Where do we go from here?

So, yesterday, I finished Fareed Zakaria. I think this book is an excellent read, and I would highly recommend it anyone interested in issues such as democracy, democratic trends, relationship between democracy & economics of a nation. In the conclusion, I found this very disturbing statistic (I am sure it is one of many of a similar kind):

Despite its democratic glories, India was ranked 124th out of 172 nations in the 2002 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) human development ranking, ranking low in almost all aspects of human development: literacy, education, infant mortality. It ranks lower than countries like Bolivia, Guatemala, Syria, and Cuba.

Also considering the fact that Asia is home to 800 million of the 1.2 billion people in the world living on less than $1 a day (and I daresay a large percentage of that 800 million is from India too), I think it is quite clear how far we are from getting to a point where all Indians have a decent standard of living.

Here is the 2003 UNDP Human Develoopment Index (HDI) ranking for India (we have slipped to rank 127 now). Notice the following - Gender Inequality in Education and Economic Activity, People with AIDS/HIV in the Leading Global Health crises and challenges. Commitment to education and public health is pathetically low. Here is another depressing summary of the state of our environment. The GDP per capita is around $2800, just around the cut-off limit that Zakaria's book talks about as being the stable zone for democracy.

This makes me feel really low. I wonder where do we go from here? Where do we start solving our problems?