Every one loves to dream... dream to acheive big things in life and make a considerable impact on things that matter to them most. And we hope to acheive the dream. But is it not necessary that for the dream to be acheivable one needs to be aware of certain hard facts and also be willing to deal with them? In other words, don't you think that dreams which have their feet planted on firmly on the ground are more acheivable?
Indians have also dreamt a dream. A dream to be one of the super-powers of the world. We claim to have nearly acheived the dream. We have witnessed that India is claiming to have arrived on the global scene with a huge bang. But have we really? Most of the articles published on this blog previously has pointed out this very fact.
Recently, I had a chance to read an article by Pankaj Mishra. He writes literary and political essays for the New York Times, the New Statesman etc etc. Although the article penned by him - The Myth of New India - is dated July 6, 2006, I feel that it still holds good. Here are some excerpts from this article that I think hold significantly true even today:
"Since the early 1990's, when the Indian economy was liberalized, India has emerged as the world leader in information technology and business outsourcing, with an average growth of about 6 percent a year. Growing foreign investment and easy credit have fueled a consumer revolution in urban areas ................. "
"................. the alleged rise of India barely mention the fact that the country's $728 per capita gross domestic product is just slightly higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa ..... even if it sustains its current high growth rates, India will not catch up with high-income countries until 2106."
"Nor is India rising very fast on the report's Human Development index, where it ranks 127, just two rungs above Myanmar and more than 70 below Cuba and Mexico. Despite a recent reduction in poverty levels, nearly 380 million Indians still live on less than a dollar a day. "
"Malnutrition affects half of all children in India, and there is little sign that they are being helped by the country's market reforms, which have focused on creating private wealth rather than expanding access to health care and education. ..... and facilities for primary education have collapsed in large parts of the country ........."
"The potential for conflict — among castes as well as classes — also grows in urban areas, where India's cruel social and economic disparities are as evident as its new prosperity. The main reason for this is that India's economic growth has been largely jobless. Only 1.3 million out of a working population of 400 million are employed in the information technology and business processing industries that make up the so-called new economy. "
"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. ........"
Some very hard hitting facts... but can anyone of us refute them???? I agree that there have been some amount of progress that has been enforced by the urban middle class these days but is it enough? Is'nt this progress restricted to only a select few?
Is'nt it time to review our dreams and our claims to have acheived our dream???
No comments:
Post a Comment