Someone tell Jim Rogers about 'caste' pls.

[VizagRocks]

Jim Rogers about India.

http://www.jimrogers.com/content/stories/articles/india.html

India is a land of contradictions. The country produces some of the world's brightest minds and the single most successful immigrant community in the United States. Yet roughly 50 percent of its own population is illiterate. It's a country recognized by global leaders as a high-tech superpower. Still, I often couldn't make a local phone call. There's a lot of talk among those in power in India about how the Internet super-highway will speed them to prosperity. Meanwhile, endless traffic jams and a deteriorating national highway system kept us creeping along at a snail's pace as my wife and I traveled through countryside. Goods carrying trucks can only average about 10 miles an hour crossing the country and often can be held up for days by the bureaucracy just trying to cross state lines.

[VizagRocks]

He must have written this sometime in 2000. But he's got so many things wrong about India.

It is true that India sucks, but its not because of its govt. It is because of its elite. Both the right and left wing elite.

 

[VizagRocks]

What has put the global economic country on the map over the past decade is its high-tech expertise. Bangalore, a city in Southern India, is the Silicon Valley of India, but other technology hubs are popping up all over the country. The software exports have grown from $50 million in 1993 to $6.3 billion last year. That number is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2008, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies. The software industry now accounts for 11.5 percent of India's total exports. Eight Indian IT companies, including firms like Infosys and Wipro and Satyam are listed on North American exchanges. The country is a major supplier of skilled software engineers, who are wooed by high-tech corporations in every country around the world.

Despite such a bright spot, India's economy on the whole is less impressive. India's budget deficit remains sizeable, stuck at 10 percent of its gross domestic product of $475 billion. Inflation doubled in 2000. And despite the growth of the IT industry, the stock market has lost nearly half of its value over the past year. More important, the growth of its IT industry, though, means little to those who don't have enough water or power or struggle to feed themselves everyday. In fact, more than 400 million people live on less than $1 a day.

Such a contradiction within India's economy is the result of a lingering sentiment of protectionism that has remained in India for over half a century. Many of the leaders that ruled India after the British left in 1947, like Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, feared further influence of foreigners and established a practice of strict self-reliance, known as swadeshi. These governments subsidized many Indian industries, never allowing foreign companies to compete and thereby never allowing its own industries to excel. Such subsidies have long been a drain on the country's economy, accounting for as much as 14 percent of its GDP.

[VizagRocks]

As a result of such protectionism and subsidies, many industries within India have remained stagnant. Indians are incredible farmers who could likely rival the U.S. in agricultural production. But the government doesn't allow people to own more than 18 acres. This is driving out many productive producers. Farmers from the Punjab have started buying huge spreads in Kazakhstan. In the eastern section of India, there is a company called Bengal Fertilizer, which was built in the early nineties. The government spent $1.2 billion on it and it took seven years to complete. It now employs 1550 people with complete work schedules, vacations, canteens, unions, etc. And yet they have never produced an ounce of fertilizer. I can't even figure out why.

 

[VizagRocks]

 someone who's pretty bullish about China lamenting about 'protectionism' of India, makes me question his understanding of how business is done in China.

 

[Balibabu]

[VizagRocks]

I also don't agree with his prediction that 21st century is Asia's.

But I agree with his remark that India will probably cease to be one country in about 30-40yrs. Actually I hope it turns true.

[Janamejayudu]

3 minutes ago, Balibabu said:

 

[killudada]

6 Mar 2001 India

idhi 15years back matter brotheruu... idisheyyiii

[icecreamZ]

someone tell him about reservation in jobs and dalits not helping fellow dalits .

[VizagRocks]

2 minutes ago, killudada said:

6 Mar 2001 India

idhi 15years back matter brotheruu... idisheyyiii

telusu. Ippudu em thega uddarinchesthondha India?

[Kontekurradu]

1 hour ago, Balibabu said:

Smabar tagava iiyala