I think bringing in your nationality into the debate makes it somewhat irrational. You've said you are "an educated and affluent Indian". In reality, you are "

I think bringing in your nationality into the debate makes it somewhat irrational. You've said you are "an educated and affluent Indian". In reality, you are "an educated and affluent person". Whether you choose to live in India or choose to pursue a greencard in the US as a Princeton PhD in academia or industry, or maybe go to UK/Canada/Europe, or maybe even South America - Brazil, Costa Rica, all of these are/were valid choices. You've simply chosen to return to India, perhaps as some sort of default choice. But all those other choices still exist. Each of them will have some component of moral suffering and some component of psychic reward. I think many of the "system does not work" points you've made are simply examples of a different system. When I'm back home in India and I see people pissing on the street corner, I don't think "Hey, system does not work. They should be pissing in restrooms". I think "This is a different system with some pluses & some minuses. Pluses : no infrastructure needed, organic waste in a tropic country decays rapidly, freedom to piss wherever since its accepted culturally. Minuses : the pervasive smell of ammonia." I think that attitude makes it much easier to adapt to the different system than to try and westernize everything by saying "system doesn't work in India".