Your earnest tone and a surprising number of up votes prompted me to write this response, Based on my own experiences in India and your remarks (quoted below),

Your earnest tone and a surprising number of up votes prompted me to write this response, Based on my own experiences in India and your remarks (quoted below), you strike me as a dejected young man. "This is precisely why I don't want to stay in India beyond a certain point." "the state has promised food and ration for school going children with uniforms. So, what happens on the ground is that a few officials come together and sell the provisions on the open market and buy substandard food instead" "What will emerge out of this chaos is something that no one can predict..." Now what is not right and in fact dangerous about these opinions is that some may believe them and take them for the complete facts. Have you ever thought about the guy who promised and then implemented the food and uniform scheme for school going children? What was his motivation? Is he oblivious to the corruption around him? I think not, I think he is working within the constraints to make sure that the next generation is literate, healthy and has a better future. For nearly 20 years I have been betting against India (I grew up there and now live in the US) and I have been proven wrong. When you sympathize with Kashmiri separatists did you also think about what happens if there was indeed a separate Kashmir? Will that be a more peaceful prosperous nation or a neighbor at war ? We already have examples of such states in the Indian sub-continent. "What is far more disturbing is that few are willing to even look at the problem let alone start developing solutions for it." I disagree. People do recognize these problems and are addressing it, From the same wikipedia article you quoted, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite-Maoist_insurgency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite-Maoist_insurgency "In 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country." India has a billion problems and pray tell me which nation does not ? Here are some questions that I found interesting : Why has this nation not disintegrated in the last 60 years ? What binds it together? The answers to these questions amaze me. Try as an exercise finding answers to these questions. If I were you I will not let these issues depress you and sway you one way or the other. Like Mahatma Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world". I am not a nationalist and I am not the first to say this but there are only a few nations/civilizations that at its core firmly believes in an "Universal Well Being". And remember the motto of India is "Truth alone Triumphs".