Sorry but the new India is no myth. The pride in Lakshmi Mittal's 'achievement' is misplaced but I see it merely an _expression_ of a new-found national self-confidence. When you travel there, the changes are unmistakable. Not merely physical changes, but also a very obvious atmosphere of hope and optimism. Many Indians feel that their destiny is truly in their own hands. He or she can achieve economic success by working hard and getting an education. It is hard to appreciate how big this is without knowing the pervasive pessimism and hopelessness that we had before.
The statistics about the number of Indians living on a dollar a day are meaningless. All it shows that India is still a poor country. It hides the fact that India is markedly less poor than before.
Of course this is not to deny the negatives. Inequalities have indeed increased enormously between the urban middle class and the rural poor. The nouveau rich seem to have a disturbing sense of entitlement. Many people see absolutely nothing wrong with making a fortune day-trading stocks or programming computers in airconditioned offices while a construction work toils in the scorching sun for maybe 20 times less. They buy too readily into the market-place religion: "the construction worker has an incentive to get himself or his children an education, so he will also be making a fortune". It is not clear how long the export-driven IT boom can drive the economy. The increasing consumption trends points to serious environmental and energy problems. And of course in the end, it is impossible and undesirable to transform India into "Manhattan" as the article below suggests.
Despite all of this the new self-confidence in India is no myth, and who knows something good may come out of it.
-raghu.
The statistics about the number of Indians living on a dollar a day are meaningless. All it shows that India is still a poor country. It hides the fact that India is markedly less poor than before.
Of course this is not to deny the negatives. Inequalities have indeed increased enormously between the urban middle class and the rural poor. The nouveau rich seem to have a disturbing sense of entitlement. Many people see absolutely nothing wrong with making a fortune day-trading stocks or programming computers in airconditioned offices while a construction work toils in the scorching sun for maybe 20 times less. They buy too readily into the market-place religion: "the construction worker has an incentive to get himself or his children an education, so he will also be making a fortune". It is not clear how long the export-driven IT boom can drive the economy. The increasing consumption trends points to serious environmental and energy problems. And of course in the end, it is impossible and undesirable to transform India into "Manhattan" as the article below suggests.
Despite all of this the new self-confidence in India is no myth, and who knows something good may come out of it.
-raghu.
INDIA is a roaring capitalist success story." So says the latest issue of
Foreign Affairs; and last week many leading business executives and
politicians in India celebrated as Lakshmi Mittal, the fifth richest man in
the world, finally succeeded in his hostile takeover of the Luxembourgian
steel company Arcelor. India's leading business newspaper, The Economic
Times, summed up the general euphoria over the event in its regular
feature, "The Global Indian Takeover": "For India, it is a harbinger of
things to come economic superstardom."
