Millions of school children in Maharashtra practicing the mind-strengthening exercise of Anapana, for 10 minutes before and after classes,  forms part of revolutionary changes I see happening across India – changes further driven through initiatives like the ‘Make in India’ Week in Mumbai, February 13 – 20.

The Maharashtra state government, the ‘Make in India’ Week hosts, initiated ‘MITRA Upakram’ to give children a much-needed coping mechanism in school and life.

With 10-minute Anapana practice, the MITRA Upakram project sows seeds of practical self-training to gradually liberate the mind from negativities like fear, anger, jealousy, insecurity. Anapana – the preparatory exercise for Vipassana – helps children resist adolescent poisons like drug addiction and sexual misconduct. They grow as peaceful citizens.

The historic MITRA Upakram project benefits over 25 million school children and 100,000 school teachers– with the simple daily Anapana work-out of the mind.

Maharashtra paving such path-breaking changes does not surprise me; it was in Mumbai in 1969 that the first Vipassana course has held again in India, after over 2,000 years. And the first Vipassana centre in the world, Dhamma Giri, was established in Maharashtra in 1976, in Igatpuri near Mumbai.

Since then, across 100 countries, the powerful, mind-cleaning exercise of Vipassana has proven to be one of India&’s most beneficial gifts to humanity. For a country and the world to change for the better, obviously the individual has to change.

India&’s wealthiest city, Mumbai, has the most Vipassana centres in its vicinity (seven) and the largest number of Vipassana practitioners in the world. At the Vipassana International Academy, Dhamma Giri, over 600 students from all religions, economic and social strata participate in residential 10-day Vipassana courses held free of cost. Over 30 per cent of students are from Mumbai. India&’s cosmopolitan financial capital is the world&’s Vipassana capital.

From Mumbai this balmy February, the ‘Make in India Week’ serves an ideal launching pad for a country&’s increasing prosperity and better life.

At surface level, ‘Make in India’ aims to make India a global manufacturing hub, and gather foreign investment to generate all-round development.

At deeper level, ‘Make in India’ will need India to improve work culture: less laziness, more efficiency; honesty and less corrupt political, bureaucratic red-tape.

But as we know, mere sermons, laws and punishment cannot remove corrupt conditioning of the mind. Long-lasting change has to come from within. Vipassana is the effective, non-sectarian and self-dependent mechanism for inner change.

The inner change comes from the hard work, strong determination needed in Vipassana practice to be aware of truths within, to courageously face ugly realities instead of turning away. We see how the real cause of our problems is within, not because of anyone else.

Daily Vipassana practice develops all-important equanimity, balance of mind to deal with changes, continual ups and downs in the impermanence of life. When an individual thinks clearly, work quality gets better. That&’s why many central, state governmental departments and leading corporate organizations provide paid leave for their employees to attend 10-day Vipassana courses.

Just as Vipassana and Anapana in the MITRA Upakram project work as the most significant human resource development project of its kind in the world, ‘Make in India’ is the largest ever such undertaking by any country to promote the economy, quality of work and creative talent.

During this Make in India Week, I registered for the interesting ‘Empowering through Design’ conference on February 17 that the India Design Forum (IDF) is organizing. IDF founder Rajshree Pathy told me in an email how she thinks our education system has killed India&’s architectural and cultural legacy.

“Why is it that for a country this large, we only have a handful of design schools?” Rajshree Pathy asked. “We have a generation today that lacks opportunities in the business of creativity and innovation. This is why we have some of the world’s top IT companies in India but we have never had a tech visionary like Steve Jobs. Even today, most of India’s automotive sector is outsourcing its design to foreign firms”.

Our (rote learning-based) educational system does not support independent, individualistic and creative thinking, Rajshree Pathy said. And so during the Make in India Week, her Coimbatore-based IDF brings global design experts to interact with Indian craftsmen and young designers to “empower them to become global ambassadors of Indian design”.

‘Make in India’ has far-reaching potential for India&’s progress this decade, this 21st century and beyond. But for India and Make in India to work better, the individual mind has to work better. Inspirational creativity and truly exceptional work comes with a mind free from the garbage clogging its working.

Just as a computer needs regular virus cleaning, and a machine become more productive with glitches removed, our work and life naturally gets better with deleting negative habit patterns of the mind through daily Vipassana practice.

"Our most important duty is to make the mind healthy, and prevent it from harmful thinking patterns,” the late Principal Vipassana Teacher Sayagyi U Goenka told children. “Our entire effort is towards understanding the nature of our mind, and correcting it instantly if it goes on the wrong path."

The 10-minute Anapana revolution in schools is ‘making in a India’ a generation that will lead the country to its next dimension of development: creating quality ‘Made in India’ India brands that earn respect worldwide: India&’s version of Google, Apple, General Electric, Mercedez Benz, Sony – and within ten years, an Indian designer and maker of eco-friendly civilian jets to carry 600 air travelers and inter-planetary space craft.

Retired aeronautics engineer Dilip Deshpande, a senior assistant Vipassana teacher and a Mitra Upakram co-ordinator, told me inspiring incidents of how Anapana in schools is changing lives of children and their families. A small girl daily practicing Anapana in the corner of a room in her house in Maharashtra, inspired her parents to stop their frequent husband-wife quarrels. A purer mind becomes less egoistic and more compassionate, and so relationships happily get better with family, friends, colleagues.

Anapana in the ancient Pali language means observing the natural incoming, outgoing breath – as it is. This non-sectarian technique is a purely natural exercise to gain mastery of one’s own mind. Anapana involves no rites, rituals nor links to any sectarian dogma. Observing the natural breath, as it is, is acceptable to all, to anyone from any religion.

With Anapana, children experience how the natural breath is connected to state of mind. For instance, when angry we notice how the breath becomes hard, irregular; when calm, the breath is subtle, soft. With Anapana practice daily, children increase their self-awareness, respond more maturely to situations. They gain mastery over the mind, and train it to be in reality of the present moment – instead of continually wandering in the past and future. The natural breath becomes the child’s best friend in need.

Renowned schools in India like Don Bosco, Egmore, in Chennai, start daily schedule with a 30-minute Moral Science class. Anapana and Vipassana (www.dhamma.org) is moral science in actual practice, giving strength of mind and wisdom to make wholesome choices in life.

Such is the priceless practical legacy from ancient India to 21st century India that is en route to being a global leader: the Vipassana necessity of pure reality to anyone striving for excellence in work, higher quality of life – and for making in India a happier future.

The writer is a senior, Mumbai-based journalist.