not take a quick pill to rid ourselves of that pesky afternoon migraine or self-inflicted insomnia? Isn't it an easier solution than healthier living with good food, exercise and sleep? Why must we worry about the addictions and genetic impacts that we will be passing on to the coming generations? And, of course we can't step out the door without a face full of make-up. We must, at the cost of our future generations, inhale and expose our skin to chemicals that the honest pharmaceutical companies sell in shiny little environmental friendly bottles. 
4. Our cellphones and microwave ovens, for two easy examples, are technologies with which we subject ourselves to a daily dose of harmful radiations. 
• How can we let a minute pass without checking our phone for that elusive intelligent Facebook post from a friend of a friend of a friend? Oh, what if we miss a call on the second ring, and are excommunicated from our species? We must not let a a few thousand new cancerous cells get the better of us. We can always fight the disease, blame it on something or somebody else, cry with the well-meaning not-for-profit Oprah, and pretend to be heroic for some reality TV glory. A few minutes of entertainment and being connected (for we are new-age professionals) are of course more valuable than avoiding autistic children and grandchildren, why do you even ask?
5. Nature has provided for abundant food and nourishment. What do we do with it all?
• Abundant food and nourishment you say? No! We are forced to grow chickens and cows, and wait for them to die (oh no, why would we kill them ourselves?). Without that wonderful protein that nature has no way of providing to us (beans and lentils? I'll pretend I didn't hear you) we wouldn't have the strength to sit up and read that news article on the UN's peace and non-violence efforts.

Hypocrisy, a high premium on individual freedom at all costs, a material focus on comfort, and an utter lack of vision past our noses define our current age. I'm afraid our future generations are going to be worse and worse. The principles we teach them, the environment we leave them, and the institutions we pass on to them will be no match for the problems they will be faced.

Those of us who have some conscience and selflessness will have little impact on the world around us, and should be content with the small contributions we can make to the world, compete just enough to keep afloat in the mayhem, and remain as nature-friendly as we can while we focus on intellectual advancement.

Each new generation will come up with temporary solutions and 'kick the can' down the road. Answers to the problem of the spread of diseases and ailments will be new gadgets and drugs. Answers to the problem of impure water will be newer methods of purifying water, not the control of water pollution.  We will continue to hypothesize and measure our impacts, set thresholds for pollution levels, disagree endlessly, and convince ourselves that a better world awaits us. 

The earth will give up on us when there is no one left that can acknowledge what we've done to her.