Will India Ever Improve?

In the year 1988, when I first visited USA, I was 10 years old. Its not a very mature age, but an age when you understand which country is better. Especially you can see the wide roads, tall buildings, good looking cars, TV with 24X7 cartoons (only DD then in India) and a huge Toys R Us store. You can figure out that US is good, in many ways.

It is all but a very tender age to take a decision whether you want to settle there or return. I went there on a green card. At most times since I was born a green card was the most coveted card on this planet. People would sell ancestral jewellery to get hands on one of those cards. (For people outside this planet: Basically residential works permit in USA). So here I am amazed at this wonderful country and in an odd position to take a decision whether to embrace this country or return to the “real” world…

A basic question arose in me which till date a big question. When will India become as developed as USA?

If the answer was that in my life time, meaning assuming I am going to live for say 70 years (average Indian life expectancy), will India improve to a great extent so as to motivate me to return to India and stay back here? About quarter of century later, the question still remains.  

I see a lot of people having an attitude that in India it can NEVER happen. We are too corrupt to build the road. We are too lazy to work. We don’t have the technical capability as the most intelligent people have left the country to work for more money in developed countries. The system is such that no one can achieve what is required. Law and order is a mess and so is the military. We cannot solve Pakistan problem and we are losing Kashmir.

Let us look as some of things which have improved in India, in the recent past.

1.       We have got good looking cars. In fact when Porche and Land Rover opened show room in Ahmedabad, it was like almost everything that automobile engineering could offer was available right there. We have got great indigenous cars from Tatas and Mahindras. In fact we have a full-fledged automobile industry which hardly 10-20% of the countries in the world have. We make our own cars; from scratch. What does this mean to development? More jobs, more export income, increased productivity, reduction in imports and reduction in overall poverty. How did this happen? Well government decided to let it happen!

2.       Roads. We have got roads! Earlier we didn’t have roads, now we have them. So lets not expect wide, well designed, zero bottlenecked, etc for now. We have got fabulous highways. Don’t compare it to US for now, compare it to 1988 roads. I clearly remember our routine trips to visit paternal and maternal grandparents at Bharuch and Surat respectively in rickety Ambassador and Fiat on a two lane highway which was little wider than a single lane. Supposedly “all weather” and usually more crowded than a flea market. The exact same road is smooth, wide and short. It now takes approximately 3 hours less or 50% less overall time to reach Surat from Ahmedabad than before. Of course the modern car makes you less tired also. How did this happen? Government found a formula to fund it.

3.       Public transport.

a.       We have got BRTS in Ahmedabad. It began operation in 2009 and now has 2 lakh people riding on it daily. It has won many accolades and soon will become the life line of Ahmedabad. Even though right now its approx. 75 km long they plan to do it a lot longer. Not to mention that the auto rickshaws have improved also from petrol to CNG; this has resulted in to a great reduction in pollution.

b.      Delhi Metro, a super success on a lot of counts. The best known achievement is time to build. Lesser known include, international quality of trains, affordable cost and on time operation. Running on 200 km it is used by 20 lakh people daily.

c.       How did these happen? Govt thought it was important and allocated money.

4.       Retail stores. At present the retail stores which are available are a world apart from what was available 24 years ago. With our without FDI the malls and the “supermarket” has changed the retail aspect of the economy. How did it improve? I think a lot because of govt’s disbanding of licence raj and somewhat because of higher disposable income. (This increase may be attributed to IT revolution in which govt had no role)

5.       TV : yes with DTH and set top boxes we got all the channels we needed and a few which we never needed. Today India’s TV is as much advanced or in some cases even more advanced than in most countries in the world. Again something what government approved.

6.       We got FM Radio. Again Govt allowed.

7.       One major thing that we got was IT products. That too with nominal duties. So here I am typing my way out on a laptop with i7 processor which was bought from India and which I could afford! Downward revision of custom duty on IT products, again something Govt did.

8.       E-governance initiatives. Something which was unheard of even in the US. Most of the departments of govt have become IT enabled. Income Tax, Excise, Service Tax, Company Affairs, Passport and a lot of others. Unbelievable but true: Government decided to do more, with less.

9.       Higher Education : if 25 years ago I would have said that there will be 52 engineering colleges which will be closed down, people would have branded me as maniac. (I run that risk even now). http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/news/34322007_1_aicte-new-institutes-colleges The most surprising part is that these colleges were closed due to lack of demand and not due to any compliance issue. So now we have ample education available. This was not the case before. Of course like any developed economy the “good” colleges are less, like Ivy League in US. How did this happen? Govt allowed deemed universities, self-financed colleges and gave land at cheap rates.

10.   Health care: a huge improvement than 25 years ago. Huge private hospitals, proliferation of clinics, affordable pharmacy and modern machines. Health care in India has not only helped cities but rural population too. This has eradicated a lot of diseases and infact increased the life expectancy, reduced infant mortality, reduced pregnancy related deaths and effectively increased the net working days of an average citizen. How did this change? I would say a combination of govt policy, increased medical professionals, disposable incomes and mother of all : Insurance. Which brings us to:

11.   Financial Services. A few years after I returned from USA I was fascinated by Harshad Mehta and stock markets. I was so excited about stocks that my father thought taking me again to Disney would not make me as much happy as taking to see the Bombay Stock Exchange trading rink. So approximately in 1991 or 1992 I visited the Dalal Street : the wall street of India. Saw the rink, even Harshad Mehta’s office and miserably tried to understand how stock markets operate. Seeing the daily “bhav copy” (price sheet) which mentioned the prices of all shares was really amusing. Imagine a teenager in that setting! A wonderful thing happened in coming few years, National Stock Exchange was set up. And then came the technology revolution in financial services which was not expected so fast. Everything become online! Now how did that happen? I would say it was a combination of private enterprise, government policy, innovations in technology and above all, a booming economy.

12.   Telephones:  It’s a widely known success story of a PSU dominated industry to an overcrowded highly competitive marketplace. The quality of service has improved a lot and the cost reduced. How did it happen? Combination of technology, government policy and private enterprise.

13.   Electricity. It is still a revolution in making. But states like Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have practically changed the scenario without much of fuss. Reduced T & D losses, gave electricity to poor, didn’t charge much from farmers. What else you need? Well if you say we have power in 24x7 power in cities like Bombay and Ahmedabad, it was not even dreamt in 25 years ago.  A lot was done by govt policy in this regards.

14.   Working Women. So number of working women have increased multifold in India in the past 25 years. The words like Double income, working parents and single mother have entered the Indian vocabulary. How did that happen? I suspect a combination of higher level of education, improvement in law enforcement which increased safety of women and influence of TV can be attributed to this change.

15.   Tourism. India was not very well known for tourism about 25 years ago. However now things are different. We find good tourist places, good hotels and a good number of foreigners visiting India. In fact now its costly to take a vacation in India then to Far East or Middle East! How did that happen? Again Government policy and private enterprise.  

So with so many success stories people still have the same question: Will India ever improve?

India is a democratically ruled nation and as we see above most of the progress we have done is because one day we decided that we wanted to change. One day the government took a call to get the best public transport system to India. One day we believed that we could do it. It was not only the government which enabled the change. It was the private enterprise which believed in the Indian dream and worked relentlessly in changing the country to what it is today. It is not a question of any particular political party. Across the board parties have worked towards the betterment of the country. The people have supported changes and have benefitted from it. It is the same people who are cursed for illiteracy, lawlessness and increasing population, have change this country. Even today India has the same natural resources which it had 25 years ago. Nothing dramatic has changed, yet.

The solution was by the people, for the people, of the people.

Of course the journey towards improvement will never get over. US even today needs improvement in lot of areas. India has a long journey to cover. The only way we can make the journey feel even longer is continuously questioning whether we will ever make it? Will we reach to the destination? Is this the right path? Are a few people benefitting more than the “public at large”?

My point : India will ever improve. Believe it or not.

And what did I do with Green card? I had decided to surrender after 2 years, i.e. in 1990. A conclusive proof that I am a strong believer in the “Indian dream”; ever since I was 12.