© 2007
Incredible India! By Kevin
At 8.55 am on Wednesday, 25 April 2007, there was a loud yell from the bedroom.
My son emerged clutching the morning’s papers and yelling as if he had hit the jackpot, “the rupee does a whoopee!”
I grabbed the newspapers from his hand and there, emblazoned right across the morning’s papers, a banner headline hit me “wham!” between the eyes - the Indian rupee had finally come of age, it had appreciated to below the magic “41 mark” against the dollar. And – abracadabra! – it had turned India into a trillion-dollar economy, the 12th country in the world to achieve the feat. Aare Wah! (Hindi for Wow!)
I was bahoot khush (very happy) that India had pulled out this Bugs Bunny wabbit out of its turban, er, hat. And the Elmer Fuddy-duddies, the financial diehards of India had to bite the dust. This certainly brought India center-stage, right into the international limelight…… Now, at last my international friends wouldn’t ask me embarrassing things like if I traveled to work in/on an air-conditioned camel? (And pray, how does one air-condition a camel?) Or if I lived in a snake-pit (yecch!) during the day and slept on a bed of nails (ouch!) in the night? Or whether it was true that Indian women washed their knee-length hair in a washing machine? Some time back, my son’s friends from Harvard University visited Mumbai and they were dumb-struck, eyes askew. “Where are the elephants?” asked one sweet-looking freshman (and mind you, she wasn’t a blonde!). Where are the Indian sadhus who roam around in the nude, asked another? There were pleasantly surprised to see that Mumbai was just like any other modern city abroad, a throbbing city of alphabet-soupists and Kelloggists. Where an Armani rubs a sartorial-splendored shoulder with a Calvin Klein. And people speak in grammatically-impeccable English (who cares if they pronounced snacks as snakes…….Can I offer you some snakes with a hot cup of tea?).
India's booming economy could have a profound impact on the world economy at large if progress in boosting regional and global trade links continues apace according to an International Monetary Fund report. In all seriousness, India seems to be galloping ahead. The retail banking market is at a fast trot. And the annual revenue of this market, which is $ 6.4 billion US, is expected to – hold your horses, Charlie - more than double by 2010.
The IT sector is giant leaping ahead in the international arena, gobbling up any adversary that comes its way. Young, grey-mattered computer whiz kids barely out of their shorts and pony-tails are whizzing past their western counterparts on cyber roller skates. Make no mistake, India is moving at an incredible baud rate and is the fastest growing market for servers in the Asia-Pacific. Global IT major, Tata Consultancy Services has landed itself a multimillion-dollar Russian contract. So, this is goodbye to the other global competitors!
India goes to the top of the class!
In an interview in Fortune magazine, 94-year old management guru Peter Drucker said, "India is becoming a powerhouse very fast. The medical school in New Delhi is now perhaps the best in the world. And the technical graduates of the Institute of Technology in Bangalore are as good as any in the world." Also, India has 150 million people for whom English is their main language. So India is indeed becoming a knowledge centre, the 94-year-old management thinker said. India, he continued, “had already done an amazing job of absorbing excess rural population into the cities. India's rural population has gone from 90% to 54%without any upheaval.” Grade A for India!
The Indian perestroika!
In was only in recent years that India Finance underwent a major surgery to breathe life into its otherwise ailing economy. The guru-economists of the day prescribed a heavy dosage of liberalization and privatization of industrial and economic activities and opening up the clogged arteries of certain segments to the private sector. This line of treatment, they said, would have long-term consequences, giving the financial heart of India a chance to recuperate and build the necessary muscle to pump life-giving finances to all sectors of the economy. And, so the old bullock-carted eco-models were put out to pasture. The obsolete methods were quickly replaced by the new binary-world rhapsody, like an old lamp for new. Coupled with this was the importance being laid on up-to-date technology as it was felt that without access to high technology the country would be left behind in the race that was constantly affecting the international scene. Following a similar trend, the manufacturing sector too appears as if it had been on a diet of Vitamin B. Its bottom lines are in the pink of health. And, its excellent quarterly results are intravenously feeding the stock markets with higher and higher P/E ratios. Wealth is health!
India in its modern-day avatar
In today's nanosecond world, changes are constant. Information and news flow from one part of the world to another in seconds. The shrinking of the globe has resulted in a wonderful cross-pollination of cultures. Western culture and fashion have penetrated deep into the roots of Indian society. The elite, upper crust dress, speak and behave like Westerners and, as if as a legacy from the colonial days, even sport a stiff upper lip! Foreign labels vie with each other. St Valentine’s Day has hearts flying all over the landscape, Santa can be seen even in small towns, and no Easter is complete without hot-cross buns, Easter eggs and turkey. But this does not mean that Indians have forgotten their roots and their culture and their rich traditions. Far from it! In fact, it’s become pretty chic to celebrate Indian festivals such as Rakhi (an age-old tradition where women tie colorful strings around the wrists of their adopted brothers) and many can be seen in the modern sartorial splendor of the salwaar kameez and kurta pajama. Take good ol’ Mumbai, known as the “bastard child of a Portuguese-English wedding and yet the most Indian of Indian cities,” a scintillating experiment in a cultural cross-pollination.
People in the shadow
Even with India in the fast lane, breathlessly about to reach the finishing line, there is still a large part of the country that lives under a looming shadow.
An estimated 40% of the population is too poor to afford adequate nourishment regularly. And nearly 50% of children are malnourished, a mind-boggling figure. In education, there is still persistent core illiteracy among adults, particularly among women. Infant mortality and maternal mortality is of sub-Saharan African standards. Qualitatively and even quantitatively, primary and secondary education would leave a philanthropist frothing at the mouth. Yes, private schools provide excellent education but these are not aided by the government and hence the school fees are outrageously high, putting them outside the reach of the common man. Though we shout from the rooftops about the huge number of graduates, the academic quality is appalling. If education has shown an abysmal performance, the blame should be laid at the doorsteps of the government, which has been dragging its slovenly, half-asleep feet over implementation of various programs.
The have-nots have noughts!
The sections of the society which had been neglected since times immemorial and whose existence was often pathetic beyond contemplation, not only in economic terms but also in terms of social hierarchy, have begun to assert their rights. The provisions of the Constitution backed by a series of measures have also brought about a certain degree of insistence about the enjoyment of rights guaranteed to them. They also claim for themselves a more significant role in the management of the affairs of the country at all levels. It is a matter of satisfaction that this has started to happen, although it has taken much longer than was desirable.
True, India is the world’s largest democracy (India has completed more than six decades of its existence as a free and democratic nation committed to secure to all its citizens social, economic and political justice.). And yet the quality of its political class leaves a lot to be desired. The very symbols of backwardness – casteism, untouchability, religious superstition and priestly dominance – are being exploited in democratic politics as instruments for electoral advantages. It is a pretty daunting task to curb social backwardness if caste-based reservations darken India’s prime academic institutions.
The new policy direction no doubt has its protagonists and antagonists and arguments can be advanced both in favor of and against these measures.