You can arrive at this conclusion only after a superficial look at the situation.
People who go for extra mile for fame would be like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Poonam Pandey and Sherlyn Chopra etc etc and shit people you see on Roadies.
The people who really want to do stuff are already doing it for the real motivation of doing it is personal conviction.
The fact that they are not recognized is because our system does not reward them with social equity which it should and that is because we are still a developing society. We have not many Olympic winners, not many inventors and real researchers to speak of, not many sportsmen to idolize is because the priority of society are not such. We as a people are still in survival mode in our instincts.
We can not copy these noble values by emulation for they will be rootless and will wither away over time. These can only be evolved and cultivated over a period of time and I would give it more time than taking short cuts.
They achieve this fame coz people watch their movies, tapes, videos, read magazines containing articles about such people. Try to find out how many hits on pictures and videos of these people receive compared to articles and documentaries of social activists, environentalists etc. I don't like Roadies, I am against that show since its inception. Answer for this question is "Your choice".
As long as people choose to know, see more about these people, they will enable such magazines, TV-shows, videos on youtube,, pron websites etc. If Indians start avoiding them, you can save our culture. But hey, this is called open mindedness, adaptation with new world etc. etc. Few excuses to avoid being bashed. No wonder pre-maritial sex, divorces etc, are on rise in India.
I agree with your point of personal conviction. I always supported definition of individualism by Ayan Rand. One should work for what he thinks is right., he shouldn't get into distorted collectivism. Read about
Herd Behavior, Opinion Formation, Decision Making and Social influence.
People really work for betterment of society, think about the people in need but deep inside they do it for their satisfaction, to make their mark in society etc. But these people need publicity too. If you don't know about an NGO which is working near your place. you won't give them money because you just don't know their existence. (I can explain this point in detail, if you want)
I agree with your current survival mode argument. Your statement is answer to those who bash Indian space program, Nuclear submarines etc. I also blame faulty system of distribution of our money and our priorities. But there are places where we HAVE to work istead of investing all our efforts in removing poverty, malnourishment etc, These programs HAVE to be run in parallel
I would also like to pint out that we gave so much fame to our cricketers, film personalities, go mad about them etc. people revere Amitabh Bacchan and Rajnikant while completely ignore the people who should be recognised. How many people on this forum know about Swami Nigmanand who died of hunger while protesting against illegal mining. Leave entire country, our youth etc.
Swami Nigamananda dies on 76th day hunger strike
So its better, use these forums, Facebook, Twitter like social networks to increase the awareness so that one person living in US who have money and want to do something for his country while still living in US.
Make Narendra Modi's work so popular that political parties tries to imitate it, take his projects and apply in their states to come to power and get re-elected again. Inform only FIVE people. That's it.