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INDIA 2006 - A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF AN ANCIENT COUNTRY
There are many Indias--A contrast of old worldview and the new age bubble of generation X. In a country where the teeming mass of humanity makes it the second-most populous country in the world—it’s all about contradictions. India is still shifting gears…the GDP is growing like never before and the economy is on high octane.
THE TWO INDIAS
iIf you are expecting snake charmers and wild elephants roaming the streets, you are in for a disappointment. But bullock carts, age-old customs, passion for traditions and certain age-old mindsets are all still there. While strategic communications, shared best practices and adherence to international standards, collaboration and cooperation, infrastructure development, literary leaps, musical exploits, celluloid capers are driving the country ahead. But there’s more to India than its high GDP growth and economic trajectory. There’s another part, which is paradoxically different. The exposure and opportunities in big city India is very different from the ones present in small cities in the country. While small towns are still clutching old traditions, urban India is changing with breathtaking speed---businesses are growing, social values are getting attuned to West, literacy level is on an upward climb, and the cosmopolitan crowds with their high disposable incomes are as much in home in Mumbai as in Munich.
But the glitter of corporate India cannot mask the fact that rural and semi-rural areas are gripped by deprivation, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and slow infrastructure growth. After 50 years of Independence, the scenario is slowly and steadily changing. Rural India is not a basket case, but one has to cut through the legacy of social progressiveness and rapid industrialization in the big cities and metros, to understand the social, economic and political ethos in the villages and smaller cities are very different.
When we talk of India as a land of paradoxes, we mean it quite literally. But it’s not all bleak—many call the dubious urban-rural parity, the cost of development. Slowly and steadily the divide is being bridged. There’s vigorous emphasis on integration of rural India with the development in the rest of the country, by focusing on agriculture, drinking water and electrification of villages. And with all this, there’s come about certain social and economic changes in these pockets. While some dismiss it as increasing urbanization of rural India, it nonetheless reflects definitive changes in the rural psyche--changes that are slowly fudging the contrast between big city and village life.
SOCIAL SCIENCE
In absolute terms, unemployment, both rural and urban, is very high in many a part of the country. The government’s employment guarantee scheme is a classic example of the ineffectiveness of State-sponsored schemes. And, while the service sector grows, the noisy malls do a good job in masking issues like agrarian distress. Bad weather conditions and debts have led to a staggering number of farmer suicides in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. A tragic state of affairs in a nation where a majority of the population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities. When we talk about contrasts, it’s not just between rural and urban areas. There are many contrasts even within rural India. Take for instance, Maharashtra—Cotton farmers in the state’s Vidharba are taking their own lives due to agrarian distress, while the rural prosperity of the sugarcane farmers of western Maharashtra stands out in stark contrast. At the same time, farmers in Gujarat and Punjab are affluent enough to have lifestyles replete with most of the big city luxuries, including bankrolling higher education for their children.
And here are some interesting similarities between rural and urban areas. While most of the roads in the bigger cities get a makeover now and then, in the rural areas it’s a case of collapsing infrastructure and in some cases no infrastructure. If one were to veer off the spanking tarmac of the national highways, the signs of urban affluence disappear. But it’s not just rural India having bumpy potholed roads. Take for instance certain pockets in Mumbai city itself; its potholed roads have now become not just the matter of public interest litigation, but a national joke. While the big city lights hardly ever dim, frequent power cuts are a regular feature in most parts of the country. Again, this is not just a rural phenomenon. The capital Delhi may be the power centre of the country, but it too has to sweat out the frequent load shedding, which peaks during summers. |
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