Growth in India

As my plane circled over, a dense cloud of black smog shrouded the city. As soon as I landed I can smell the fumes and the pollution corroding our lungs. Add to that was the cacophony of the bustling streets and the noise generated by the millions in one of the most densely populated cities in the world. As I walked out of the airport I expected the city to have developed a lot in the last 2 years – who can forget the cover on BusinessWeek, “Growth in India.” But where is the growth? I can only see a few shops or modern buildings have sprung ubiquitously here and there. The infrastructure was still the same – as soon as you start walking on the streets a sense of claustrophobia grips you. Ok!! I get the picture, the middle class is still unaffected by all this rampant growth – it has only added to the digital divide. The hi-tech growth has hardly touched the majority – you can argue look at the growth of the cellular industry, the television, the cable –but we still forget that only one in three houses has a telephone and probably one in five houses has a television set – what about the rest?

In a day or two, I realized the pangs of living in a third world country – poor sanitation, miserable living conditions (not so miserable to the populace), oblivious of technology, red-tapism, corruption and outdated administrative methods. So, the question arises, how can we make this country prosper? What is the solution? Inhibit the Population Growth; more aid; create manufacturing jobs; more Venture Capital and Product Innovation? Maybe this should be my thesis topic for MBA research. But I still love this place, how can I undo the beginning 24 years of my life I spent in this city? But it only worries me that we tend to forget what we have gone through ourselves. We forget that we have a role to play in the development of our own country. Though we will find it difficult to forego our luxuries, we should do whatever we can to make this a better place….
(Though I feel like a hypocrite myself. And I have this tremendous feeling of guilt writing it myself – but how can I run away from reality?)