Saturday, February 10, 2007

India, the next superpower -- why not?

I read an article on CNN
India the Superpower, Think again
. CNN's Cait Murphy puts forth an argument on why India should stop taking pride in its enormous economy growth and curb its enthusiam in its bid for being a superpower. The article contains a lot of correct facts but fails to convince me with his argument. The writer's source of considering India as a superpower is the number of results he got when he googled "India" and "superpower" and not some International study. I googled the exact same two words and looked at the articles that popped up. Even the most optimistic articles referred to it as a "potential" superpower. To see the futility of the source, google "Ghana" "superpower" and you will get a large number of hits claiming Ghana to be the next superpower (Based on the fact Ghana beat USA in the Soccer World Cup in Germany). But Ghana does not have 1 billion people and an 8% growth rate so the writer decides to talk about India.

He refers to the slow growth rate in the first 45 years after India's independence as the "a derisory Hindu Growth Rate". I found no basis for the term "Hindu Growth Rate". If the term refers to government policies, the first 45 years after India's Independence the Left-leaning "Congress party" has governed India and set socialist policies. Only recently we have seen a rise of right wing parties. If the term is referring to the majority of the population well then its derogatory and offensive. It takes a country time to stand on its own feet after gaining independence from another country. After 50 years of America's Independence they were mired in a Civil war. Women got a right to vote much later than 50 years after independence in the US. In that perspective 45 years is a very short span of time for a country to start making headway and post good returns.

The writer presents some facts on the number of children who do not have an education and are malnourished. The children in America battle obesity, guns and metal detectors in schools, and low Math and Science scores (compared to other developed countries). This hasn't stopped America from continuing to be a superpower. My point is, I agree things need to improve but it is not a strong enough argument to support the writer's hypothesis. There a lot of people in India who have a better standard of living than they did 1o years ago. There are no comparitive figures on what "has" improved in India along with the ugly "facts" of how poor and uneducated the people are in India. A booming economy will in turn help people of the country. It takes time for the benefits to trickle down to all stratas of society. So why not take pride in an enourmous growth rate? It has caused others world wide to sit and take notice. With 1/8 of the population residing in the same country, and where each person is driven to prove his worth to the world. To people who say India can't be the next superpower, I say -- why not?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

good article and good arguments. I agree more with the CNN article but you're right in your ways too. You also may be slightly bias since you're from india. Nice work though-

Namita said...

I agree with Cait.I myself live in the US and find these slogans''India Superpower'' ''Indian Shining'' baseless and veryy stupid. What Cait mentioned about the flaws in India is absolutely true and people in India need to know this. And please dont tell me that you need 100 years to change attitude. The basic problem with Indians is their attitude, greed,selfishness and their ignorance towards the poor and corruption. Until this attitude does not change India will never improve, forget being super power. The GDP you taking about belong to a certain class the IT and the rich business people. They are growing but pay their drivers 3,000 rupees since past several years. Here shows the attitude. What does India have for the world, NOTHING. What does it create? Its a service country only. US keeps the big work for themselves and pass on the small maintainance work to India coz they dont want to waste their time and move forward.Americans are real smart and intelligent. So if India cant even create a single product for the world how can it ever dream of being a super power.
This statements make me feel sick and when I see 77% in absoluetly poverty. I think its a living hell and only God may be able to help.

dude said...

Every country has its pros and cons. India is just as good as it is bad. It balances out. Think twice before you rule out the 1.13 billion people that live there. In a capitalist world, by definition, people will be poor while other people will be rich. There seem to be many people who are poor in India, but when compared to its massive population, its acceptable.

eponymous said...

I live in the US.Now the situation in India is, lot of people are joining the middle class. Unless there is a major calamity (political turmoil, natural disaster) in India, the trend is highly unlikely to change. Then the industrial growth and creation will happen where the consumer base is, not the other way round. If we have eliminated approximately 25% poverty in 30 years(Source: wikipedia, Poverty in India), it will not take time to eliminate most of it in a few decades. Undoubtedly a bitter pill of truth for commercial interests in the developed world, the images of poverty being seen are just vestiges of the past, and not a premonition of the future of India.I would say the US has reason to fear poverty for itself, seeing the economy growth rate fall from 8% to 4% in just a few years

Roshan aslam said...

they got rights much later but because they did so did the female folk in india..they emancipated the female folk which trickled down to india...come on india has female feticide even now…in harayana the male:female is arnd 100:780..and besides if he had such an high IQ we would have neva imported had our defence equipment…we would have our own companies..not outsourced jobs paying mere salary…our politicials compared to ppl like obama..even bush..atleast he has guts to go into places and bomb then..we cant even think of going to POK….well miss we have to learn a lot from US..lots….by the way an avg indian is way bttr than an avg american cause they don’t need a formal education to survive…but an elite American scientist is way better than an Indian elite scientist…we have neva 1 a noble prize for science nor invented any thing….alll we so is talk big..and buy weapons from Russia…please get over fake pride and try to make india a super power in the true sense of it

anoop said...

bravo!! good article! :) we only have to improve d system.. our intellectual capability is unsurpassed.. we will grom fast n faster..!