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This article is very informative but at the same time heavily biased towards the opinions of Jairam Ramesh who happens to be a member of the Indian National Con

This article is very informative but at the same time heavily biased towards the opinions of Jairam Ramesh who happens to be a member of the Indian National Congress (the party that lost power in 2014 after a 10 year misrule in India). For instance he says “We cannot afford to say, ‘We’re going to have 25 years of 8 percent GDP growth, then do a cleanup act later.’”. This is wrong on multiple fronts. The GDP of India was at 8.5% during the NDA rule (1998-2004) and after the INC came to power the GDP tumbled to an abysmal 5.3%. After NDA came back to power in 2014, the GDP is now up to 7.4% which is in itself an impressive feat. If this continues, we'll be seeing a GDP of 12% with some reports (Centre for Economics Business and Research (CEBR), United Kingdom) even projecting India to become the 3rd largest economy by 2030 right behind US and China. But obviously this is something the opposition (INC) doesn't want to acknowledge. The Village of Modern India is not the same as Ancient times. Today people live in villages not by choice but out of necessity. The high cost of living in the cities coupled with high rate of unemployment forces this large chunk of the population to live in slums and villages. India is poised to have, via the Smart Cities Mission lead by Narendra Modi, 100 smart cities (with some already in the pipeline: Dholera SIR in Gujarat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOFpWFLSqgU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOFpWFLSqgU) and Amravathi in Andhra Pradesh) and rejuvenation of 500 others in the next 15 years which would facilitate movement of the unemployed population from villages/slums to these Smart Cities. We have seen this happen, for example, during the real estate boom in Bangalore, where entire population of some villages in North Karnataka moved to Bangalore because of employment opportunities in the construction sector. This will put less pressure on the power companies to supply power to the remotest corners of India when it's population relocates more and more towards cities.

pm90 11y ago
That is an interesting point. It seems similar to when the rural workforce of the US transformed into an urban middle-class (before transforming into the suburban-middle class). It seems like in India, this transformation (and the resulting prosperity) was stunted by the inability of Indian cities to accommodate this kind of population transfer.
- shripadk 11y ago
  Absolutely! Once the cities are able to accommodate population by providing employment opportunities the burden on providing power, water and other basic amenities to remote villages reduces freeing up the Government to focus on reforms in other sectors. Luckily we have a Government today that works towards this goal.

pm90 11y ago

That is an interesting point. It seems similar to when the rural workforce of the US transformed into an urban middle-class (before transforming into the suburban-middle class). It seems like in India, this transformation (and the resulting prosperity) was stunted by the inability of Indian cities to accommodate this kind of population transfer.

shripadk 11y ago
Absolutely! Once the cities are able to accommodate population by providing employment opportunities the burden on providing power, water and other basic amenities to remote villages reduces freeing up the Government to focus on reforms in other sectors. Luckily we have a Government today that works towards this goal.