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The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. - Robert

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. - Robert M. Hutchins That said I don't think you can look at India with a western "orderly" "everything must make sense" mindset. There is definitely some progress made and it is slow but overall the direction is right. If you look at the scale of the problems India has gotten herself into - population, scarce natural resources, education, corruption - generations have had nothing but apathy towards. But the newer generations are not like that - with increased Internet penetration (my home town, a rural area has 2Mbps always on broadband at cheap prices!), loosening grip of social/religious dogmas and greater interest in public affairs things stand a fair chance towards betterment. To give you a few examples - when I was a kid (20 years ago) the maid that worked for my mom kept having kids year after year. My mom never thought of it until one day I suddenly yelled at her (overlooking the 5 kids of the maid in our backyard) that she had a duty to educate the maid about availability of contraceptives. Back then that was a radical thing for me to talk about such things at my age with my mom. Turned out our maid did not know that these things existed - a year later my mom had her operated at her will of course and the yearly flow of kids stopped! There is certainly more social activism than there was 20 years ago and it is well organized and communicated thanks to improved communication tools - I know of 3 court cases where justice was done due to public activism - a well known politico's son almost got away with murder before public forced a retrial and got the guy back in jail. There is also a crusade against corruption - this time with better results and more public support than ever before. The Govt. was forced to agree with the demands of a long time anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hazare-wins-anti-corruption-crusade-to-end-fast-tomorrow/articleshow/7916949.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hazare-wins-anti-co... . Cell phones have made lives better for a lot of poor people - my brother was telling me his paper boy has a BlackBerry and the fruit vendor had a Symbian phone! Point being that it's a huge problem that has so far been dealt with apathy but that is changing fast. As more and more the older gen gets out, as more and more new educated people take matters in their control, it is bound to change more for the better. There are no silver bullets in this - it's an ongoing thing that requires continued public involvement. There is no dearth of talented and well meaning people in India that cannot tackle these issues. It's only for lack of interest that it is languishing - as long as that is on the rise I have my hopes!

chailatte 16y ago
Don't get me wrong; I love the optimism and determination and endurance by the young people in India I saw. But they're running out of time. Investment in emerging markets is drying up (and will be for the foreseeable future), as developed countries are starting to hike interest rates to fight inflation. Oil and food prices are skyrocketing. So one side is jobs growth slows. On the other side is cost of living goes up. Same conditions around the world, but when you are living in India, that really hurts. And when jobs start to go to other countries with better skilled labors (better English fluency, better city infrastructure) such as philippines and malaysia and vietnam, watch out.
- intended 16y ago
  Honestly, considering the following facts: 1) The amount of cash still sloshing around in world markets, 2) That interest rates on loans in India are around 14-17%, 3) The fact that the Reserve Bank of India has not started to print money like the Fed, and 4) India has been hiking far earlier than developed nations - I'd say investment capital is not going to be an issue. (Let me further add, that working in a financial firm which works with PE funds, I can assure you that interest in the emerging markets will NOT end.) We, and almost all 3rd world nations, are also FAR more sensitive to inflation than the west, and have been working to curtail it for a while. With regards to losing jobs to the Philippines and Malaysia - their competition is actually something that will do wonders for our competitiveness. Perhaps what people don't see is the huge amount of work going into HR development in this country. For all those outsourcing jobs, India has had to take the HR manual, and rebuild it at a scale most people would not have expected. For example the recent WSJ article on talent crunches in India - well that article was several years late. Vivek Wadhwa already wrote a comprehensive piece on how talent in India doesn't measure up in 2008. http://hir.harvard.edu/how-the-disciple-became-the-guru?page=0,0 http://hir.harvard.edu/how-the-disciple-became-the-guru?page... Its worth a read (also informative for any Indian entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out recruitment- which is a huge pain in the country.)
known 16y ago
Anti-corrupt people are considered to be incompetent in Indian society. Lokpal is going to be another epicenter for corruption.

chailatte 16y ago

Don't get me wrong; I love the optimism and determination and endurance by the young people in India I saw. But they're running out of time. Investment in emerging markets is drying up (and will be for the foreseeable future), as developed countries are starting to hike interest rates to fight inflation. Oil and food prices are skyrocketing. So one side is jobs growth slows. On the other side is cost of living goes up. Same conditions around the world, but when you are living in India, that really hurts. And when jobs start to go to other countries with better skilled labors (better English fluency, better city infrastructure) such as philippines and malaysia and vietnam, watch out.

intended 16y ago
Honestly, considering the following facts: 1) The amount of cash still sloshing around in world markets, 2) That interest rates on loans in India are around 14-17%, 3) The fact that the Reserve Bank of India has not started to print money like the Fed, and 4) India has been hiking far earlier than developed nations - I'd say investment capital is not going to be an issue. (Let me further add, that working in a financial firm which works with PE funds, I can assure you that interest in the emerging markets will NOT end.) We, and almost all 3rd world nations, are also FAR more sensitive to inflation than the west, and have been working to curtail it for a while. With regards to losing jobs to the Philippines and Malaysia - their competition is actually something that will do wonders for our competitiveness. Perhaps what people don't see is the huge amount of work going into HR development in this country. For all those outsourcing jobs, India has had to take the HR manual, and rebuild it at a scale most people would not have expected. For example the recent WSJ article on talent crunches in India - well that article was several years late. Vivek Wadhwa already wrote a comprehensive piece on how talent in India doesn't measure up in 2008. http://hir.harvard.edu/how-the-disciple-became-the-guru?page=0,0 http://hir.harvard.edu/how-the-disciple-became-the-guru?page... Its worth a read (also informative for any Indian entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out recruitment- which is a huge pain in the country.)

known 16y ago

Anti-corrupt people are considered to be incompetent in Indian society. Lokpal is going to be another epicenter for corruption.