Sensex hits 20K. Mukesh Ambani becomes the richest person in thw world. At the ET awards ceremony, all the top honchos in the industry meet and decide that they feel proud to be Indian in the midst of such a crowd. If you were reading only the headlines in business newspapers, one could forgive you for assuming that India today is on the verge of becoming a developed nation.
One interesting observation was made by one of my professors who has returned from the US for a brief period. According to him, in 16 years that he has spent abroad, he has seen nothing change in India. And these are the 16 years India is said to have moved from a socialist economy to a more capitalistic model. Have things really improved? Yes, software engineers passing straight out of engineering college get paid 5 times the salary a normal engineer used to get in those days. Business graduates earn high packages and one looks down upon any post-grad student earning less than a certain salary figure. More number of High Net Worth Individuals seem to be surfacing everyday. The financial markets attract a lot of attention, perhaps even more than the government policies nowadays.
Amidst all this euphoria, I found this article by Arun Maira very insightful of how we may be losing sight of how things should actually be. While firms are all aiming at beating shareholder expectations and attracting new customers, the term "inclusive growth" seems to be a word best left for politicans to handle. It is very useful to note how the growth patterns have been different in various stages of economic development in the US. From an economic standpoint, even in the Indian perspective, has the change in government really made a huge difference? The BJP and the NDA tried to harp on the India Shining mantra and was voted out of power. As things stand today, will the UPA fare any better in any poll? I doubt it even though the economy is still growing quite aggressively. While I have heard many views of how democracy doesn't work in the Indian context and it is a hindrance rather than a positive influence, I sincerely believe that our democratic credentials are a constant reminder to the people in power that they need to either deliver or perish. And we as a country definitely need to work out a way to make the India Growth story more effective than simply blame the politicians for the inequalities.
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Sure da... Only way to bring a inclusive growth is "bottom up" and not "top down"... Since bottom up, grass roots movement have always been more successful than the "top-dwon" movements.. But still, this GDP growth has been good for the country too.. e.g. % of People below BPL has decreased.. etc.. and also this GDP growht is just a beginning and we have a long way to go.. :)
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