Human beings all over the world are vying with the elements in creating conditions threatening the survival of plants, animals and life-supporting resources, not to forget their own orderly living. Many of these conditions, mistakenly portrayed as problems, are the result of blunders by people at large as well as those in the ruling class framing policies and acting unmindful of the adverse consequences. The issue of climate change, debates on which in various forums have got clouded by other issues such as plastic menace, unabated spread of deadly viruses, inter-country trade wars, forest fires and so on. Indiscreet and excessive use of the multitude products of modern technology such as motorised transport, electronic goods, pest-control chemicals, synthetic fertilisers and so on being monumental blunders, not taking corrective steps, despite being clear about the devastation they are causing is a super-blunder that cannot be pardoned. The many problems attributed to the elements, namely earth tremors, floods, droughts, pestilence and so on are tackled as and when they bug the earth’s life-forms, but the problems caused by blundering humanity triggers one to remark that the human species is the real problem.

The time-honoured structure of the family, the virtual miniature model of the society, has witnessed disfavour to a significant extent in the land’s population, grossly upsetting the culture of sharing both difficulties of daily life and inputs of the members in overcoming the hardships. A society made up of families characterised by self-created disharmony cannot be expected in turn to contribute to a healthy country aiming at socio-economic stability and progress. India finds itself in a tight corner as it were right now.

In the backdrop of the country’s masses struggling to make both ends meet in their daily life, the sections in the population endowed with intellect and the sense of duty have their task cut out namely to lay the road map for solving societal problems and stopping the unabated committing of blunders by both stakeholders and stockholders of the nation’s resources as its assets. There is no dearth of human resources in the land, particularly the millions of educated youth seeking employment, but the ideas for marshalling their capabilities have to be formulated to strengthen the hands of the nation’s technocrats, who are the true engines driving the nation in the path of progress. The reported event in Mysuru early this week, called Ideathon, organised by a voluntary group of young Indians, a contest for academics, augurs well for achieving the goal of many societal problems.

The seed for the nation’s tree of progress by means for salvaging society has been sown in the city. Given the enormous change taking place in all spheres of life in the country, particularly the march of digital technology, the players in the national effort need to be wary of indiscretion and excessive use of products emerging from their inventions. That is the lesson that past events teach us.