The Myth of the New India

Published on: 2006-7-17

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The Myth of the New India

2006-07-17T09:48:00

No labor-intensive manufacturing boom of the kind that powered the economic growth of almost every developed and developing country in the world has yet occurred in India. Unlike China, India still imports more than it exports. This means that as 70 million more people enter the work force in the next five years, most of them without the skills required for the new economy, unemployment and inequality could provoke even more social instability than they have already. Read More If you read business magazines or listen to the business channels on TV, you will feel that a new India is emerging - an economic superpower of the 21st century. The sad thing is that many of us who are part of this so-called `new economy' believe in this myth and forget the fact that we are a nation which ranks alongside the poorest African countries when it comes to almost all aspects of human development. The kind of development which we are witnessing at present in say a place like Bangalore is going to create social tensions which will tear apart the very fabric of our society. A minority of our population is not only accumulating wealth like anything but also *displaying* it with zest. Go to any `multiplex' in Bangalore and you will see a small group of rich kids with fancy mobile phones and cola bottles in hand immersing themselves in material luxuary while the `common man' watches at a distance - tempted by what he sees and very much aware of the fact that they are beyond his means. One can only wonder as to what will happen in the future as this divide between the rich and the poor widens.


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Tue Jan 8 11:40:03 2008

You have a point, those who want to get rich are getting rich :=).