It is certainly possible, but is it doable?

"Imagine a world in which rich and poor alike have unlimited food, live in excellent health, and can zip through the streets of Delhi, Bangalore, or Mumbai in minutes in driverless cares -- and enjoy affordable clean energy, education, and comfortable housing," wrote Prof V Wadhwa in an article -- "The amazing possibilities of a technology enabled future". Unlimited cheap solar power will enable unlimited water from desalination, indoor farms and synthetic meat will provide cheap food, advances in diagnostics will lead to designer treatments for each individual and digital education will provide unlimited knowledge for little cost. Sounds seductive but it is somewhat 'chicken and egg'. How can we have such advances without education or healthcare? Thousands of children drop out of school for reasons, varying from poverty to a lack of toilets, wrote G Sampath. 4.34% dropped out of primary school in 2014-15 and 17.85% dropped out of secondary school. 35,000 children were pushed out of the education system in Delhi, the capital city. Politicians and civil servants are obsessed with GDP growth, with the CEO of Niti Aayog, A Kant saying that 10% growth will make India a $10 trillion economy by 2032 and eliminate all poverty. Indeed. A 100% growth rate will do it in 5 years, but the question is how to achieve it with a semi-literate population in poor health. "Most trends are positive, but my biggest disappointment when it comes to India is the education," said Bill Gates politely, "It should be far better." No wonder M Bhusnurmath advises, "The obsession with GDP numbers must stop." When education is substandard there is enormous pressure to stand out from the crowd. Parents spend large sums of money to put their children through engineering courses, their only aspiration being to get government jobs. Enormous demand leads to corruption. Large numbers of engineering colleges just took money but taught nothing, so now there are no applicants for over half the seats. According to the trade body Nasscom, only 17.5% of engineering graduates are employable. Medical education in private colleges can be even more expensive. A recent report notes that 50 million Indians were reduced to poverty because of healthcare costs. A private hospital in Gurgaon, near Delhi, charged Rs 200 for a syringe costing Rs 15.29 and a drug costing Rs 400 was charged at Rs 3,100. This apparently is normal practice. Hospitals are behaving like hotels which are allowed to add a charge for service by the Supreme Court. We may choose not to drink bottled water at a restaurant but we have no choice in choosing what treatment would be beneficial in a hospital. Our children dream of a fantastic future. Can we make it possible?