India and the G8

India becoming a superpower has been a topic in History/Civics books ever since I did my schooling. Even now, the topic stays with the time frame extended to current year + 10 by the latest reprint!

Will India ever become a superpower? What does it really take to become a superpower? Is India progressing towards it at the least? Does the improvement in the rupee value indicate that we are on the right track? A thousand questions could easily be asked on this topic.

As with any concept there are two sides to this coin and two sections of people - one for each side. People who say 'Yes, we are progressing' quote that India has the largest young population in the world and even nameless countries in the world outsource their HR and IT requirements to India. This according to them has revolutionized the economy, bringing up the stock market and shifting the focus of the world nations towards the sub-continent.

On the other hand, another set of people say that in India the rich get richer and poor get poorer which is not even close to progress. They say there are thousands of villages that lack even the basic infrastructure. When any remote village in US can offer a 7Mbps broad band internet connection, there are remote villages in India where you don't even have electricity. This according to them is not even termed 'developing' let alone 'developed'.

Let's weigh these statements on a balanced scale and perhaps try to spot where things go wrong if at all they do! Undoubtedly Indian economy has improved in the recent past - thanks to IT, ITIS, BPO and Call Centers. The value for Indian rupee has been improving constantly jeopardizing the Indians living in US, making them think if they should get back to India and settle down on a high profile job there! Quite obviously this means progress and we are performing better in the high-tech industry these days.

Viewed from the other perspective, according to surveys (God knows the year these surveys were taken! After all reservation policies for 2007 have been based on the 1950s Census) a major portion of India's population is rural or semi-rural. Have they really got any benefits? People might claim that a farmer's son from a remote village like Rasakkapalayam (all names are imaginary... any reference to existing places is purely coincidental :D) is now dancing in the costliest dance bar in NYC because of these improvements! But who will take care of the farm after the old farmer's time is done? Is it really wise to convert that fertile land to an apartment that dumps 1000s of middle class Indians?

Improvements in Technology is mandatory and it is the stepping stone for an improved India. But improving on the technical front alone is not the real improvement. So many basic problems are still out there waiting to be addressed and the lucrative salaries offered by high-tech jobs are driving youngsters into a single channel like a flock of sheep, draining out the creamy layer that would've contributed to the improvement of other areas. If Bachelors, Masters and Doctorates in diversified branches lead to the same destination, then what is the purpose of having so many branches? The quote by Oscar Wild - "Who wants a cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" (Ok... Courtesy TZP) couldn't fit any better than in this case. When the ultimate destination is joining some XYZ Software Solutions and earning more money than the rest, what value could a specialization on psychology, sociology, Bio-medical engineering, mechanical engineering provide? Absolutely nothing!

So what is the real solution then? Where lies the problem? Is it IT companies? Is it the population? Is is the greed in everyone to make more money? No! There is just one word that retards the growth of India - Politics. Sure enough it deserves a new post and I refrain from getting into the specifics here. But rest assured, India is still 'developing' and there is a long way to go before we call ourselves a real 'Super Power'!